WYMAN ELLIOT"S CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIBRARY.--A short time since Mrs. Elliot, widow of the late Wyman Elliot, sent to this office as a contribution to our library all of the horticultural and agricultural books which belonged to Mr. Elliot. There were in all 397 volumes, nearly all of them bound in cloth. The larger portion of these were reports of other horticultural and agricultural societies, most of which the Horticultural Society already had in the library. There were, however, some forty or fifty very valuable reference books, or books on specific subjects of a horticultural character, and a considerable number of reports of other societies which we did not have, in all amounting to seventy-seven volumes. These have been placed mostly in two cases by themselves which will be marked with Mr. Elliot"s name, and, of course, each one of these volumes has an inscription of similar character on the fly leaf. The remainder of these books, 320 in number, are being sent to University Farm library for use there as far as they need them, and they will be likely to know where to place to advantage any that they have no personal use for. There are plenty of libraries in the state that would be glad indeed to receive some of these volumes, and we hope that in this way Mr. Elliot"s name will appear in the catalog of many of our public libraries.
NEW LIFE MEMBERS.--There have been quite a number of names added to the life membership roll of the society during the year 1916 and since the last public record was made of this sort. The names of the following persons have now been added to the permanent roll of the society: Ludvig Lima, Montevideo; Mrs. Florence Burlingame, Grand Rapids; A.L. Negstad, Arlington, S.D.; C. P. Bratn.o.ber, 1419 Harmon Place, Minneapolis; Miss Anna M. Johnson, Lafayette; H. J. Appleby, Minneiska; Hans M. Johnson, Pipestone; Christ Effertz, Norwood; O.J.
Oyen, Watson; F.E. Older, California State Normal School, Los Angeles, Cal.; Erick Sparre, Elk River; E. H. Mazey, 3029 Ewing So., Minneapolis.
There is still room in this list for others, and why not instead of paying annual membership year after year make one payment and have done with it?
RESOLUTION ABOUT STATE FLOWER.--The following resolution was unanimously adopted at a meeting of the Minnesota Garden Flower Society, held during the annual session of the State Horticultural Society, in December last.
Resolved, That whereas, The State of Minnesota has adopted a state flower, which, on account of its being a native of the woods and bogs, is not generally known or recognized, and
Whereas, The State of Minnesota in 1893 adopted by legislative vote a state flag, which emblem is not generally known to the residents of the state, and believing that familiarity with the state flower and the state flag will do good and create loyalty to the state and union;
Be It Resolved, That we, the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, do hereby pet.i.tion and pray the state legislature of Minnesota, to have printed an attractive picture of the state flower and the state flag, properly framed, and present it to the high schools of the state, with the request that it be placed upon the wall of their a.s.sembly room.
Also, that it be furnished free of cost, to such other public buildings as may be deemed advisable.
PROGRAM, "FARMERS" WEEK."--During "Farmers" Week" at University Farm, January 1-7, 1917, there will be scheduled several conferences which fruit and vegetable growers should find of value to them in their work. These conferences deal with all of the problems of the grower, but special afternoons are given to the small fruits, the tree fruits, and vegetables. Next January will be the third conference of the fruit growers, the second for the vegetable growers, and the first for the small fruit growers as a separate branch of the fruit work.
Mr. W. G. Brierly, Chairman of the Division of Horticulture, University Farm, is working on programs for these conferences for next January. He will be very glad to have any one interested write to him for information or to suggest topics for discussion. The program for the vegetable growers" conference will be drawn up by a joint committee from the St. Paul and Minneapolis vegetable growers, working with Mr.
Brierly. The committee is planning to meet at the time of the summer meeting of the Horticultural Society and will, of course, welcome any suggestions as to topics and speakers.
These conferences are for all growers interested and are free to all.
There has been some difficulty heretofore in that very few suggestions as to program have been offered by the growers themselves. If you have any problems or matters which you would like to have discussed at these conferences, now is the time to make your suggestions.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SOUTH END OF EXHIBITION HALL AT LATE SUMMER MEETING. The flower exhibit is mostly in north end of hall, and not showing in this picture.]
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 JULY, 1916 No. 5
My Neighbor"s Roses
The roses red upon my neighbor"s vine Are owned by him, but they are also mine, His was the cost, and his the labor, too, But mine, as well as his, the joy their loveliness to view.
They bloom for me, and are to me as fair As for the man who gives them all his care.
Thus I am rich, because a good man grew A rose-clad vine for all his neighbors" view.
I know from this that others plant for me, And what they own, my joy may also be.
So why be selfish, when so much that"s fine Is grown for you, upon your neighbor s vine!
--_Anon_
SUMMER MEETING, 1916.
Minnesota State Horticultural Society
A Joint Session with its Auxiliaries, the Minnesota State Garden Flower Society, the Minnesota State Bee-Keepers Society and the Minnesota State Florists Society.
