176 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Forest Plantation. The forest plantation embraces about five 
acres. Its object is to furnish a variety of trees such as are of value 
in this state and to test the value of the newly introduced 
kinds. The trees are generally grown in rows, eight feet 
apart. They were planted out in the spring of 1890 and, with 
few exceptions, have made an excellent growth. There are 
now forty-three species of timber trees in this plantation. It 
attracts much attention from visitors and is of great value for in- 
struction to the students of the school of agriculture and, also, as 
an experiment. 
Experiment with Garden Cultivators. <A great advance has 
been made in the introduction of garden implements within a few 
years, so that by their use many crops may be grown entirely 
without the ordinary hand labor of weeding. With the object in 
view of attracting attention to these useful implements and, also, 
with a desire to study them more particularly, an effort was made 
last spring to get together a collection of them for trial. Letters 
were sent to the various concerns manufacturing these imple- 
ments, and most of them responded by donating them to the school 
and station. In this manner, fifteen implements were added to our 
equipment without cost to the experiment station except for freight 
charges. These have been carefully tried the past season, anda 
report on them will be found in bulletin No.38. This is probably 
the most complete collection of such implements to be found in 
this country and is of much service in instruction at the school of 
agriculture. 
Fungus Diseases. Several fungus diseases have been experi- 
mented upon by the use of various fungicides. The diseases to 
which special attention has been paid are raspberry cane rust, 
strawberry leaf blight, melon blight, tomato rot, potato scab, rot 
and blight and gooseberry mildew. These have been treated in 
various ways according to the pecularities of the disease. The re- 
sults are of much interest and will be found reported on ina bulle- 
tin shortly to be issued. It may be of interest to say here that it 
seems very evident that by the intelligent use of fungicides, the 
potato rot, blight and scab, and the gooseberry mildew, raspberry 
cane rust and strawberry leaf blight, may be very nearly prevented, 
and at a cost that makes its probable that within a few years 
growers will be as well able to combat these diseases as they are 
now to combat potato bugs. The injury from tomato rot and melon 
_blight did not seem to be lessened by the use of the Bordeaux mix- 
ture. 
Greenhouses. The greenhouses are in avery good state of preser- 
vation and are a valuable aid in the work of the experiment station, 
in teaching botany and horticulture to the classes in the school of 
agriculture. The instruction in this study, which in most schools 
is carried on during the season for active plant life, must here be 
given during the winter when the material available for this pur- 
pose from a naiural source is very limited. On this account, a 
greenhouse is especially needed here. It also furnishes an oppor- 
tunity for instruction in general greenhouse work; and it is my 
