142 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was assured from the start. In fact, no kind of a horticultural meeting 

 held in such a beautiful place,and with so many such wide-awake, intelli- 

 gent, enterprising horticulturists as Tuttle, Toole, Hirschinger, Fox, 

 Townsend and a dozen others, with the general, M. A. Thayer, to preside 

 over their deliberations, could be anything but a success. The program 

 was a timely one and the topics were well handled, while the attendance 

 was good and deeply interested. 



The first session was devoted to papers on the best and most profitable 

 methods of growing and marketing small fruits, and varieties for cultiva- 

 tion, by Henry Tarrant and J. W. Loudon of Janesville andE. C. Tobey 

 of Sparta; apples in Wisconsin, how to grow and market them, by Chas. 

 Hirschinger of Baraboo; and experiments at the government station at 

 Ithica for the preventing of fungus diseases of the tree, fruits &c.; and 

 the extermination of insects, by Prof . Golf of Madison and A. L. Hatch 

 of Ithica. According to their reports, by spraying at the proper times with 

 the Bordeaux mixture, eau celeste and other fungicides, as recommended 

 and formulated in the bulletion of the U. S, Dept. of Agriculture, apple, 

 leaf and fruit scab, rust on strawberries and such like diseases can be pre- 

 vented, thus causing the trees to grow more vigorous and healthy, and 

 produce more and better fruit. 



The papers and discussions on smail fruits elicited that for the North- 

 west the matted row is the best method of growing strawberries; that 

 rust and fungus diseases were much more prevalent this year than ever 

 before, and that while we have a plenty of good pistillate varieties of straw- 

 berries, we want more good, hardy, reliable pollenizers, Michel's Early, 

 Sandoval, Crawford, Gandy, Bederwood, Jessie and Parker Earle weie sug- 

 gested as among the best now known. But the Michel is not very valuable 

 for fruit, the Sandoval and Crawford rust badly and the Jessie is too weak 

 In a season like the present. One of the greatest factors in profitable 

 fruit growing is the marketing. All fruits should be picked carefully 

 without bruising, should be of even ripeness and size, put up in new 

 clean packages and be thrown upon the market in the most perfect and 

 showy condition. If a few small knotty and inferior specimens are put 

 in, the whole package must sell as if they all were of that grade. 



At the evening session considerable time was taken up on the question 

 of Arbor Day in schools. "This day was first observed in Nebraska in 

 1872. In 20 years it has grown to be observed in 35 states, and in many 

 other sections of the world. Its mission is not only to teach the planting 

 of trees for their utility and protection, but for their beauty, and the 

 lesson taught on the school grounds prompts the child to ornament and 

 beautify the home." At the previous winter meeting, President Thayer 

 offered to donate 6,000 strawberry plants to school children who might 

 organize and apply for them under certain rules, the result being that the 

 children of 205 schools so organized associations and 8,358 plants were sent 

 to 1,393 applicants, mostly by mail, free, and were planted in the homes of 

 some twelve hundred children. It is proposed next year to offer 30,000 

 plants to 5,000 children on same conditions. This is giving the society 

 an opportunity to get into intimate communication with the families of 

 the state that they could not otherwise have, and it is sowing the seeds 

 from which will be gathered a magnificent crop of pratical horticulturists. 

 A number of the reports from the recipients of these plants were read 

 before the meeting and were intensely interesting. The remaining ad- 



