The showy lady's slipper (C. hirsutum) is found in swamps and rich
meadows. Old settlers tell of gathering the pink and white "moccasin
flower" by the bushel, to decorate for some special occasion. Today we
are trying to shield a few in their last hiding places. The draining of
swamps and cutting of meadows has had much to do with their
disappearance. The picking of the leafy stem by the ruthless "flower
lover" cripples the plant for a season or more and frequently kills it
outright. Attempts to transfer it to the home garden have succeeded for
a year or so but rarely longer, perhaps because its native habitat is
very difficult to duplicate.
The small yellow lady's slipper (C. parviflorum), found in bogs, and the
large yellow (C. parviflorum var. pubescens), growing on hillsides and
in rich woods, as well as in swamps, are the most widely distributed and
best known of this genus. They have often been transferred from the wild
to the home garden. Where they have been given their native soil and
environment the stock has increased and seedlings have developed. They
have even been brought into conservatory or window garden and forced to
flower in February.
The crimson stemless lady's slipper (C. acaule) is found in drier woods
and on the stump knolls of swamps in certain locations. It has with
difficulty been established in a few gardens.
The small white lady's slipper (C. candidum) occurs locally in boggy
meadows. It is a very dainty plant. It grows in at least one wild
garden.
The ram's head lady slipper (C. arietinum) is very rare and local. It is
a very delicate and pretty thing, purple and white in color.
All of these species are to be seen in season in the Wild Garden of the
Minneapolis Park System.
* * * * *
Committee on the protection of Cypripedia: Mrs. Phelps Wyman, chairman;
Miss Clara Leavitt, Miss M. G. Fanning, Mrs. C. E. C. Hall, Mrs. E. C.
Chatfield, Mr. Guy Hawkins.
* * * * *
Our plant exchange should be of great benefit to our members, such a
fine beginning having been made last spring. Send a list of the plants
you have for exchange and those you would like to receive to our
secretary. These will be posted upon the bulletin board at our meetings,
where exchanges can be arranged between the members.
* * * * *
March 23. Public Library, Minneapolis, 2:30 p.m. Meeting of Garden
Flower Society. Program:
Our Garden Enemies.
Cultural Directions for Trial Seeds.
Distribution of Trial Seeds.
Minnesota Cypripedia. Have they responded to Cultivation?
BEE-KEEPER'S COLUMN
Conducted by FRANCES JAGER, Professor of Apiculture, University
Farm, St. Paul.
IMPORTANCE OF GOOD QUEENS.
The government census of 1910 gives the average of honey production per
colony for the State of Minnesota at five pounds per colony. Allowing
for mistakes which were made in making up this census, there is no doubt
that the average amount of honey produced by a colony is not nearly as
high as efficient beekeeping would make it. When some well known
beekeepers will average year after year fifty, seventy and even a
hundred pounds per colony, there must be something wrong with those who
fall far below this amount.
There are many causes responsible for this failure of honey crops. Bad
management, no management at all, antiquated or impossible equipment,
locality, etc., are all factors contributing towards a shortage in the
honey crop, but poor queens are the most universal cause of
disappointment. The queen being the mother of the whole colony of bees,
the hive will be what she is. If she is of a pure, industrious, gentle,
hardy and prolific strain, the colony over which she presides will be
uniform, hard working, easy to handle, easy to brave the inclemency of
the weather and the severity of our winters, and populous in bees. The
bees partake of the characteristics of the queen.
The fact of the matter is, that more than 90% of our Minnesota queens
are either black Germans or hybrids, neither of which lend themselves to
pleasant and profitable beekeeping. Having been inbred for years will
make them still less valuable, and most of them have been inbred for
generations.
Among many things in which the beekeepers of Minnesota should begin to
improve their beekeeping possibilities, the necessity of good queens
comes first. With a new strain of pure, gentle, industrious, leather
colored Italian bees, their love for beekeeping should receive a new
impetus, leading them to better equipment and better management.
It was with this point in view that the University of Minnesota has
secured the best breeding queens obtainable from which to raise several
thousands of queens for the use of beekeepers of the state.
