canes not over four years old, and if judicious cutting out of the old
canes is followed nice, large, full clusters of fruit of excellent
character will be obtained. This is a fact that I want to emphasize: if
the market is glutted with currants, you can readily dispose of your
product, providing they are qualified as extra large, which results can
be attained by following these rules.
Pertaining to insects and diseases, I spray my currants twice for the
currant worm with arsenate of lead at the rate of two pounds to fifty
gallons of water.
I also use hellebore (dry powdered form), especially valuable in
destroying the worms when berries are almost ready for market, and on
which it is dangerous to use arsenical poisons. I never was troubled
with the currant worm cane borer. I attribute the absence of this
dreaded insect to my keeping all old wood cut out, which is generally
infested with it.
As to varieties I planted the following: Wilder, Victoria, Prince
Albert, Red Cross, Diploma and White Grape. The Wilder is the best
commercial berry, very productive and large, while the Diploma is one of
the largest fruited varieties in existence, its main drawback consisting
of a straggling habit of growth which requires either tying up the
branches or pruning back somewhat short.
The Prince Albert is late and can be recommended for commercial use.
Victoria is a prolific bearer, fair size fruit and requires little
pruning. Red Cross is large fruited, but shy bearer. The White Grape
meets with little demand as a market berry, fine to eat out of hand and
an excellent table berry.
I also planted a few Black Champion; have not grown it long enough to
know definite results.
The demand for black currants is limited, but the prices are fair. As to
picking would say we pick them when not quite ripe, as the average
housewife claims they jell better than when over-ripe. They must be
picked by the stem and not stripped off--all defective, over-ripe and
bruised berries should be eliminated at the picking.
When the box is being filled a few gentle raps should be given to settle
the clusters into place, as they shake down considerably. All the
conveniences and same character of boxes and crates used in handling of
other small fruits are equally adapted to the currant.
* * * * *
WELCOME THE THRUSHES--THESE BIRDS DO THE FARMER LITTLE HARM AND MUCH
GOOD.--That thrushes--the group of birds in which are included
robins and bluebirds--do a great deal of good and very little harm to
agriculture is the conclusion reached by investigators of the United
States Department of Agriculture who have carefully studied the food
habits of these birds. Altogether there are within the limits of the
United States eleven species of thrushes, five of which are commonly
known as robins and bluebirds. The other six include the Townsend
solitaire, the wood, the veery, the gray-cheek, the olive-back, and the
hermit thrushes.--U.S. Dept. of Agri.
Report of Committee on Examination of Minnesota State Fruit-Breeding
Farm for the Year 1915.
DR. O. M. HUESTIS, MINNEAPOLIS; FRANK H. GIBBS, ST. ANTHONY PARK.
On the morning of October 12, 1915, your committee visited the State
Fruit-Breeding Farm, was met at the Zumbra Heights Station, on the M. &
St. Louis R.R., by Superintendent Haralson and were very soon in the
midst of a plat of over 3,000 everbearing strawberry plants all
different--some plants with scores of ripe and green berries as well as
blossoms, others with few berries and many runners. The superintendent
had already made selections and marked some 250 plants for propagation.
In another plat of 1,000 varieties it was very apparent that No. 1017, a
cross between Pan-American and Dunlap, was the superior, although others
were choice, both as plant makers and fruit-bearers. No doubt many
excellent kinds will come from those selected. It certainly was
encouraging to be able, even after the heavy frost of a week before, to
pick three quarts of large, well ripened berries, a photo of which we
obtained on reaching the city and will appear in the Horticulturist.
[Illustration: Field of No. 3 June-bearing strawberries at State
Fruit-Breeding Farm.]
Of the June-bearing varieties No. 3, a cross between Senator Dunlap and
Pocomoke, would seem to surpass anything else we saw as to strength of
plant and health of foliage. As to its fruiting ability, will refer to
the display made at the last summer meeting of the society, which was so
much admired. We have no doubt there is a great future for No. 3, as has
been for its illustrious parent, the Dunlap. Next we went over to the
raspberry field containing, it seemed, thousands of strong, straight,
healthy plants, which would have to be seen to be appreciated and only
then when in fruiting. No. 4 took our special attention. The canes were
especially clean, well branched and healthy--a cross between Loudon and
King. Many others seem to be very promising.
[Illustration: Everbearing strawberries, No. 1017. Minnesota State
Fruit-Breeding Farm. Gathered October 12, 1915.]
