As strawberries are about to blossom, it would be well to keep a look-out for a shortage in the number of blossoms, for this is the first indication of the work of the strawberry weevil. Because of the diminutive size of the insect, few are acquainted with it, so that the shortage of blossoms or failure of the crop is often attributed to frost, hail, climatic conditions or some other agency. Upon close examination, the buds will be found to be severed from the stem, some lying beneath on the ground, others being still attached by a few shreds in a drooping manner. Further examination around the buds may reveal a small snout beetle, which is the cause of the injury, it being about one-tenth inch long and marked with two dark spots on each wing cover.

The females oviposit in the buds, and then cut them off when oviposition is completed, in order to protect the larva within, which later develops to the adult beetle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Showing beetle of strawberry weevil and the damage it inflicts.]

The strawberry weevil has been especially injurious around the vicinity of Hopkins the past summer. It was not uncommon to find fields with from forty to ninety per cent. of the buds cut, and as the earliest and most mature buds, which would be the first to ripen, are among those cut, the losses inflicted may be quite serious. The weevil not only injures the cultivated strawberry, but is found to attack the buds of the red raspberry, dewberry and wild strawberry. It is a singular fact that only the staminate varieties are injured, especially those which furnish considerable pollen, since this const.i.tutes the chief food supply of both larvae and adults.

_Life History._--The weevil appears as soon as the buds begin to form and soon after deposits an egg within the bud. She then immediately crawls down the stem and proceeds to sever the bud. The eggs hatch within five or six days, and in about three or four weeks the footless grubs become full-grown, coming out as adults about five days later.

This new brood, upon emerging, will attack the leaves, making numerous small holes on the under surface, soon after picking time. As early as August 25 the beetles were found to go into hibernation last summer, within the strawberry fields, being found especially among the dead leaves. The older beds were found to be more seriously infested because of the fact that they wintered over in the small fields.

_Control._--Since the weevils do not disperse readily, and since they hibernate within the fields, the one crop system and the plowing up of the beds immediately after picking would probably do away with the injury entirely. This one crop system could be followed for about two years, when it might be advisable to return to the two crop system if the weevils have disappeared.

On April 18, 1916, the weevils were located by the writer underneath the straw, and beginning to move about. From observations last year, it would be advisable to remove the straw from one or two rows in order to hasten the maturity of the buds, and keep the straw on the remainder of the patch in order to force the weevils to the uncovered row. They could then be destroyed either by plowing under or burning.

Some recent experiments by Prof. Headlee, State Entomologist of New Jersey, appear to have been successful against the strawberry weevil. A dust spray of a mixture of a.r.s.enate of lead one pound, and sulphur one pound, was used as a repellent, giving almost perfect protection. The material was applied twice, April 30th and May 6th.

The writer will be glad to co-operate with the growers, if they find the presence of the weevil in their strawberry beds.--S. Marcovitch, Section of Economic Entomology, Division of Economic Zoology, University Farm.

Secretary's Annual Report, 1915.

A. W. LATHAM, SECRETARY.

Twenty-five years is a long time to look forward to, but it does not seem so long when you look back, and yet when I review the changes that have taken place in the Horticultural Society since I a.s.sumed the position of secretary twenty-five years ago the way seems long indeed.

In the year 1890 very nearly all of the old members of the society, those who had contributed their time and money to bring it into existence and keep it alive for its first twenty-four years were still on the membership roll and doing loyal work for the a.s.sociation. As year by year pa.s.sed these veterans of the a.s.sociation one by one dropped away until at the present time the number of those in that cla.s.s who are still with us here are so few in number that it becomes almost a vanishing point. In the year 1897 a photograph was taken of "ten veterans of horticulture," a copy of which is hanging in the secretary's office, and of these ten the only one now with us is that loyal friend and supporter of the society, Seth H. Kenney, of Waterville, now eighty years of age and too feeble to attend this meeting. Going back to a date still earlier, covering the first few years of the a.s.sociation, the only working members of the society as far as the secretary recalls are J. M.

Underwood, C. M. Loring and himself. This is the order of nature, and we should remember only with grat.i.tude and affection those who have served before us and with us and pa.s.sed on.

