Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota Part 5

Late this fall, my wife and I left Hampton for an automobile trip through Minnesota, North Dakota and into Canada. It seemed to me on this trip that the most beautiful thing we saw about the farm buildings were the evergreen groves that many of the farmers now have all through Minnesota and Dakota. I was certainly very much surprised at some of these windbreaks and at some of the varieties of evergreens that were being grown successfully as far north as Fargo. Near Fargo we found some extra good specimens of Norway spruce, which I consider the best of all windbreak makers. We also found the Scotch pine doing well 100 miles northwest of Fargo, and other varieties which were naturally to be expected being planted to a considerable extent.

As far as usefulness is concerned, the farmer of the prairie states is bound to get more real value from an evergreen than any other person, but I am very glad to say that the homes of the wealthy in the cities each season are being improved more and more by the planting of the more ornamental evergreens. Cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Boston, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and other large cities of the United States are using thousands of evergreens every season to beautify the homes, of not only the wealthy but of the laboring man also. The price of evergreens at the present time is within the reach of everyone owning a home, and there is no other improvement that can be placed upon a piece of ground at so little expense and so little labor that will add so many dollars in real value to that property as will the evergreen, either as a windbreak or in landscape work.

Annual Report, 1915, Executive Board.

J. M. UNDERWOOD, CHAIRMAN

The report of the executive board is necessarily brief from the fact that the machinery of our society is kept in such excellent condition by our secretary, that there is little left for our board to do. His monthly issues of the "Horticulturist" keep the membership posted on all important items of interest and are a splendid examplification to the public of the value of our publications and of the meetings of our society. Your executive board meets twice a year to verify the accounts of the secretary and treasurer and at other times when there is something of importance to attend to.

We wish to call your attention to the fact that your board is practically self supporting. The members work for nothing and board themselves, which is a mighty good way to do.

There is a work of very great importance for the _members_ of our society to do the coming year. That is to help in every legitimate way to _secure an appropriation_ by the next legislature with which to build for our society a _home_. We should have had it provided so that we could celebrate our semi-centennial a year from now in our own home. If we were a private society, we would have had a home years ago.

We should be closely affiliated with the horticulture of the State University. Our home should be located on the grounds of the Agricultural College, where the building could be used for other purposes when not needed by our society. Let every member of our society interview the senator and member of the house from his or her district next fall and secure their promise to support a bill to appropriate $50,000 for building us a home.

Annual Report of Treasurer, 1915.

GEO. W. STRAND, TAYLORS FALLS, TREASURER.

RECEIPTS.

1914.

Dec. 1. Balance on hand $4,948.35 Interest on certificate of deposit, six months, to November 1, 1914 126.15

1915.

Mar. 1. Semi-annual allowance 1,500.00 Apr. 5. Interest on deposit, six months, to April 1 85.96 A. W. Latham, receipts secretary's office, November 25, 1914 to June 21, 1915 3,290.74 Sept. 4. State Treasurer, semi-annual allowance 1,500.00 Dec. 1. A. W. Latham, receipts secretary's office June 21, 1915, to December 1, 1915 1,064.30 ---------- $12,515.50

DISBURs.e.m.e.nTS.

1914.

Dec. 12. Order 229, A .W. Latham, Revolving Fund $600.00 Dec. 12. Order 235, Premiums Annual Meeting 596.50

1915.

Mar. 1. Order 230, A. W. Latham, first quarter salary 450.00 Apr. 5. A. W. Latham, interest on deposit 85.96 June 1. Order 231, A. W. Latham, second quarter salary 450.00 June 21. Order 232, A. W. Latham, expenses secretary's office November 25 to June 21, 1915 3,290.74 June 25. Order 236, Premiums Summer Meeting 1915 172.00 Sept. 3. Order 233, A. W. Latham, third quarter salary 450.00 Dec. 1. Order 234, A. W. Latham, fourth quarter salary 450.00 Dec. 1. Order 237, A. W. Latham, expenses secretary's office June 21, 1915 to December 1, 1915 1,064.30 ---------- $7,609.50 Dec. 1. Balance on hand 4,906.00 ---------- $12,515.50 Deposits, Farmers & Mechanics Bank $4,276.15 Deposits, First & Security National Bank 629.85 ---------- $4,906.00

Annual Meeting, 1915, N.E. Iowa Horticultural Society.

