orchard we are going to try things which we know are not going to be a success financially; that is, we are not going to make money out of them, simply because we want something for use in the home, we must sacrifice a little in the way of cash to get that. If a man does not grow his cherries in his home orchard, he is not going to have any cherries, in nine cases out of ten, and for that reason he ought to plant some cherries, even if they do not give him cash returns, in order to have fruit for his home. I think we must not consider in this talk what we are going to do from the commercial standpoint, but the question is the home orchard, to consider it from that standpoint when we come to plant cherries.

Mr. Periam: What is the best cherry you have from the money standpoint?

Mr. Bingham: I think from the money standpoint there is not very much difference between the Early Richmond and Montmorency; the crop on one is about as great as the other. The hardiness of the tree is very similar; the care the varieties need is indentical and the fruit of the Montmorency is perhaps a little bit larger than the Early Richmond, and that is about the only difference. Take a handful of Montmorency and a handful of Early Richmond, no one can tell the difference by quality or color or shape. I have tried that time and again, no one can tell the difference. They are both of the Morello class, sour cherries.

Mr. Kellogg: I think the Early Richmond as a general thing in a farmer's garden is very unprofitable, the robins take every last cherry, they do not leave enough for a pie, if there are two bushels to the tree; that is the case in our county.

Mr. Bingham: I was just going to mention that if you have four or five trees, there might be a little advantage in having other fruit which the birds might take and leave the cherries. They are good judges of fruit and take what they want. They will pick out sweet cherry trees anywhere in the orchard and take those because they are a little nicer than the sour, but I believe every farmer ought to have a few cherries planted and take care of them right.

Mr. Smith: What varieties would you recommend for one to set, say ten plum trees for home use, in the northern part of the state?

Mr. Bingham. To be sure of plums nearly every year, Ț

would plant two or three Burbank, two or three natives of the good varieties, and two or three European varieties, of the' hardiest sorts.

Mr. Smith: Name those sorts.

Mr. Bingham: Moore's Arctic, or Green Gage. Green Gage is a nice plum and hardy.

Mr. Smith: How about the Abundance, did we not see the Abundance on your place?

Mr. Bingham: Yes, but I would prefer the Burbank to Abundance for sureness of crop and hardiness of tree.

Mr. Smith: What is the objection to setting a few Abund

ance.

Mr. Bingham: Well, if you want my judgment in the matter, it would be the Burbank in preference to the Abundance. The Burbank is bearing this year, but with us the Abundance is not, it has a smaller fruit bud, very much smaller and weaker, and it may bloom perfectly and yet not set any plums.

Prof. Moore. Is not that due to brown rot?

Mr. Bingham. I do not think so; it seems to be a weakness of the fruit bud.

Mr. Kellogg: I object to Burbank and Abundance and Moore's Arctic for the southern and central portion of the state as not hardy enough.

Mr. Hager: How about Brown county?

Mr. Bingham: We cannot succeed with Japanese plums away from the Lake. There is a great area in this state where we have to confine our plum planting to native varieties. At La Crosse and all through the southwestern part of the state, I would not advise anything but the natives also through Crawford and Richland county, but when we get to the lake quality and productiveness is enough better to warrant planting Japanese varieties. I think any one planting native plums along the lake would experience more of a failure than in planting the Japanese from the fact that they do not do well in that damp climate, they do not bear.

Mr. Kellogg I want to hear from L. G. Kellogg on cherries; he has had an experience that is worth something, just with failures.

Mr. L. G. Kellogg. I have made an utter failure in growing cherries for profit. I planted out about ten acres of cherries, Early Richmond and Montmorency, and I succeeded in obtain

ing three or four crops. I gave them absolutely clean cultivation; I did not spray; mildew got into the cherry orchard and took the foliage off the trees, and that was the end of the cherry business.

The President: Do you think that spraying at any time would have saved the trees?

Mr. L. G. Kellogg: I do not think spraying would have saved the trees; that is my candid opinion, and I do not think you can make a success of growing cherries upon a prairie loam. soil and give the trees absolutely clean cultivation. I think if you practiced clean cultivation until about the fifth or sixth year, and then seed down and cultivate between the rows, leaving grass grow under the trees, you may succeed in growing cherries upon a prairie loam soil. I know we have cherry trees growing in that vicinity that are fifteen to twenty years of age that are still producing cherries, cultivated in that way.

Prof. Moore. Mildew is very easily controlled by spraying. It is a fungous disease on the outside of the leaves, and it is the easiest thing to get at.

