February 24. Wilder Auditorium, 2:30 p.m., Fifth and Washington St., St. Paul.
Soil Fertility, Prof. F. J. Alway.
Birds As Garden Helpers.
March 23. Public Library, Minneapolis, 2:30 p.m.
Work of the State Art Commission, Mr. Maurice Flagg.
How Can the Garden Flower Society Co-operate with It?
Our Garden Enemies.
Cultural Directions for Trial Seeds.
Distribution of Trial Seeds.
April 27. Wilder Auditorium, St. Paul, 2:30 p.m.
Native Plants in the Garden.
Roadside Planting.
Use and Misuse of Wild Flowers.
May. Date to be announced. Mazey Floral Co., 128 S. 8th, Minneapolis.
Informal Spring Flower Show.
What Our Spring Gardens Lack.
Good Ground Cover Plants.
June. Date to be announced. University Farm, St. Paul, Joint Session with Horticultural Society. Flower Show.
July. Date to be announced. Minneapolis Rose Gardens, Lake Harriet.
Picnic Luncheon, 1:00 p.m.
Roses for the Home Garden.
Our Insect Helpers in the Garden.
August. Date to be announced. Holm and Olson, 2:30, 20 W. Fifth St., St.
Paul. Informal Flower Show.
How to Grow Dahlias.
The Gladiolus.
September 21. Public Library, Minneapolis, 2:30 p.m.
Fall Work in the Garden.
Vines.
Planting for Fall and Winter Effect.
October 19. Wilder Auditorium, St. Paul, 2:30 p.m.
What Other Garden Clubs Are Doing.
How My Garden Paid.
Reports on Trial Seeds.
November. Date to be announced. Park Board Greenhouses, Bryant Ave.
S. and 38th St., 2:30 p.m. Chrysanthemum Show.
Hardy Chrysanthemums.
December. Annual Meeting.
{MRS. PHELPS WYMAN, Program Committee. {MRS. N. S. SAWYER, {MISS ELIZABETH STARR, {MRS. E. W. GOULD,
BEE-KEEPER'S COLUMN.
Conducted by FRANCIS JAGER, Professor of Apiculture, University Farm, St. Paul.
QUEEN BEES FOR BREEDING.--Queen bees for breeding purposes will be sent to beekeepers of the State from University Farm during the coming summer with instructions how to introduce them and how to re-queen the apiary. Mostly all bees in the state at present are hybrids, which are hard to manage. In many localities bees have been inbred for years, making the introduction of new blood a necessity. All queens sent out are bred from the leather colored Italian breeding queens of choicest stock obtainable. The price of queens will be fifty cents for one, and not more than three will be furnished to each beekeeper. Orders with cash must be sent directed to the "Cashier,"
University Farm, St. Paul, Minnesota. The queens will be sent out in rotation as soon as they are ready and conditions are right.
SECRETARY'S CORNER
MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS CHANGE.--A good many members when sending in annual membership fee give the number of their membership for the previous year. Members will please note that membership numbers change each year, as all members are numbered in the order of their coming upon the membership roll. The only number that we care about in the office, if for any reason it is necessary to give it, is the number for the current year.
A WORD FROM PROF. WHITTEN.--Prof. J. C. Whitten, of the University of Missouri, who was on the program at our annual meeting for three numbers, and at the last moment was taken ill and unable to be with us, has written describing the condition of his illness and expressing his deep regret at his enforced absence from our meeting, and a hope that at some other time he may have an opportunity to be with us.
We shall look forward to having him on our program another year with eager anticipation. Prof. Whitten ranks as one of the most prominent of professional horticulturists of the country, and we are certainly fortunate in being able to secure his attendance, as we hope to do another year.
MEMBERS IN FLORIDA.--Quite a number of members of the Horticultural Society are spending the winter in Florida. Some of these the secretary knows about, but addresses of only two are at hand. J. M.
Underwood, chairman of the executive board of the society, and family are at Miami, Fla., for the winter. Mr. Oliver Gibbs, at one time secretary of the society for a number of years, is at Melbourne Beach, on the east coast of Florida, where he has been now for some ten winters--and some summers also. His health makes it necessary for him to live in so mild a climate. We have the pleasure of meeting him here often during the summer. Now in his eighties he is nearly blind but otherwise in good health and always in cheerful spirits.