C. E. SNYDER, PRESTON, DELEGATE

Your delegate arrived at Decorah at nine-thirty, Wednesday, November seventeenth. Full accommodations offered by the Winneshiek Hotel made the trip complete and homelike to delegates and members.

The convention was held in the old Marsh Hall, a very suitable place, offering ample room with all necessary accommodations for such a gathering.

Decorations showed much time and skill, resulting in a beautiful display of shrubbery-boughs, evergreen, etc.

The area of a table about one hundred feet long and six feet wide, running through the center of the hall, contained a great variety of apples surprising for this season. Many, including C.H. True, of Clayton county, proved themselves successful orchardists.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. C. E. Snyder, Preston.]

On various other tables large displays of agriculture, apiary, greenhouse and garden products completed the harmonizing of horticulture, floriculture and agriculture, including mentioned decorations appearing as a striking feature and an encouragement to the cause.

The meeting was called to order shortly after ten o'clock by President Geo. S. Woodruff. The mingling of many instructive papers with humorous selections and music proved the program well arranged. Same carried out very successfully held the interest of a not large but fair attendance throughout. A paper and address by Wesley Greene, of Des Moines, should have reached the ears of every Iowa and Minnesota citizen. A striking selection on "The Tree," by J. A. Nelson, was descriptive, instructive, humorous and poetic.

A topic of great interest was the everbearing strawberry, which persistently bobbed up every now and then in interesting discussion.

Brother Gardner, with his practical experience, was right at hand, a leader and authority on this fruit. Clarence Wedge, who always contended that the Progressive was away ahead of all others, was endorsed by every man that grew them in this convention, by a vote on merit of varieties.

Reports from the different districts showed a heavy rainfall throughout the season, resulting in rust and scab. Sprayed orchards showed better results than others. Small fruits were abundant and good.

Shortly after four o'clock Wednesday afternoon automobiles drew up and took delegates and members over beautiful Decorah, stopping at Symond's greenhouses, and on through the most beautiful park in this section, then to the palatial residence of John Harter, where a very bountiful banquet was enjoyed.

During convention Secretary Black's and Treasurer True's reports showed the society in flourishing condition.

All officers were re-elected, place of next meeting to be chosen later by the executive committee.

HANDLING RASPBERRIES.--In 1911 the Government investigators made comparative tests of the keeping qualities of carefully handled raspberries and commercially handled raspberries. Several lots of each kind were held in an ice car for varying periods and then examined for the percentage of decay. Other lots were held a day after being withdrawn from the refrigerator car and then examined. The results are most significant.

After 4 days in the ice car it was found that the carefully handled berries showed only 0.4 per cent. decay, while the commercially handled fruit had 4.6 per cent. After 8 days in the car the difference was vastly greater. The carefully handled fruit showed only 2.2 per cent.

decay, but with the commercially handled this percentage had risen to 26.7, or more than one-quarter of the entire shipment. When the fruit was examined a day after it had been taken out of the ice car, the evidence was equally strong in favor of careful handling. Carefully handled fruit that had remained 4 days in the car was found a day after its withdrawal to show only 1 per cent. of decay against 17.5 per cent.

in commercially handled berries. Carefully handled fruit left in the car 8 days, and then held one day, showed only 8.1 per cent. of decay as against 47.6 per cent. in commercially handled fruit.

The following year experiments were made with actual shipments instead of with the stationary refrigerator car, and the results confirmed previous conclusions. It was found, for example, that there was less decay in the carefully handled berries at the end of 8 days than in the commercially handled berries at the end of 4. Carefully handled fruit that was 4 days in transit, and had then been held one day after withdrawal from the refrigerator car showed less than 1 per cent of decay, whereas commercially handled berries subjected to the same test showed nearly 10 per cent.

Orcharding in Minnesota.

RICHARD WELLINGTON, a.s.sT. HORTICULTURIST, UNIVERSITY FARM, ST. PAUL.