A. W. LATHAM, SECY.
There seems to be something almost uncanny in the unbroken sequence of pleasant days that have greeted the annual summer meeting of the Horticultural Society in the last quarter of a century. For days before this meeting it seemed a.s.sured that we should this year at least have an unpleasant day for our gathering, and even the day before and night before were most unfavorable. Friday morning, June 23rd, however, opened up bright and beautiful, warm and pleasant, as nature can smile, and continued so throughout the day. The meeting was in accord with these favorable circ.u.mstances, and I believe brought out more and better flowers and more, though no better, people, both as exhibitors and in attendance, than any previous similar gathering the a.s.sociation has held.
The exhibition was installed in the new gymnasium at University Farm, a room sufficiently large so that it not only accommodated the exhibition with wide aisle s.p.a.ce, but also found plenty of room for the placing of chairs for the afternoon meeting. Tables were arranged around three sides of the hall, which were used for the displays of perennials and roses. The peonies were shown on several tables in the north center of the hall and besides these there were exhibits of some of the choicest of the peonies made upon the floor, so arranged that visitors could walk amongst them and look down upon them and see them at their best. One table was occupied with the strawberry exhibit, which, however, was a small one on account of the lateness of the season, though the Fruit-Breeding Farm showed some forty or fifty plates of No. 3, the new June-bearing berry of such large popularity, and a few everbearers. The number of entries was, I believe, in excess of any previous meeting, amounting altogether to 521. Most of the old exhibitors at our summer meeting were present and some few of the newer ones. The effort which was made this year to secure a completed exhibit at 11:30 proved to be a success, and by the lunch hour the judges had gotten well along with their work and the hall was opened to the public to inspect the display.
At 12:00 o"clock or thereabouts the members and their friends gathered upon the lawn near the station dining hall, where there were plenty of trees and green gra.s.s, and partook of the noon repast, for which purpose the station provided coffee and also lemonade, the latter a new feature in our bill of fare.
The regular afternoon meeting was held at 2:00 o"clock in the same hall in which the exhibit was placed. This was largely attended, some two or three hundred taking advantage of the opportunity to listen to those who found place on this extempore program. Our society reporter took some notes of what transpired at the meeting, but they were only partial notes, and what here follows in regard to what took place is only in the nature of extracts.
President Cashman was in the chair as usual and in a few words extended greeting to the society saying, amongst other things:
"This occasion is always looked forward to with a great deal of pleasure. We meet those engaged in similar lines of work, we discuss the problems with which we have to contend, our joys and our sorrows. We come here to meet our friends--and my experience has been that there are no truer or more loyal friends than those found amongst the horticulturists. The true horticulturist is a lover of nature, a lover of the beautiful and all that goes with it. He looks for nothing except the best that can be found in human kind. Such are the men and women that belong to the Horticultural Society."
As representing the University Farm, whose hospitality in a large sense the society was enjoying, Dean Woods gave us a hearty welcome in his happy way, and what follows is typical of the kindly things he said: "We always have pleasant days and pleasant memories because those who study flowers and fruits and the beauties of nature are the ones from whom one can get inspiration to understand and to know what nature means. Any one who can listen to the sounds of nature, any one who can see in flowers the spirit of life struggling upwards has the true spirit of the horticulturist and is always welcome here."
Mr. A. Brackett, of Excelsior, being called upon, had something to say about strawberry culture, and in the course of his remarks showed several plates of different varieties of strawberries. What follows is the substance of his talk on this subject. "We have here what we call the No. 3 strawberry produced at the Experimental Farm. I believe from my experience that it is going to take the place of all of our common June-bearing strawberries. It is a deep rooter, fine large plant and a nice, solid berry, and I have never seen any blight or rust on the plants. I think that it will pay for all the expense that has ever been paid out for the farm, that one berry will pay for it, it will be of that much value to the people of Minnesota. The everbearing strawberry has come to stay, and for private use you do not need to plant any other variety. The everbearing strawberry will ripen its fruit at least a week ahead of almost any other berry we have, and then it will continue bearing until the frost kills it. I had at least twenty bushels of fruit from my plants last year, and I secured from one-quarter acre fifty-three cases and sold them at $4.80 a case. They talk about what they can raise in California, but we can do better here, and I believe if you will stick to these three varieties, the Americus, Superb and Progressive, you will not need to plant any other variety. The Americus has the best flavor but it isn"t as large. Of the Superb nearly all of the berries are large, very few small ones, but they haven"t got the flavor.
"There is one thing about this new strawberry, it can not bear the year around, that is, during the summer, unless the ground is very rich. I think I put on one-half acre of the everbearing strawberries twenty-five loads of fertilizer. You have got to make the ground rich to carry these plants through and produce the berries. I use a narrow row on the hill system. I cut my rows down in the spring, dig up the plants and leave the row four inches wide and plants six inches apart. This brings more berries and better plants."
Prof. C. B. Waldron, of Fargo, N.D., horticulturist at the Fargo Agricultural College for a quarter century, who has rarely missed being with us at any summer gathering, being called upon, among other things said: "There are a good many things that affiliate people together in groups of one kind or another. It used to be that if people had the same belief about eternal punishment, etc., that they would group themselves together, but nowadays we find people grouping themselves according to more natural methods. I think people grouping themselves together for a common love of trees, fruits and flowers makes a more natural bond of affiliation, and when I find a man that knows the names of many of our beautiful flowers I feel drawn to him at once. I can"t seem to tire of that person"s company, no matter what political party he belongs to.