Mr. Bingham: While we consider Door county very favorable to the production of cherries, still I have no doubt that anyone would meet with absolute failure there in cherry culture în five years' time if he did not spray; if he did not control the shothole fungus, and mildew, he would have no orchard whatever. That has been illustrated at Sturgeon Bay by one one man who did not believe in spraying; there was simply a barbed wire between his orchard and another (sprayed) orchard; and his orchard was destroyed in one year with shot-hole fungus followed by a hard winter, and the trees were wrecks; he lost his crop of fruit that year and the following winter cut off twothirds of the tops of the trees; and after that he went to sprayng, and his new trees are perfectly vigorous and healthy.

Mr. Smith: I would like to ask one question regarding location. At Ashland is some land which is mostly clay, with a little loam on top, perhaps it might be called a heavy clay loam lies about seventy-five feet above the lake, you can see the water beyond the town. There is nothing to prevent a free circulation of air; is that a good location for an orchard?

Mr. Bingham: I would say, we have cherry orchards in Door county on red clay, with a little loam on top, and I see no difference in the health and vigor of those trees over the

others; the only difference is, you know sandy soil needs more fertilizing than soil that has a heavy clay subsoil, and one of our most successful orchards is planted on a red clay soil, very red clay, just like the Superior red clay. Cherries will do well on clay if climatic conditions are favorable and given careful cultivation.

Mr. Buehler: Do you set out one or two year old trees. Mr. Bingham: I think one can be successful using trees of either age. The two year old trees are larger; the one year takes a little more training than the two year old tree.

SMALL FRUITS.

RASPBERRIES, BLACKBERRIES, CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES.

IRVING SMITH, Ashland, Wis.

The matter of cane and bush fruits for home use, should be given more attention than is unually given it. The amount of room required and labor given are very well repaid in the additional variety and quantity of fruit for the home table both summer and winter. Raspberries follow closely the strawberry, keeping up a continual supply of fresh table fruit. Gooseberries and currants come in turn during the raspberry season; and while they are not so much used in the fresh condition, a dish of well ripened white currants, sugared a half hour before eaten make a very nice evening fruit. for any one who likes a mild acid fruit. As for gooseberries, I think they would be used much more in the various forms of cooked fruit if you would just forget that your grandmother used to make green gooseberry pie, and let them get ripe before picking. There is as much difference between green and ripe gooseberries as between green and ripe peaches. Blackberries follow in close succession with little or no break between them and the raspberry.

There are a number of good varieties to choose from, in Raspberries, which must of course be governed to a certain extent by local conditions. Cuthbert and Loudon are very fine red sucker varieties. The Cuthbert being the strongest grower with us, also

continues longer in season. Both are very fine. Columbian is the best of the purplish colored sorts and propagates from the tips of the canes like the black caps. If you have room for only one red variety let it be Columbian. Gregg is, in the writter's opinion, by far the best black cap. A row 100 ft. long of each variety named will give you an ample supply of fruit for any ordinary family, and also enough to give some to your friends.

Set the Loudon and Cuthbert about 3 ft. and the Columbian and Gregg about 5 ft. in the row, placing the rows 6 ft. apart. Bear in mind that no wild raspberries or blackberries ever grow in a swamp. So do not choose a drained swamp or you are likely

to fail.

As soon as the fruit is off all the bearing canes should be cut out close to the ground; and the young ones thinned out leaving a few more than you expect to leave for the next crop, to allow for some being broken in covering. You should have four to six canes in each stool, and two to four canes per foot of row in sucker varieties for bearing. This point is governed by the size of growth.

Two methods of pruning the bearing canes are in common use. One is to nip the end of the cane when about two feet high, which causes a strong growth of the laterals and makes a low, branching bush. Then trim all the branches to fifteen to eighteen inches. This method applies more particularly to the Columbian and Gregg. The other is to allow the canes to grow naturally and then cut back to good strong well ripened wood on the Loudon and Cuthbert and on the other two cut at about the highest point of the cane. The writer prefers the latter method. It is less work and produces very good results. If you have time to spare of course one can push fruit growth by petting.

The only variety of gooseberry that is worth considering for the average home garden is the Downing. It is a heavy bearer of choice fruit about the size of cherries and becomes a yellowish green and is semi-transparent when ripe. Three or four bushes will produce enough for most families.

The Prince Albert currant now stands at the head in most sections. It is a vigorous grower, about four feet high and produces a heavy crop of large bright red currants hung on short well filled stems. As a jelly currant it is surpassed by none. Four or six bushes is enough.

The White Grape and White Dutch vie with each other for the