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MINNESOTA. 
The State University of Minnesota, in addition to the seat of the 
experiment station at St. Anthony Park, supports two substations or 
experiment farms, one in the prairies of the Red River Valley at Crooks- 
ton, the other in the pineries at Grand Rapids. Land for forestry 
experiments has been set apart at both substations, the plat at Crooks- 
ton to be devoted to plantings similar to those at the other stations, 
and the one at Grand Rapids to be used for replanting cut-over pine 
lands and to illustrate improved methods of forest management. 
CROOKSTON PLANTATION. 
The land set aside for forest plats at the Crookston experiment farm 
is the typical prairie of the Red River Valley, one of the most famous 
wheat-producing regions of the world. The soil is a rich clay loam, 
black, with very fine sand, underlaid with a stiff clay subsoil within 
2 to 3 feet of the surface. This subsoil is not readily permeable by 
water, as is evidenced by the great number of pools that dot the valley 
in a wet season. The experiment farm is rather lower and not so well 
drained as the average valley land, and the forest land includes some 
of the best and some of the poorest parts of the farm. 
The plantings of 1897 include five 1-acre plats. In two plats a part 
of the land had been broken the year before and had never produced 
a crop. The trees were set in ‘‘ back setting”—that is, the land was 
broken in the summer of 1896, and in the spring of 1897 it was cross 
plowed a few inches deeper than the original breaking. It was then 
well harrowed before planting. The plowing was not more than 4 
inches deep in this new land, and was not more than 8 inches deep in 
the old land. 
None of the trees were set, unfortunately, until they had begun to 
leaf out, the Aspen leaves being fully a half inch in diameter when the 
plants were set. 
Owing to the late planting and dry weather immediately following, 
avery poor stand was secured and all the plats will have to be replanted 
next year. Plans and reports of stand are therefore not given. 
GRAND RAPIDS PLANTATION. 
At the Grand Rapids station a conifer nursery was planted, and about 
1 acre of cut-over pine land was reset to Red Pine and White Pine, 
nursery-grown seedlings of both species being used. 
The Grand Rapids experiment farm is located about 2 miles from the 
town of that name, near the Mississippi River, about 150 miles north- 
west of Duluth, Minn. The region was formerly covered by extensive 
pine forests of the first commercial importance, but the pines have been 
largely cut away, leaving isolated pieces of uncut pine, surrounded by 