Next we were shown a variety of everbearing raspberry from which we
indulged in ripe fruit of good size and flavor and which it is hoped
will be as valuable as the everbearing strawberry. Of the thousands of
everbearing seedlings selections had been made of about 100 which were
fine looking plants, well cultivated and free from disease.
We were then shown some hundreds of wild peach seedlings, seedlings of
Burbank plums, thousands of hybrid plums of all ages, and a plat of
thousands of plum seedlings which will be disposed of to nurserymen this
fall and bring a nice income to the state; also wild pears from
Manchuria with good prospects of being hardy and free from blight.
We saw a number of nice plum trees, of which the superintendent told us
the fruit would color before ripening and would stand long shipments,
which so far promise well. Several hundred Beta grape seedlings probably
even more hardy than the parent, many crosses in roses which if judged
by the foliage must be seen in bloom to be appreciated, seedlings of
Compass cherry crossed with apricot; Compass cherry crossed with
nectarines; seedling currants, over 2,000 from which to select the best.
Over a hundred commercial varieties of apples from East and West, and
over 200 varieties of peaches from China and Manchuria, walnuts,
butternuts and many dwarf apple trees on Paradise stocks, which fruit
early. A good field of corn in shock, for feed for the horses. The old
orchard on the place when bought, which had been top-worked to some
extent, looked healthy everywhere. The farm seemed to be free from
noxious woods, free from pocket gophers or moles and well cultivated, we
thought, for the small number of men employed. Machinery and tools were
well housed. We were also pleased to be shown through the new home of
the superintendent, not yet occupied, which seemed to be complete in all
its appointments.
We think the state has a great asset in the farm and recommend that as
far as possible members of this society visit it during the coming
summer and that the society use its influence with the Board of Regents
that more land be procured as soon as possible in order that trial
plants may remain longer to more definitely prove their worth and that a
greater work may be done for the state. We notice in a report made just
six years before, viz., October 12, 1909, by Brothers Wedge, Underwood
and the then president of the society, Prof. Green, that even runnerless
everbearing strawberries were represented and that they had the usual
pleasure of picking strawberry blossoms in October. Had they been with
us they would have had a large dish of No. 1017 covered with rich cream
and served at the hand of Mrs. Haralson.
Mr. C. S. Harrison: Mr. Chairman, I think the slogan of this society
should be "Urbanize the country and ruralize the town." I see tremendous
changes going on all the while. Can you think of the possibilities of
Minnesota? About 40 per cent of the land under cultivation and that half
worked. By and by there is going to be a crop of boys who will raise
seventy-five to 100 bushels of corn to the acre where their dads raised
twenty-five. You got to keep out of their way, you got to help them
along.
Marketing Fruit by Association.
A. N. GRAY, MGR. BAY LAKE FRUIT GROWERS' ASSN., DEERWOOD.
Marketing fruit or any farm product by association is the modern
farmer's insurance of results.
A great deal might be said on this subject, but I shall tell you briefly
what the Bay Lake Fruit Growers' Association have accomplished.
The first raspberry growing for market at Bay Lake was back in 1886.
Nick Newgard, one of our first settlers, sold quite a few berries that
year. Bay Lake is seven miles from Deerwood, the nearest railroad point,
and at that time there was only a trail between these places, and it was
necessary for Mr. Newgard to pack his berries in on his back. This same
method was used in transporting supplies.
[Illustration: Strawberry field on place of A. N. Gray, at Bay Lake.]
Mr. Newgard told me recently that he received a very good profit on his
berries the first ten years, but each year the acreage increased and
each year the growers' troubles increased in disposing of the crop.
In 1909 there was an unusually large crop and, shipping individually, as
we did at that time, it was a case of all shipments going to Duluth one
day, flooding the market, then the next day every one shipping to Fargo
and flooding that market, and at the end of the season when the growers
received their final returns they found that they had received very
small pay for their berries.
In the fall of that year the growers around Bay Lake called a meeting to
see if some organization could not be formed to handle their berries
and look after the collections. The result of this meeting was the
incorporation of the Bay Lake Fruit Growers' Association.
When the berry season opened in 1910 we had a manager, hired for the
season, on a salary, who worked under a board of five managing
directors. It was the manager's business to receive the berries at the
station, find a market for them, make the collections and settlements
with the growers. The result of this first year was so satisfactory to
the members that the total membership increased that fall to almost 100.
This new system had eliminated all the worry, and we received a good
price for our berries after the expense of our manager had been
deducted.
