PLUMS OF THE VILLAGE LOT.

LYCURGUS R. MOYER, MONTEVIDEO.

During one of the grasshopper years in the early seventies, I was examining railroad land in southwestern Minnesota for a railroad company. My work brought me to what is known as Dutch Charley's Creek, in Cottonwood County, late in the afternoon of a beautiful day in early autumn. The surrounding country had been settled before the Indian outbreak of 1862, but had been twice depopulated, once by the Indians who had driven out the settlers and again by the grasshoppers. A thicket of native plums had ripened its fruit unmolested in the creek valley, where it was discovered by our surveying party. The fruit, as I said, had ripened unmolested, and it was fully matured. I need not say that the plums disappeared as if by magic before the hungry surveyors. To this day the remembrance of the fine flavor of that particular fruit is a fragrant and precious memory.

The next year I married and determined to settle down on a village lot, and I thought it would be well to reproduce, if I could, a plum thicket similar to the one I found on Dutch Charley's Creek. I recalled the fact that I had once eaten fine plums gathered in a thicket on the Chippewa river near our place. I found that the trees had grown old in that particular thicket, but by dint of hard work I was enabled to remove a few small trees to the garden. The plantation was successful, and we were rewarded with fine fruit. Had we been wealthier-or wiser-we would have bought grafted trees of improved varieties. We afterwards did make a plantation of the better varieties, and this season the Wyants began to bear. We call the Wyant a success on the village lot. We mulch the trees well, but we cultivate them too. On our high, dry bluff we often get plums when the crop fails in the valley from unseasonable weather. One beauty of the plum tree for the village lot is that it bears crowding and, in fact, rather seems to enjoy it. You can plant a large number a plum trees in a small space and seemingly get better crops.

We have sprayed our trees with Bordeaux mixture for curculio and with kerosene emulsion for aphis, but the plum has one enemy that we have found exceedingly hard to manage. I refer to the village boy. We have surrounded the village lot with a Page fence, such as they use to confine wild animals for a game preserve, and have added a barbed wire on top of that, but the small boy gets there just the same. Perhaps he deserves the plums. When the bright golden days of the future come, of which the poets have dreamed, there will be a plum patch in every village lot, and the village boy will not have to visit the neighbor's orchard to get the fruit that belongs to him as a matter of right.

Plant plums and give the small boy a chance at home.

RED RASPBERRIES IN MINNESOTA.

WM. LYONS, MINNEAPOLIS.

I will give my plan for the cultivation of the red raspberry, not as authority but for what you may consider it worth. I shall refer to field culture. The rows should be about six feet apart, and the plants about three feet apart in the row. If planted further apart than this, the canes grow too strong and are liable to break when laying them down for winter protection.

Red raspberries may be planted either in the fall or spring; I prefer fall planting. When ready to plant, I mark the ground three feet by six feet. The wide rows are opened with a shovel plow; then at the cross sections set the plants. This open furrow gives a good chance to spread out the roots of good one-year-old rooted cuttings; suckers, such as are usually used, can be planted much more easily, because having no fibrous roots. A hole is made with a spade, they are dropped in, and the ground firmed around them. There is but little to do the first year except to keep them clean. A row of potatoes or cabbages can be planted between the rows the first and second years. When the plants are about twenty inches high, nip the tops off, which will cause them to branch out at that height, and they will be self supporting. I never use stakes or wire for the red raspberry.

Raspberries can be grown after the first year with less work than potatoes, and by manuring and cultivating the plantation can be kept bearing for several years without renewing. They are adapted to almost all soils. Allow five or six canes to the plant, and treat all the rest like weeds. The second year pinch or cut the tops off when about three feet high.