These queens will be sold each year during the months of June, July and
August at a nominal price of fifty cents each, and not more than three
to each beekeeper. The University is ready to book orders now. There is
such a demand for these queens that last year only one-quarter of the
orders could be filled. Given three pure Italian queens to start with, a
beekeeper may easily re-queen his whole bee-yard in the course of a
year. Detailed printed instructions how to proceed will be sent out to
all buyers of queens free of charge.
Time has come to start bee-keeping on a more profitable basis, and the
first step towards better success should be a new strain of queens.
ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES
By F.L. WASHBURN, Professor of Entomology, University of
Minnesota.
RABBITS; RABBIT-PROOF FENCES; FIELD MICE.
Probably the thoughtful orchardist has before this date visited his
orchard and trampled the deep snow down around his young fruit trees for
a distance of two feet on all sides of each trunk, thus preventing
rabbits from reaching the trunk above the protected part, or from eating
the branches in the case of low-headed trees. Even at this date, this
should be done where the snow lies deep. Frequent tramplings about the
young trees also protects the trees from possible injury by field mice
working beneath the snow.
This leads us to speak of our experiences with so-called "rabbit-proof"
fencing. In the summer time, when an abundance of food is everywhere
offered, these small mesh fences are generally effective barriers, but,
in the case of the low fences, drifting snow in winter permits an easy
crossing, and in the case of the higher fences which have the narrow
mesh at the bottom, gradually widening toward the top, it is possible
for a rabbit to get his head and body through a surprisingly small space
between the wires. The writer was astonished, late last autumn, previous
to any snowfall, to see one of these pests, which had jumped from its
"nest" in his (the writer's) covered strawberry-bed, run to the
inclosing fence, which was provided with the long, narrow mesh above
alluded to, raise himself on his hind feet and push his way through a
space not more than three inches wide. It would seem, therefore, that
one should accept with some reservation the assertion that these fences
are actually "rabbit-proof."
PREPAREDNESS FOR (INSECT) WAR.
However one may regard the agitation for or against preparing this
country for (or against) war, we are doubtless of all one mind as to the
desirability of being prepared to successfully cope with the various
insect-pests which are sure to arrive during the coming spring and
summer to attack shrubs, fruit trees, berry bushes, melons, cucumbers
and practically all of our vegetables. The Entomologist has every reason
to be thankful that, early last spring, he laid in a supply of arsenate
of lead, Black Leaf No. 40, commercial lime-sulphur, tree tanglefoot,
tobacco dust, also providing himself with an abundance of air-slaked
lime and a spraying outfit suitable for use in a small experiment garden
and orchard at Lake Minnetonka. All gardeners, particularly those who
cannot quickly purchase such things on account of distance from a
supply, should take time by the forelock and obtain materials now, that
they may be ready at hand when very much needed.
AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY IN ENTOMOLOGY.
An item of importance, and quite far-reaching in its significance is the
fact (as reported at the recent meeting of entomologists at Columbus)
that the odor in stable manure which attracts house flies, has been
"artificially" produced, if that expression may be used, by a
combination of ammonia and a little butyric acid. A pan of this, covered
by cotton, attracted hundreds of flies which deposited their eggs
thereon. The possibilities of making use of this new-found fact are most
promising, and the discovery is especially significant in that it opens
an immense and practically an untried field in entomological work; that
is, the making use of different odors to attract different species of
insects. A series of experiments in this direction with the Mediteranean
fruit fly, also recently reported, have been most surprising but too
extensive to permit of discussion here.
* * * * *
Nurserymen intending to import currants or gooseberries from Europe will
be interested in learning that there is a possibility of a federal
quarantine on shrubs of this genus grown abroad.
State Entomologist Circular No. 36, issued in January, 1916, and
entitled the "Red Rose Beetle," by S. Marcovitch (illustrated), is
available for distribution. Application should be accompanied by one
cent stamp.
SECRETARY'S CORNER
PLANT COMMERCIAL ORCHARDS.--It is well established that in
certain localities at least in the state commercial orcharding is on a
safe basis, offering reasonable financial profits if managed by those
who take pains to inform themselves on the subject, and are then
thorough going enough to practice what they know. This spring will be a
good time to plant such an orchard. Orchard trees of suitable size were
never more plentiful in the nurseries, and undoubtedly the sorts which
you wish to plant can be readily purchased. Ask some of your nearest
nurseries for prices as to 500 trees, either two or three years old,
whichever you prefer.