At the close of this, the forty-ninth year of the society, we find the membership roll somewhat larger in number than at any previous period in its history, there being on the annual roll 3,079 members, and on the life roll 311 members, of whom 30 are honorary. There have been added to this roll the past year one honorary life member, Mr. Lycurgus R. Moyer, of Montevideo, and 20 paid life members. The number of deaths appearing on this life roll during the past year is fortunately only two, Mr. E. A.

Webb, editor and manager of "The Farmer," who had been a member since 1906, and V. A. Neil, of Minneapolis, whose death occurred prior to the 1914 annual meeting but had not been spoken of heretofore.

As usual a considerable number of sources have contributed towards this large membership roll. The auxiliary societies, of which there are 10 have brought upon this roll in all 878 members. One new auxiliary society has been added to the number this year, organized in St. Paul under the name of "Horticultural, Poultry and Improvement a.s.sociation of West St. Paul." An auxiliary society maintained at Crookston for a number of years seems to be no longer in existence and should probably be taken from the list of auxiliaries. The farmers' inst.i.tutes have not contributed as largely to the membership roll as some previous years, on account in part of the fact that the work heretofore done by farmers'

inst.i.tutes is being done in farmers' clubs and schoolhouse meetings of farmers, which does not offer as good an opportunity for securing memberships, though the service to the cause of horticulture is probably even better. Through this source the society has received this year 146 memberships. Many of the nurserymen have contributed liberally to the membership this year, memberships that were given by them to their customers in accordance with an arrangement made with this office. In all from this source have come upon our roll 172 memberships.

The State Fruit-Breeding Farm continues to be the object of permanent central interest in our a.s.sociation. Unfortunately the frosts of last spring interfered with the fruiting of the thousands of trees which under other circ.u.mstances would have borne fruit, many of them for the first time, so that practically few advances have been made the past year in breeding new tree fruits except in preparation for the future.

In small fruits it was different, and the list of these worthy of trial which are standing the climate well is a growing one. Our membership are exceedingly interested in these new fruits as manifested by the large number called for through the distribution of plant premiums. In all there were sent out this year 2,594 lots of these plant premiums.

There is a growing interest in top-grafting late-keeping varieties of apples as indicated by the large number of calls made on this office for scions for this purpose the past season.

The seedling contests continue and the interest in growing seedlings continues as well, there having been a call during the past year from this office for a considerable number of packages of apple seeds by our membership.

So far no apple seedling has appeared to which we could award the $1,000 prize offered by the society for a winter apple. Referring to the seedling contest inaugurated some years ago, the first $100 premium in connection with which should have been awarded three years ago, it appears that the time limit for the fruitage of these seedlings was made too short. The fourth premium comes due at this meeting, but no claimants have as yet come forward for any of these premiums. Probably it will be thought a wise thing to do to continue these awards during later years when these seedling trees will come into bearing.

The "acre orchard" contest entered into a year ago last spring in which there 35 entries finally materialized into a smaller number than antic.i.p.ated, reports having come into the office last year from 23 contestants. The reports for the current year are now being received but not all at hand.

The executive board provided conditions under which these orchards should be conducted and the prizes awarded, which conditions will be found published in the 1914 report of the society on page 45.

Trial stations are continuing their work and are being used princ.i.p.ally now as far as new material is concerned in testing of fruits from the State Fruit-Breeding Farm. To this list has been added the government station at Mandan under the management of A. W. Peterson, reports from which point will also be made to our a.s.sociation from time to time, as well as from the trial stations connected with University Farm, all of which stations have been added also to our society list.

Arrangements are being perfected for the purpose of extending to our membership opportunity to use the books from the society library, which is now increased to about 3,300 volumes. This list has been published in the 1915 report of the society, and we shall be prepared early in the year to send out books to all who desire them according to the regulations, which will be published in an early number of our monthly.

The society is maintaining its card indexes and adding year by year to the amount of material which they represent. One of these cards indexes contains the names and t.i.tles of all the articles published in the society's annual reports and is indexed also with the names of the writers, the index being prepared in this double manner. Another card index contains the list of books in our library, and the third one, indexed by subjects, the bulletins on horticulture coming from the various state experiment stations and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These indexes are invaluable for their various purposes and may be used by the membership at their volition.

