300 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



mulberry trees around your orchards and grapes and berries, 

 the birds will eat their fruit in preference to any other. 



Dr. Frisselle: This question of the birds destroying our 

 fruit is one of considerable importance to us. I have tried a 

 good many things to drive them away. I have tried scare- 

 crows, and they have sat on them and laughed, and then eaten the 

 grapes. The only protection I have been able to give my 

 fruits is by using a shot gun, and with that I have been able to 

 scare them away. I fear that if you follow up this idea o f 

 growing mulberries for the birds, that you will attract all the 

 birds in the country to your neighborhood, and when the mul- 

 berries are gone they will eat everything else you have. Nobody 

 enjoys the birds better than I do, but when they come to da 

 vastate my grape vines and fruit trees, I confess that I am not 

 so enthusiastic about them as I am when they make their first 

 appearance in the spring. 



Mrs. Jennie Stager: I think I would prefer to let the robin 

 take a few of my berries and my grapes, and have their society, 

 than to have the few berries and grapes they eat, and do with- 

 out them. They do a great deal of good, too, in the spring and 

 summer, eating the worms. 



An interesting discussion followed upon the best methods 

 of protecting fruit from the raids of the robins and other birds, 

 which lack of space will not allow us to print. 



Mr. Cutts: What variety of cherry is best to raise here. 



Mrs. Stager: I have a kind that is called the Canada Re^, 

 that I have raised for the last four or five j^^ears, and it seems 

 to do as well here, if not better, than any other. It is quite 

 hardy. The trees have not been destroyed or blighted in any 

 way, and this is the fifth year they have borne. 



Mr, Cutts: Are they eatable ? 



Mrs. Stager: Yes, they are very palatable. 



Mr. Brackett: I would like to inquire if there is any European 

 plum that anybody has tried in this part of the country? 



Mr. Somerville: I have four or five varieties of what they 

 call Russian plums, but they are not European plums, of course. 



Mr. Cook: I have several varieties of Russian plums and 

 they are apparently very hardy. 



Mr. Richardson: One of my neighbors has a cherry tree 

 that is some seventeen or eighteen years old — the Early Rich- 

 mond. The tree ha.s outlived its usefulness, but he told me 

 that he had had lots of cherries from it and was well pleased 

 with it. 