Shaf

Hansel, Turner, Cuthbert and Marlboro are the kinds mostly grown for the Minneapolis market. Cuthbert and Hansel are so badly affected with "curled leaf" that in some sections their cultivation will be discontinued. It is fortunate for us that several new varieties now being introduced will take their places, namely, the Loudon, King, Miller's Red and Thompson's Early Prolific. fer's Colossal is a splendid berry (except for its color) and a vigorous grower. Some of the berries are monsters in size, averaging seveneighths of an inch in diameter. It is about the same in quality as the Philadelphia, which we had to discard on account of its dark color. The Columbian is another new berry, claimed to be superior and larger than the Shaffer, of which it is about the same type and color. It propagates readily from the tips and never suckers from It is a very promising variety for canning. Some think it is the best raspberry in cultivation when grown on rich, strong soil. It is very difficult to give it winter protection, the canes are so strong and woody. On poor soil it is more easily taken care of.

the root.

In this state, to insure a crop, it is necessary to lay down and cover in the fall. Some hardy varieties, such as the Turner, will do fairly well without winter protection, but they will do better with it. I put off laying them down as long as I can, but still get them down

before the ground freezes. I like to have a frost stop the growth of the cane and start the leaves falling before I begin to lay them down. The first thing necessary is to cut out the old canes, if that has not already been done. A sharp spade or grass sickle are good tools with which to cut out the old canes. After they are trimmed and cut out, I have a piece of plank about four feet long with four iron pins in it about fifteen inches long. Two handles and shafts are bolted onto it. It is drawn by one horse, and the old canes are gathered into bunches by the use of this implement very quickly and hauled away by wagon. I found this the quickest and cheapest way to get rid of the old canes. Any one can make it, as it is not patented.

For digging under the side of the hill and also for covering, I prefer a round-pointed, long-handled shovel. Dig under the side of the hill, taking out a good shovelful of earth. I prefer to treat a number of rows in this way before laying them down, two working with shovels and one with a four-tined fork. Let the one with the fork take his position on the opposite side of the hill from which the earth was taken and gather the canes in his fork by placing it against the hill near the ground and raising it about three feet; then with one foot against the crown of the plant close to the ground press from him with both fork and foot,bending the canes to the ground and holding them till enough of earth is thrown upon them to keep them in place. Three men can lay down and cover about half an acre a day. In the spring when the ground thaws out, straighten up the plants to an erect position. Shallow cultivation, say once a week, should be continued to the end of the picking season.

Now, to grow root cuttings. Late in the fall I plow a few furrows between the rows and with a fork take out all the roots I think I shall need, made a pile of them and cover with earth where they will remain frozen all winter. In the spring I select a piece of good ground and, with a single-shovel plow, mark rows about three feet, apart. I then cut the roots about three or four inches long, drop and cover them about three inches, cultivate and keep free from weeds. In the fall they wi 1 be from two to four feet high, strong healthy, well rooted plants.

To the young man or new beginner, I would urge the importance of starting correctly and properly in a small way and then increase only as knowledge and demand present themselves. Energy, patience and perseverance are necessary qualifications for a successful fruit grower. Location and soil is also a very important factor in the small fruit business and must by no means be ignored. As a rule, the highest grounds are most desirable, for the reason that late frosts in the spring are less injurious to the young shoots and blossoms, which are so often killed on low ground. Avoid too many varieties. To the market grower I would say, examine the plantations in your vicinity on similar soil and locations; note down the smallest possible number of varieties in each class of fruit you propose to grow in order to make a succession and meet the wants and tastes of the market where you will sell.

(A long discussion on this paper will appear in August number,-SECY,)

NOMENCLATUE AND CATALOGUE.

J. S. HARRIS, LA CRESCENT, COMMITTEE.

Your committes have not found as much work to be done in the past year as in some years before. Occasional specimens have been sent to us for identification by individuals, and the true name when known has been given to them direct, instead of making it a matter of report to this society. Very frequently the name has been widely different from that by which the trees were originally purchased of nurserymen or agents. At the late state fair we found occasion to make corrections in a few of the exhibits but rarely among the leading varieties and have kept no record of them. We are pleased to note that there is much less confusion among the names of American varieties than there was a few years since, but acknowledge that we are making but slow progress in arriving at the correct nomenclature of many of the new Russians and are of the belief that a number of the names under which they have been sent out are only synonyms. If not different members of families or types, many of them are so nearly alike in tree and fruit that we think it will be best to recognize only two or three of the best of each type as the Oldenburgs, Hibernals and Transparents.

