180 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
LA CRESCENT STATION. 
J. S. HARRIS, SUPT. 
Experiments with the apple are at the present time occupying a 
more prominent place in the horticultural work of this station than 
with any other of the tree fruits. Both in orchard and nursery our 
apple, pear, plum and cherry trees passed through the winter of 
1893-94 without any apparent injury to root, trunk, branch or buds, 
and the terminals of the yearling root grafts were not discolored. 
Grape vines, blackberries and raspberries that were not laid down 
were not seriously injured, and two rows of Cuthberts that stood 
from seven to nine feet high generally started from the terminal 
buds. One of the prime causes of this was that the winter evapora- 
tion was less than the average. 
At the blooming period the outlook for an immense crop of fruit 
was never better. The final outcome was a little more than half a 
crop of apples, the largest crop of native plums ever produced in 
this section, a full crop of raspberries and grapes and a total failure 
of blackberries. The shortage of the apple crop has been very 
generally attributed to a frost that occurred late in May, that killed 
the fruit spurs and caused the fruit to wither, and the hardiest var- 
ieties, like the Oldenburg, Tetofsky, Anis, Russian Autumn 
Streaked andsome of the Siberian species, showed this effect the 
worst. For several reasons, we do not think this was caused by 
frost. The injury was as great in the center of the tops, where a 
light frost would not have reached, as on the outside, and less on 
some trees that we gave a heroic thinning the previous fall. Be- 
Sides, at that time, our strawberries and grapes were sufficiently 
forward to have been entirely destroyed by a frost that would have 
injured the apple, and were not in the least hurt. Our theory is 
that it was caused by a fungus or bacterial disease that at 
that time found favorable conditions with the apple to get inits 
deadly work. We are also of the opinion that spraying with Bor- 
deaux mixture just before that time would have saved much fruit. 
We get this opinion from the fact that we used the mixture on a 
few trees—and was obliged to desist on account of an accident, but 
the few trees sprayed showed less of the trouble and produced more 
and better fruit than the others. Late in the previous fall fire ran 
over about half an acre of the orchard, and that portion produced 
more and better fruit than the remainder, which we attribute to the 
destruction of insects and germs of disease. Our crop of apples 
was larger than weexpected at the time we reported on small fruits, 
but the size and quality of the fruit was not up to the average. 
Of trees large enough to bear full crops, the Oldenburg, Haas, 
Wealthy, Wabasha, Peach, Rollin’s Prolific and Minnesota, Pride of 
Minneapolis and Early Strawberry crabs produced the best crops 
and the Hibernal the poorest. In the experiment orchards, we 
now have, besides the older and better known varieties, over one 
hundred and fifty varieties, ranging in age from four to ten years. 
They are of the but little known Russians and newer seedlings 
and the Siberian species and their hybrids. In the whole orchard, 
