384 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



President Underwood : How many times a week do you 

 cultivate ? 



Mr. Mitchell : Well, I don't cultivate as often as I would 

 like to. Some of my crops I cultivate but once in two 

 weeks, and others I cultivate every week, and I would culti- 

 vate twice a week if I could get around to do it. If .we are 

 having a good deal of rain, and the ground is wet, I don't culti- 

 vate at all, because the ground will be softer and looser; then 

 again, you are apt to bake the ground if you cultivate it when it is 

 too damp. I always want to stir the ground as soon as possible 

 after a rain, when the ground becomes dry enough to cultivate. 



President Underwood : I think you all readily see that it 

 depends upon the weather and soil and location and every 

 thing of that kind. Of course, no one is advocating a slovenly 

 tillage or anything of that kind. Of course, every one knows 

 that after a heavy rain, when the ground becomes dry, you 

 should go out and break it up. We have all agreed that a fine 

 mulch on the ground is a very good thing, and this broken-up 

 ground acts in the same way. 



A CONSERVATORY. 



(a TALK.) 



President Underwood: Mr. Elliot asked me to say some- 

 thing on greenhouse structures. It has just occurred to me 

 that I can say something that would be of benefit to you all, I 

 think. It is not so much in the line of a greenhouse as a 

 place to grow flowers in. I don't care what kind of a house 

 you have, if you will scrape together a little money and put up 

 a little lean-to on the south or east side, about ten feet wide 

 and, perhaps, fifteen feet long, with a Portland cement floor, 

 you will be able to raise all the flowers you want. You can 

 build it as cheaply or as expensively as you wish to, but you 

 can have just as good a place to grow flowers in with a little 

 expenditure as though you spent ten times as much, and the 

 satisfaction of raising them will repay you. I think that 

 every one ought to have a little place to raise flowers in. We 

 have heated ours for a number of years with a common Stewart 

 stove. A large size Stewart stove will do it all right. We 

 have hot water now, and, of course, hot water or steam will do 

 it as well. 



Dr. Frisselle: It is built like a lean-to, is it ? 