NEW LIFE MEMBERS.--Since the report of 1915 was printed, in which there will be found on page 520 a list of life members of the society, there have been added to the life membership roll fifteen names; five of these were made honorary members by the unanimous vote of the association for valuable service rendered to the society, and were well deserving of this honor, as follows: Chas. Haralson, Excelsior; S. H. Drum, Owatonna; F. W. Kimball, Waltham; J. R. Cummins, Minneapolis; John Bisbee, Madelia.
To the paid life membership roll there have been added ten names as follows: E. G. Zabel, LaMoure, N.D.; Roy E. McConnell, St. Cloud; O. F.
Krueger, Minneapolis; L.A. Gunderson, Duluth; Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Gibbs, St. Anthony Park; Herman Goebel, Wildrose, N.D.; T. Torgerson, Estevan, Sask.; Law Swanson, St. Paul; Rev. Saml. Johnson, Princeton.
Don't you want your name added to this life roll? If you have already paid an annual membership fee for this year a further payment of $4.00 made any time during the year will be received as first payment for a life membership fee. That is, the amount of the annual fee already paid may be deducted from a life membership fee paid any time during the current year.
SEND IN A NEW MEMBER.--Have you noticed the advertisement on the inside of the back cover page of this and also the January issues of our monthly? There never was such an opportunity to secure valuable new fruits as this presents to you and to your neighbor, many of whom we feel sure would gladly take advantage of the opportunity if it were presented to them. Take an evening off and do yourself and your neighbors this good service--and the society as well.
NUMBER THREE STRAWBERRY.--Very few of those who have so far selected plant premiums for next spring's delivery have chosen Minnesota No. 3 June-bearing strawberry. Our members will surely make a mistake if they do not secure for next spring's planting a quantity of this splendid new berry, which seems likely to supplant the Senator Dunlap as the June-bearing variety in the near future. It is a very vigorous grower, equally attractive, of good quality, holds up well and is a healthy, hardy plant. Do not leave this out of your list of selection for plant premiums.
APPLE SEED OF LARGE VALUE.--A considerable quantity of apple seed has been secured of Mr. John Bisbee, of Madelia, Minn., from his orchard, top-worked, as it is, with many varieties of long keeping apples, so that this seed is almost certainly crossed with something that will keep well as well as of high quality. It will be found especially valuable to plant for growing seedlings. It would be well to secure this seed soon, mix it with damp sand and leave out of doors where it will freeze, keeping the package which holds it covered from the air so that it may not dry out. Every member should have a little corner in his garden for growing apple seedlings. It is an enticing experiment, and such seed as this is likely to give good results. We are still looking for the $1,000 apple. You may grow it from some of this seed. Package of twenty-five seed at ten cents, to be secured of Secy.
Latham.
A FAVORABLE WINTER FOR FRUITS.--The ground was in good condition last fall, with a reasonable amount of moisture, fruits, both trees and plants, well ripened up, and now with a fairly good blanket of snow and no long continued severe weather, we have to this point in the winter a very certain assurance of a good yield of fruit the coming spring. To be sure the thermometer was down in the neighborhood of thirty degrees one night, but it was there so short a time that it scarcely seems possible that any harm could have been done by it. The horticulturist should be a natural optimist and always anticipate something good ahead, which is one pretty sure way of getting it.
MINNESOTA NURSERYMEN GIVE MEMBERSHIPS.--A considerable number of the nurserymen of Minnesota are again giving memberships this year as premiums to purchasers of nursery stock in quantity of $20.00 or upwards. This is a commendable enterprise, not only on account of its material assistance in building up the membership roll of the society but more especially because it brings in the kind of members who have, or should have, a large practical interest in the workings of the association, and we believe also that it is like "casting bread upon the waters;" those receiving these memberships will have a warm feeling for the nurserymen which present them. If you who read this are Minnesota nurserymen and are not in the list of those who are doing this service for the society, don't you want to take advantage of an immediate opportunity to align yourself with those who are showing so large an interest in the welfare of the association?
[Illustration: GATHERING THE APPLE CROP IN HAROLD SIMMONS'
ORCHARD--AT HOWARD LAKE.]
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.