promise of an early season, but April was much colder with frequent rains and only a few farmers sowed oats or barley in that month. May was still more unfavorable; continuous rains kept the ground saturated with water to such an extent that grain could not be sown till after the 10th of May. There were a few bright days following that date, then very heavy rains fell on 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th, and no gardens were plowed till the last of the month.

In the mean time grass improved rapidly and by the middle of May all vegetation was as forward as usual. Plum trees blossomed the first week in May. Apple trees were covered with blossoms on the 10th and promised a bountiful crop.

The weather continued warm and pleasant till the 18th, when there was a severe frost, ice formed in low places, and for four nights in succession there was white frost in many places.

Frequent rains kept the ground in bad condition, very little corn was planted and but few gardens made before the first of June. The frosts in May followed by heavy rains, injured all fruits in this locality.

Strawberries did not meet the expectations of growers; beds that looked well, and bloomed well, did not mature a full crop of fruit; frost and rain destroyed many blossoms. Best varieties, Wilson, Crescent and Warfield No. 2.

Raspberries were injured by the same cause, and some fields were affected by blight. The Marlboro and Cuthbert are grown here in preference to other varieties.

Red raspberries are grown more than black ones.

At

The apple crop was much injured by the frost in May. first it was not apparent, and we still hoped for the bountiful crop which the abundant bloom had promised, but as the season advanced and the apples began to form they dropped from the trees till only half a crop was left, and these when ripe had no keeping qualities. Summer apples decayed rapidly. Fall and winter apples were gone before our winter meeting in January, when we usually have a fine display.

Notwithstanding this fact, apples were lower in price than last year. Summer apples sold for sixty cents per bushel and

We con

fall and winter apples for eighty cents and $1.00. sider the Wealthy our best early winter apple, on our soil, loam and clay with red clay sub-soil, it bears abundantly.

The Utter does well with us, and the Duchess and Tetofski and Whitney No. 20, should be grown by every one who has a garden. We have many other varieties, but they are not as

satisfactory.

Russians are just coming into bearing and have not been fully tested.

Grapes matured very rapidly during the dry, hot weather the last of the summer, nearly all varieties ripened before we had any severe frost. Of many kinds grown here, the Brighton is the best red grape, the Worden the best black, the Niagara and Merthes the best white grape. One may grow many varieties, but they will have no better table grape than these three kinds.

For preserving and for jelly we prefer the Janesville to any other black grape. It has an excellent flavor when cooked, the vine is hardy, is an abundant bearer, and ripens early. Grapes were troubled by insects or mildew.

Orchards were comparatively free from blight and insects.

REPORT ON OBSERVATIONS OF 1894.

Warren Gray, Darlington.

The spring opened much earlier than usual, bringing blossoms of all fruits at least ten days ahead of time. We feared late frosts but escaped, with slight damage to raspberries. We picked ripe strawberries June 1st; raspberries June 15th, and blackberries July 15th.

Strawberries were promising, early, but the severe drouth the first part of June cut them down one-half, with last pickings of poor quality. Warfield suffered most, as it set an enormous crop and could not mature all the berries for want

of moisture. A few showers came too late to help strawberries, but helped out raspberries some. Had good crop of Olders, but Greggs were a failure. We believe the Older raspberry will withstand more drouth and mature a crop, than any other berry grown. Red raspberries and blackberries were

light yield, for want of water.

Apples promised well, early, and some of the earliest did fairly well.

We harvested the first good crop of Tetofskis after fruiting them for ten years; large, smooth, and free from scab and worm. Believing that failure of apple crop in this locality for two years in succession had starved out the codling moth, we concluded not to spray with Paris green. The earliest apples were not damaged by worms to any extent, but late fall and winter varieties were badly infected.

We think the only surety of getting a good crop of apples here is to spray early and often.

The prospect for an apple crop next season is good, as trees are well filled with fruit buds.

OBSERVATIONS BY WM. TOOLE, OF BARABOO.

The winter of 1893 and '94 injured strawberry plants to some extent and was still more severe on raspberry and blackberry canes. Trees of the larger fruits were not injured.

The yield of strawberries was but moderate on account of some injury to blossoms by late frost and hot, dry weather, coming on suddenly before much of the fruit had ripened. Blackberries and raspberries suffered severely from the excessive drouth.

Currants were much injured by frosts at blooming time. Killing the currant worm with white hellebore is now generally practiced here.

Apples were injured some by frosts, but not badly.

There would have been a fair crop of most varieties if there had been no codling moths, although the excessively hot, dry

weather reduced the size of fruit. The injury by worms was not so bad on early as on late varieties, and spraying did not seem to be very beneficial to the late kind, but undoubtedly was of great value to the early varieties. Our own experiments and observations convince us that spraying with Bordeaux mixture prevents scab and leaf blights-but we need to learn more about how to control the late brood of codling moths.

Twig blight seriously injured some varieties, notably Talman Sweets. Other varieties, especially some of the new Russians, were much damaged with blighting of the large branches and trunks, particularly where the soil had been cultivated.

OBSERVATIONS ON FRUITS.

From John Rhodes, Union Grove, Racine Co., Nov. 15th, 1894.

Only local prices of fruits are quoted.

Apples in great abundance, not saleable, very wormy.

After the month of June, extreme drouth all summer which diminished injury from apple scab, and downey mildew on grape leaves.

Observation indicates that orchards sheltered by evergreen belts or other windbreaks are more subject to depredations from codling moth, and plum curculio, than orchards located on high ground and exposed to every wind. Perhaps these insects are not strong flyers, and find it difficult to stay in a windy garden. Without laying this down as an infallible rule interested persons are requested, each one, to study the matter in his own locality.

Pears unusually plenty.

Prices started in at $2 per bushel and got down to "No, thank you, we have all we need.”

Crop afflicted with worms, and some varieties worthless from scab, notably White Doyenne and Flemish Beauty. The Birkett pear produced a fine crop with perfectly clean leaf,

and fruit below medium size, and third grade in quality. Another pear more valuable than this might as well be called the Rhodes pear as anything else. The original tree has been in the Rhodes family some fifty years, and has been bearing forty years. A number of years ago when blight was prev alent the tree was nearly killed. It now has only one branch alive, which, last summer, was loaded with fine, healthy pears as usual. Fruit is large. Color russet green. Quality not the very best, but much better than no pears. Its diploma is for having outlived and outborne every other pear tested with it in this vicinity

Cherries. Market at $1 to $2 per bushel. Crop good, nearly all bing the common Kentish pie cherry of the E. Richmond type.

Plums started well but were nearly all appropriated to breeding curculio. The exceptions were mostly trees under which poultry dusted themselves, and isolated trees here and there through the country which the pothook bug failed to find. My own experience gives me little to expect from spraying with Paris green.

Grapes. This is the fruit for comfort. Grown twenty-two years on our own ground without a single failure. If it could be preserved with the flavor as eaten from the vines, mankind might be happy twelve months of the year, barring, of course, the persecution by politicians, mosquitoes, etc.

The fruit here sold rapidly when ripe at four cents per pound, and where the vines had been properly cultivated the fruit was unusually fine.

The drouth seemed to be unfavorable to the development of downey mildew, which is the worst enemy of the grape here. I have carefully tested over thirty varieties, and so far Concord and Worden are ahead of all other sorts. Possibly by the use of Bordeaux mixture, paper sacks, etc., we might get better specimens from some other sort. But if the Wisconsin grower who must lay down and cover his vines in winter will compete with the New York state viticulturist in the market, he must tie to varieties bringing the most money from the least labor.