These things that I speak of seem to be a more natural and harmonious relationship to build our friendship upon than almost anything else. I know that I always look forward days and weeks ahead to meetings like this, where I can meet with people who love and admire and cherish the things that I find my greatest delight in."
The superintendent of the Fruit-Breeding Farm, Mr. Chas. Haralson, spoke briefly of the work at the Fruit-Breeding Farm, which he is conducting with such distinguished success. His statement was altogether too brief when one knows the vast amount of detail work that is being done there in development of new fruits: "The work at the Fruit-Breeding Farm is carried on just the same as usual. We are working on strawberries, plums, apples, grapes somewhat and several other fruits like gooseberries and currants. The best success we have had so far in the new varieties is with strawberries, raspberries and plums. It takes only a few years to run through a generation of these, and we can get them selected quicker than apples. The plum crop is very light this year, especially on the hybrid plums, on account of winter-killing, that is, the buds killed during the winter. They never did that before, but this year they have done it to a great extent. The strawberry crop is very good and so are the raspberries now coming on. Probably as many as 2,000 apple seedling trees are bearing this year, so we will have a little chance for selection in the line of apples. In grapes we are working with most of the seedlings from the Beta and some hybrids, and we have a few of the Beta seedlings that are very good. One red variety compares favorably with any of the cultivated varieties. It is perfectly hardy so far. And we have two or three varieties of black nearly as large as Moore"s Early or Concord.
"We also have a number of seedlings of pears, but we are not very far advanced with them yet. Pears stand the winter fairly well, although they winter-kill to a certain extent. When they are weakened through the winter and growth starts in the spring they blight. Blight is the worst part of our work with pears."
Prof. R. S. Mackintosh, of University Farm, was caught on the floor, and as usual took opportunity to tell people they ought to eat more apples and something about how to get them. This seems to be a subject that is ever in his mind and which he is persistently working to good advantage.
"You folks that are hungry and want apples or apple pie want to get busy about the middle of August and eat up your surplus apples in Minnesota.
It is a shame that farmers, fruit growers, etc., have spent years trying to grow apples in Minnesota and then we cannot get enough people to eat the apples. We are going to carry on the clearing house as we did last year, and if you want apples let us know. We can grow apples the same as we can grow peonies and strawberries, but it is a little hard to get them distributed properly."
Mr. A. M. Brand, of Faribault, who had an extraordinary exhibit of seedling peonies at the meeting, p.r.o.nounced by our peony expert, Mr.
C.S. Harrison, "second to none in the world," was introduced and talked briefly along the line of seedling peony production, as follows: "There is a great deal of encouragement in what we have been able to accomplish down there at Faribault along the line of producing something fine in peonies. Sixteen years ago we started out with the idea of improving upon the stock that we already have. We had a little red peony, a very nice peony, originated by Mr. Terry down in Iowa, called Rachel, and starting out with that as a mother plant we have produced some of the finest roots that there are in cultivation. By using lots of the seed of Rachel we have been able to produce this Mary Brand, considered by many of the peony growers as one of the finest red peonies in the world. A great many people that raise nice peonies think they have to go to the trouble of hand fertilization. That isn"t necessary.
We started out with such varieties as Rachel, and by letting the bees and the elements do the fertilizing for us we were able to produce varieties like this. Here is the new seedling that we brought out this year and named Ruth--a pink peony. As a rule we plant about a peck of seed every year, and out of that peck of seed it probably brings us 10,000 seedlings, and out of this 10,000 we get one good seedling, and this is the only good seedling that we have produced this year. This is a seedling that comes from Rosa Fragrans. When we picked this seedling from the bed of seedlings we considered this the finest seedling that we had, and it has never come good from that time to this, and it is ten years since we have been trying this seedling, which will show you when you are growing seedlings that the first time a seedling blossoms and comes splendid you mustn"t be too enthusiastic about it. The next year it may be worth nothing. You have got to try a seedling in every way to find out whether it is worth sending out. As a rule it takes us ten years from the time that a seedling first blossoms until we send it out.
Ninety per cent of all the peony seedlings that you grow will be singles, one out of 10,000 seedlings will be fair and one out of 100,000 seedlings will be extra good--so you see that those which we have produced give us some encouragement. I wouldn"t advise many of you to go into the seedling business, although you might produce one good seedling out of a handful of seed.
"If you plant a peony on the lawn you have to fertilize it heavily. You can"t have your lawn right up to the stalks of the peony. If you want a peony on the lawn you must give it two feet of ground. Most of the peonies that are brought here are taken out of fields that are cultivated with a horse cultivator. If you want your flowers on the lawn and don"t want to cultivate them you have to use lots of fertilizer. You must not use too much. Fertilize heavy about once in three years. Don"t fertilize every fall. Fertilize in the fall, and the next spring spade the manure in and then don"t use any manure for three or four years.