GIVE YOUR NEIGHBOR A CHANCE TOO.--This means that you should
not be satisfied simply in having secured something of value to
yourself, but pass on to others the valuable opportunity which you
yourself are enjoying. It is a well established principle of life that
the greatest happiness consists in giving happiness to others. As any
member can do his neighbor a favor, without any expense to himself, and
indeed with profit, by putting his neighbor in touch with the valuable
facilities offered by the Horticultural Society, there is evidently a
double reason why he should do so. For the small membership fee charged
you can put into his hands all the material referred to on the next
page. Read it over and lend your neighbor a helping hand.
TIMELY NOTES IN OUR MONTHLY.--There will be in our monthly
magazine during most of the rest of the months of the year five pages
devoted to timely topics. The experience of the past year or two in this
direction encourages us to believe that this will prove to be the most
valuable portion of our monthly. One page, as heretofore, will be
operated in the interest of garden flowers, edited by Mrs. E. W. Gould;
another page, prepared by Prof. R.S. Mackintosh, under the head of
"fruit notes," which subject indicates clearly its purpose. Prof.
Francis Jager, the Apiarist at University Farm, will prepare another
page, pertaining to the keeping of bees. Prof. F.L. Washburn, the State
Entomologist, will have a page devoted to insect life as interesting the
horticulturist. The fifth page will be handled by Profs. A.G. Ruggles
and E.C. Stakman jointly devoted entirely to the subject of "spraying."
Each issue of the magazine will contain these notes as applying to the
month just following. They will be found well worth studying.
ARE YOU A LIFE MEMBER?--Of course if you are interested in the
work of the Horticultural Society and likely to live ten years you ought
to be a life member. Experience with this roll for twenty-five years now
as secretary of the society indicates that a life membership in the
society is almost an assurance that you will prolong your days. A list
of deaths in the life membership roll published year by year would
indicate that our life members are going to be with us far beyond the
average span of human life. Since publishing a list of new life members
in the February Horticulturist, there have been added to this life list
five names: Tosten E. Dybdal, Elbow Lake, Minn.; Gust Carlson,
Excelsior; A.N. Gray, Deerwood; A.M. Christianson, Bismarck, N.D.; Chas.
H. Lien, St. Cloud.
If you have already paid your annual fee for this year, send us $4.00
more and your name will be placed on the life roll with the balance of
$5.00 to be paid one year from how--or send $9.00, and that makes a full
payment.
[Illustration: HORTICULTURAL BUILDING (SHOWING NEW GREENHOUSES
ATTACHED) AT UNIVERSITY FARM, ST. ANTHONY PARK, MINN.]
While it is not the intention to publish anything in this
magazine that is misleading or unreliable, yet it must be
remembered that the articles published herein recite the
experience and opinions of their writers, and this fact must
always be noted in estimating their practical value.
THE MINNESOTA HORTICULTURIST
Vol. 44 APRIL, 1916 No. 4
Dwarf Apple Trees.
DR. O.M. HUESTIS, MINNEAPOLIS.
I have here a sample of McIntosh Red grown on a standard tree--a
beautiful apple and well colored. Here I have the same variety grown on
one of my dwarf trees, not quite as well colored.
Now, the dwarf tree that bore these apples has been planted two years;
this is the second year of its growth in my own ground at Mound, on Lake
Minnetonka.
I have sixty dwarf trees, five of which have been in eight years, and
they have borne six crops of apples. The last ones I got two years ago,
and they were two years old when I got them. I planted five of these
dwarf trees at the same time that I planted forty standards. The dwarfs
have borne more fruit than the standards up to date. Of course, they
have only been in eight years. The standards are Wealthy, Duchess,
Northwestern Greening and one or two Hibernal and some crabs; the dwarf
stock is the Doucin. It is not the Paradise stock, which is grown in
England largely and some in France and Germany. My trees are a little
higher than my head, and I keep them pruned in a certain way. One of my
older trees the second year had ninety-six apples on it. It was a Yellow
Transparent, and they came to maturity very well. Several of my trees
are about four feet high. I had from twenty-five to fifty apples on
them, and they all ripened nicely. The Red Astrachan and the Gravenstein
and one Alexander had a few apples on them, and I notice that they are
well loaded with fruit buds for another year, which will be the third
year planted.