The society maintained an office at the late state fair, at which a considerable number of memberships were received and a large number of members met by the secretary and other officers of the society. We believe this was an excellent move and should be continued in the future.

As to the horticultural exhibit at the state fair, while the secretary has no official connection with it, it should be spoken of as a very satisfactory exhibition indeed and well handled. The building as a whole, covering all branches of horticultural work, was a real credit to the various interests represented and well deserves all the time and expense lavished upon it.

Probably the most important event of the year with which the secretary was officially connected was the effort made to secure an appropriation from the state legislature in session last winter for the construction of a building for the uses of the Horticultural Society. The building committee, with which the secretary served, held a number of meetings with members of the Board of Regents and various committees at the state legislature, at which a considerable number of our membership besides those regularly on the committee were in attendance and took part in appeals in the interest of the building. The secretary's service in this connection was largely the effort made to enlist the co-operation of the membership in the way of getting them to write letters or talk personally with the members of the legislature upon the subject, and an appeal was sent out through the mails to all of our membership with this object in view. The response was a most liberal one, far beyond our expectations. Some of the members of the legislature received over thirty letters from their const.i.tuents asking their support to this measure. There was not a single member of the legislature who did not receive some communications about this matter. In all there were sent in this manner to members of the legislature 1,594 letters. While our efforts to secure this building failed, it was, as we believe, largely on account of the prevailing and unusual sentiment for economy which permeated the legislature to an extraordinary degree, and we have reasonable a.s.surance that a similar effort with the next legislature will bring us success. In regard to this matter the chairman of the building committee speaks more fully.

The financial report follows and to this your attention is respectfully requested.

Secretary's Financial Report, 1915.

A. W. LATHAM, SECRETARY.

RECEIPTS.

Balance $91.62 G. W. Strand, Treasurer 685.96 Life membership fees 190.00 Books sold 14.10 Cuts sold 7.50 Banquet tickets sold at 75c each 138.00 Garden Flower Society, account premiums 65.00 Annual fees, 1914 8.00 Annual fees, 1915 3,004.00 Annual fees, 1916 263.00 --------- $4,467.18

DISBURs.e.m.e.nTS.

Postage $717.33 Office rent 420.00 Telephone 55.45 Premium books 113.61 Office supplies 28.36 Plant premiums 105.14 a.s.sistance in office 719.21 Printing 247.16 Expenses annual meeting, 1914 90.73 Expenses annual meeting, 1915 76.84 Expenses summer meeting, 1915 14.64 Banquet 152.75 Reporting annual meeting 174.99 Expenses vice-presidents 29.17 Expenses superintendents, trial stations 50.59 a.s.sistance annual meeting 1914 100.50 Expenses delegates, etc., meeting, 1914 224.07 Expenses delegates to other societies 30.29 Discounts, membership fees, auxiliary societies, etc. 825.54 Examining officers' books 10.00 Treasurers salary, 1914 25.00 Collecting checks 10.00 Plans of horticultural building 40.00 Officers' bonds, 1915 15.00 Forestry a.s.sociation 50.00 Insurance on library sundries 8.00 Sundries 20.68 Balance 112.13 --------- $4,467.18

GENERAL STATEMENT, DECEMBER 1, 1915.

Balance in Hennepin County Bank December 1, 1914 $177.38 Interest in 1915 $11.24 --------- Total $188.62 Loring Fund, including interest 140.60 Balance with secretary 112.13 Balance with treasurer 4,906.00 --------- Total $5,347.35

SUMMER MEETING, 1916.

Premium List, Summer Meeting, 1916.

No Duplicating of Varieties Permitted.

OUT-DOOR ROSES.

1st 2d 3d 4th prem. prem. prem. prem.

Collection--three blooms of each named variety, to be shown in separate vases $6.00 $4.00 $2.00 $1.00

Collection of named varieties--three blooms of each, in separate vases, amateurs only 6.00 4.00 2.00 1.00