We suggest that Greening be dropped from the Patten's Greening and that it hereafter be known as "Patten,” and also that in other cases where secondary words are used that are not necessary to insure identity they be eliminated. We further recommend that whenever a seedling variety is awarded a first or second premium either as a fall or winter apple or a Siberian hybrid, it shall be given a suitable name and described as accurately as possible and its history, place of origin and originator's address, together with the name of the variety from which it sprang, if known, be placed on record. And we further suggest that all parties that have seedlings of promise of value for hardiness of trees, productiveness or superior quality of fruit be requested to furnish the committee on nomenclature or seedling fruits with samples of the same for the purpose of having descriptions made, together with history of the tree, to be preserved for future use.

The last full catalogue of such varieties as are usually shown at our fairs or are grown in some portions of the state or are offered for sale by agents and nurserymen, was published in the Report for 1893. We think that the catalogue should be revised, corrected, a few more varieties added to it, and be published again in the near future. This might be done by a committee and then submitted to the society for adoption. Its publication would use about ten pages of our report. The catalogue of fruits recommended for cultivation in the various sections of the United States by the American Pomological Society, has recently been published in a bulletin by the United States Department of Agriculture, and is very valuable for reference. Your committee furnished the starring (*) for the state (10th district), but as the district includes Wisconsin west of 89th meridian and Iowa north of latitude 42 and Minnesota, some varieties not grown here have a star. Among them are the Baltimore, Hightop Sweet, Jewett's Red, Kirkbridge, Northwestern Greening, Pewaukee, Twenty-Ounce, Wagner and Windsor, and several of the others are grown only in the most favored localities. The plan of the catalogue is excellent, and a good one for individual states or societies to follow. We further advise the making of a map of the state and division into districts and starring the catalogue by dietricts.

Calendar for July.

PROF. S. B. Green, ST. ANTHONY PARK.

At this season of the year it seems to me that about the most important general thought in connection with horticultural work is to keep all the plants growing rapidly. To accomplish this to the best advantage it is necessary to keep the soil well stirred and keep the foliage free from disease and insects. This is true of all plants, but in our fruit garden it is especially true of gooseberries, currants and, in fact, all our small fruits. Too often after we have gathered a good crop of gooseberries or currants, we are perfectly willing to let the bushes take care of themselves and struggle as best they can with the weeds and insects; but in order to get a good crop of fruit next year we should consider that it is absolutely necessary to have a crop of good, well ripened wood this year.

The growth of most of our hardy plants has now pretty generally ceased, the terminal bud is formed on the new branches, and the ripening process is going on. This ripening process largely consists of storing up of food in the buds, wood and roots of the plants. The first of this month is a good time to cut the brush, since when cut at this season it is least liable to sprout, for the reason that the roots have very little food stored up which they can use in starting new growth.

one.

The renewing of strawberry beds will soon call for attention, and the recent rains have put the ground into such condition that this work should be very successful. Where the beds are weak, it probably will not pay to renew them, but where they are strong and have borne a good crop of fruit I think it very foolish to plow them under, since the work of renewing the beds is very little, and it is just as well to take two or three crops of strawberries off of a bed as We have tried a number of different implements in. renewing our beds. We have sometimes used the disc harrow after taking off the two inner discs so that there will be a space of about sixteen or eighteen inches between the inner discs, but I think that the common two-horse corn cultivator about as satisfactory as any implement we have used for this purpose. By driving over the rows a few times it is a very simple matter to loosen up the soil and to cut the rows of plants down to a width of about sixteen inches. But, first of all, we mow the beds off clean, and if the weather is right so