The care of these trees is probably a little more difficult than that of
the standard tree, or, at least, I give them special care. I have
attempted to bud into some of these, but in my experience they do not
take the bud very well. I can take a bud from one of the dwarfs and put
it on a standard, and it will grow all right, but I can't take a bud
from a standard and put it on a dwarf as successfully. I judge it is
because it isn't as rapid growing as the Hibernal, for instance, would
be. I notice the Hibernal is the best to take a bud because it is a
rapid growing tree and an excellent one on which to graft.
If I wanted to plant an orchard of forty or fifty acres I would plant
standard trees and would put the dwarf between the rows, probably twelve
feet apart. Mine are about ten feet apart, some of them a little more,
but I have two rows eight feet apart each way, nine in each row, which
forms a double hedge. I expect them to grow four feet high. I will prune
them just as I wish to make a beautiful double hedge between two
cottages.
[Illustration: Residence of Dr. Huestis, at Mound, Lake Minnetonka.]
In pruning those that have been in eight years I have tried to use the
renewal system as we use it on grapes sometimes. I take out some of the
older branches and fruit spurs that have borne two or three years. They
must be thinned out. I counted twenty apples on a branch a foot long. I
let them grow until they are large enough to stew and then take some off
and use them, when apple sauce is appreciated. I thin them every year
and get a nice lot of good fruit each year.
I have noticed for two years that I have about ninety-eight per cent. of
perfect apples, not a blotch nor a worm. I spray them all, first the
dormant spray and then just as the blossoms are falling, and then one
other spraying in two weeks and another spray three weeks later.
Mr. Ludlow: Do you mulch the ground?
Dr. Huestis: Well, I dig up the ground a little in the spring. The roots
are very near the surface, not very penetrating, and I cultivate around
the roots, but I am careful not to cut them. Every fall I put a good
mulch of leaves and hay around them. I have been a little fearful they
would winter-kill. I wouldn't lose one of them for ten dollars, and I
think it well to mulch them, leaving a little space at the base.
Mr. Andrews: Are the roots exposed in some cases?
Dr. Huestis: Yes, I noticed on two of the older trees, those that have
been in eight years and have borne six crops, you can see the roots on
one side, the top is exposed a little, and I think it would be well to
put a little dirt on those another year. The stock of these dwarf trees
is slow growing with a rapid growing top, and that is what dwarfs them.
I have transplanted one tree three times, which would make four
plantings in eight years, and that tree bore almost as much fruit last
year as any of them. In another case once transplanted I think the tree
is better than the others that were left.
[Illustration: Dwarf Yellow Transparent, bearing 96 apples, third year
from planting at Dr. Huestis'.]
As I said before, if I was planting an orchard I would put dwarf trees
between, and by the time they had borne three or four crops, and you
were expecting a crop of fruit from the standard trees--about seven
years from the time you put them in--I would put the dwarf trees as
fillers, costing about forty cents apiece, and by the time they are
bearing nicely your friends would have seen those, and I believe would
want them at the time you want to take them out. I believe I could sell
any of mine for three or four dollars apiece. I think that would be one
way of disposing of them after you wanted to take them out of the
standard orchard on account of room. That is just a thought of mine.
When I got my first ones eight years ago I gave one to a man who lives
in North Minneapolis, at 1824 Bryant Avenue North. Any one can see it
who lives up in that section. The first year he had twenty-nine apples,
and it has borne each year since. The one which I have transplanted and
which bore last year is a Bismarck. It is a little better apple, in my
mind, than the Duchess. It is a good deal like the Duchess but is a
better keeper and has a better flavor than the Duchess.
[Illustration: Dwarf Bismarck, fourth year, at Dr. Huestis']
I would like to read a quotation to show that the dwarf tree is not a
late thing. Recommending dwarf trees for gardens, "Corbett's English
Garden," published in 1829, says: "I do hope if any gentleman makes a
garden he will never suffer it to be disfigured by the folly of a
standard tree, which the more vigorous its growth the more mischievous
its growth to the garden."
