466 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER TO MARCH. 
J. S. HARRIS, LA CRESCENT. 
The principal work of the amateur and farmer horticulturist for 
the three winter months is to see that all the November work has 
been finished up in good shape, watch out for rabbits and mice and 
take proper precautions to guard against damages from them; also, 
to see that gates and fences do not get open, broken down or out of 
repair; stock in the orchard and garden now will do more damage 
by breaking down and browsing in a few hours than can be repaired 
in a season’s growth. If the small fruit grower is up with his work, 
his strawberry beds are mulched, raspberry, blackberry bushes and 
grape vines laid down and made secure, and he has before hima 
long season of comparative rest from care, anxiety and hard manual 
labor and ample time for reading, study and planning for the next 
season’s business. 
Not so with the nurserymen and professional florist. With them 
much of future success depends upon a winter well improved. The 
propagation of plants and care of the greenhouses must not be neg- 
lected. The nurseryman will need to cut and secure scions and 
get ready for root grafting, which may begin in January. Canvas- 
sing for spring sales must be done, or he will find himself left with 
most of his stock on his hands, for the average planter has not yet 
learned the wisdom of ordering direct from the grower. Labels and 
stakes are to be prepared, and everything done that will expedite 
the spring delivery and get it off his hands so that his own planting 
of root grafts and shrubbery may be done in season. 
Other work. Be sure that ladders, boxes, barrels and stakes are 
put under shelter for the winter. All implements and tools should 
be cleaned and housed. Winter will afford plenty of time forrepair- 
ing, repainting and putting them in order for the spring use. 
Heavy drifting snows are liable to do damage to low branching 
young trees and especially to evergreens, The only way to prevent 
' such injury is to shake the accumulated snow off carefully and to 
tramp it down firmly around the trees immediately after every 
snowstorm, and this will also prevent much mischievous work by 
mice. 
In case of heavy rains and the melting of snows, the surface water 
should be promptly given a chance to run off from the orchard 
grounds and berry patches. Surface water in winter is the one 
thing above all others that fruit trees and berry plants dislike. Man- 
ure is a valuable aid to the raiser of fruits and vegetables, and the 
preserving of it and its application to the ground are important 
considerations. Winter is a capital time to attend to securing an 
ample supply of it. Where practical it should be spread over the 
ground as it is hauled out, that it may be ready to give out its val- 
uable fertilizing elements with the starting of vegetation in the 
spring. 
Finally, The winter season is a dull one in the orchard and gard- 
ens, but the long evenings and stormy days afford ample time for 
cultivating the mind. Good books are cheap, bulletins of the expe- 