We have just closed our sixth season, which by the way has been a very
successful one, as the prices received have been above the average. We
now have about 150 members, and we have two shipping stations, Deerwood
and Aitkin. We market strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants,
gooseberries, plums, Compass cherries, apples, sweet corn and celery.
We have a nice trade worked up and have little trouble in finding a
ready market for any of our products.
It is our aim, as growers, to give our customers all A No. 1 quality.
During the berry season we have an inspector whose duty it is to inspect
the berries as they arrive at the station and any found to be of poor
quality we dispose of locally for canning. The grower of these berries
receives a credit for the amount we realize. In this way we keep the
standard of our berries up, and we have very few complaints from our
customers on soft berries.
As for losses on bad debts, we have thus far had very few. We usually
get a credit rating from the prospective customer's bank and ship to him
accordingly. Our old customers file standing orders with us to ship them
so many crates each day, and each year brings us new customers who have
heard of the fine Bay Lake berries.
In 1912 the association built a potato warehouse at a cost of about
$2,500, and we store the members' potatoes for them at a nominal cost.
In 1914 the association decided to put in a stock of flour and feed and
keep the manager the year around. Our business in this line has been
increasing all the time. It is very interesting to note that over 60 per
cent of our flour and feed customers are not members of the association.
We are growing all the time and branching out. A few months ago we added
a small stock of hardware and some groceries, and these have taken so
well that we would not be at all surprised if eventually we find
ourselves in the retail store business.
Evergreens for Both Utility and Ornament.
EARL FERRIS, NURSERYMAN, HAMPTON, IOWA.
As far as horticulture is concerned, the only touch of color on the
Northwestern landscape during the coming winter will be furnished by the
greens and blues of evergreens.
Did you ever pass a farm home in the winter that was protected by a good
evergreen grove and notice how beautiful it looked? Did you ever stop to
think of the difference in temperature that an evergreen grove makes, to
say nothing of the contrast in the appearance of the place to that of a
home with no grove?
[Illustration: A shelter of old Scotch pine at Mr. Earl Ferris'.]
When I was a small boy I was fortunate enough to be raised on a farm in
Butler County, Iowa, that was well protected by a good Norway spruce,
white pine and Scotch pine windbreak. The Norway spruce and white pine
are still there and if anything better than they were thirty years ago.
At that time my father fed from one to five carloads of stock every
winter back of this grove, and I honestly believe that he fed his steers
at a cost of from $5 to $15 per steer less than a neighboring feeder who
fed out on the open prairie with a few sheds to furnish the only winter
protection. I shall never forget the remark a German made who was
hauling corn to us one cold winter day. As he drove onto the scales back
of this grove, he straightened up and said: "Well, the evergreen grove
feels like putting on a fur coat," and I never heard the difference in
temperature described any better. Our evergreen grove moved our feeding
pens at least 300 miles further south every winter, as far as the cold
was concerned.
[Illustration: Thrifty windbreak of Norway spruce at Mr. Earl Ferris'
place, in Hampton, Ia.]
Near Hampton, Iowa, we have three or four of the best stock raisers in
the United States. Every one of them is feeding cattle back of a large
evergreen grove. In recent years they have divided up some of their
large farms into smaller places and made new feeding sheds, and the
first improvement that they made on each and every one of these places
was an evergreen grove. They buy the best trees that can be obtained
that have been transplanted and root pruned, and most of them prefer the
Norway spruce in the two to three foot size. After planting, they take
as good care of them as they do of any crop on the farm, for they fully
realize that cultivation is an all important thing in getting a good
evergreen grove started.
Several days ago, I talked with one of these feeders who has time and
again topped the Chicago market. He made the remark that the buildings
on his farm cost thousands of dollars while his evergreen grove had only
cost from $100 to $200, but that he would rather have every building on
the place destroyed than to lose that windbreak.
As the price of land and feed increases, the farmers of the Northwest
are waking up to the fact that an evergreen grove is an absolute
necessity, and that they cannot afford to plant any other. The maple,
willow, box elder and other similar trees take so much land that they
cannot afford them. They are a windbreak in the summer, but a joke in
the winter.
The time is not far distant when every up-to-date farmer in Minnesota,
Iowa, Nebraska and other Northwest states will have a good evergreen
grove which will be considered as much of a necessity as his barn, house
or other outbuildings.
[Illustration: Evergreens adorn old home of Otto Kankel, at Fertile,
Minn., in Red River Valley.]
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
DISBURSEMENTS.
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.
[Illustration: 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.