Marshall says, "The fewer standard trees in the garden the better." Also
that the dwarfs are less trouble to keep in order and are generally more
productive, and that "placed eight or nine feet distant, pruned and kept
in easy manner, they make a fine appearance and produce good fruit."
W.C. Drury, highly regarded as a modern English authority, writing in
1900 says: "For the private garden or for market purposes the dwarf, or
bush, apple tree is one of the best and most profitable forms that can
be planted." He also says: "The bush is one of the best forms of all, as
it is of a pleasing shape and as a rule bears good and regular crops."
Mr. Clausen: Don't you have trouble with the mice?
Dr. Huestis: No, sir, have never seen any.
Mr. Clausen: I had an experience a few years ago. My neighbor made a
mistake; he was hauling straw around his apple trees, and he happened to
take one row of mine. We had no fence between us--and he laid the straw
around the trees. I found when I came to examine these trees in the
spring they were all girdled around the bottom. I am afraid to mulch.
Dr. Huestis: I never have taken any chances. Ever troubled with the mice
at your place, Mr. Weld?
Mr. Weld: A little.
Dr. Huestis: I have never had any trouble with the mice. I always put on
a lot of old screen that I take from the cottages that is worn out and
put a wire around it so the mice can't get through it. We must protect
from mice and rabbits.
Mr. Kellogg: How soon do your dwarf trees pay for themselves?
Dr. Huestis: I don't know. I reckon these four have paid about twelve
per cent. on fifteen or twenty dollars this year, and they have right
along. They have paid me better so far during the eight years than the
standards. That might not apply in eight more years, but for a city lot,
a man who has fifty square feet, how many apple trees could he put in
that seventeen feet apart? Nine standard trees. In that same plot of
fifty feet square he could put in sixty-four dwarfs, and it would be a
nice little orchard. I think it is more adapted to the city man. The
ordinary farmer would neglect them, and I should hate to see a farmer
get them, but I would like to do anything for the man living in the city
with only a small plat of land--my vocation being in the city, my
avocation being in the country.
Mr. Kellogg: Are those honest representations of the different apples
from the dwarf and the standard?
Dr. Heustis: I don't know. Those are a fair sample of those I found in a
box on exhibit and are Red McIntosh. They are better colored than mine,
most of them are like this (indicating). I find the Yellow Transparent
that I have budded on the standard better on the dwarf than on the
standard.
Mr. Kellogg: Does it blight any?
Dr. Huestis: No blight; there hasn't ever been a blight. I think that is
one reason why I feel I could recommend them quite conscientiously.
Other trees have blighted when the conditions were favorable.
* * * * *
TWENTY-FIVE BY SEVENTY FOOT PLOT WILL PRODUCE ENOUGH VEGETABLES FOR
A SMALL FAMILY.--Even the smallest back yard may be made to yield a
supply of fresh vegetables for the family table at but slight expense if
two or three crops are successively grown to keep the area occupied all
the time, according to the garden specialists of the department. People
who would discharge a clerk if he did not work the year round will often
cultivate a garden at no little trouble and expense and then allow the
soil to lie idle from the time the first crop matures until the end of
the season. Where a two or three crop system is used in connection with
vegetables adapted to small areas, a space no larger than twenty-five by
seventy feet will produce enough fresh vegetables for a small family.
Corn, melons, cucumbers, and potatoes and other crops which require a
large area should not be grown in a garden of this size. Half an acre
properly cultivated with a careful crop rotation may easily produce $100
worth of various garden crops in a year.
Plums That We Already Have and Plums That Are on the Way.
_The Brown Rot (Monilia) a Controlling Factor._
DEWAIN COOK, FRUIT GROWER, JEFFERS.
By the term "plums we already have" for the purpose of this paper we
shall include only those varieties that have given general satisfaction
over a large territory and for long term of years, and in the writer's
opinion every one of such varieties are of full blooded, pure Americana
origin.
The DeSoto takes the lead of them all. It undoubtedly has more good
points to its credit than any other plum we have ever grown. The Wyant
and the freestone Wolf are considered as being the next two most popular
varieties. These were all wild varieties, found growing in the woods of
Wisconsin and Iowa many years ago.