The destruction of the red rose beetle is simple, according to a circular recently issued by the Minnesota state entomologist, University Farm, St. Paul.  The method is to cultivate the ground around the rose bush early this spring and cultivate it again in the late fall.  This will destroy many of the beetles, for they live in the soil in the winter.  Then a few of the pests can be hand-picked and destroyed.

If they are still too thick, they may be removed next fall for safety to next year’s blooms.  The beetle lays its eggs in the hip of the rose.  These can be seen after the rose is in full bloom as a black spot, covered over with no noticeable depression.  The growing pests leave the old blossom by the middle of September and go into the soil until next spring.

The bush should be examined in the latter part of August for any flower hips containing insect larvae and all found should be plucked and burned.  A few hours’ work will insure a beautifully blooming bush next year.

Annual Report, 1915, Jeffers Trial Station.

DEWAIN COOK, SUPT.

The 1915 apple crop at this station was a complete failure, owing to the freezes of late May and early June.  This apple failure, so far as I have been able to ascertain, was prevalent over the entire county of Cottonwood, although we could hear of plenty of apples being grown only a short distance over the county line in all directions excepting to the west of us.

[Illustration:  A windbreak at Dewain Cook’s, mostly white willow.]

The season has been one of cool weather and much rainfall, so much so that although we had no killing frosts this fall until October 5th, yet no corn or melons ripened in this vicinity.  We quit spraying our fruit trees when the freeze came last spring and destroyed the apple crop, and the result has been that there was much scab on the foliage of many varieties of our apple trees.  The Antonovka and the Hibernal seem to be about the healthiest in this respect.  As to the fire blight there has been absolutely none at this station the season just passed.

As for plums we got a few bushels in the final roundup, De Sotos, Wolfs and Wyants mostly.  Of the Japanese hybrids, we got a few specimens of the B.A.Q.  The Emerald bore freely, but the fruit mostly either was destroyed by the brown rot or cracked badly just as they were getting ripe.  The Tokata, one of Hansen’s hybrids, gave us specimens of very fine fruit.

Of the apricot hybrids only the Hanska made any pretense of trying to bear anything, but the curculio got away with about all of them.

When I made the midsummer report most of Hansen’s sand cherry hybrids were promising a good crop, but with the exception of the Enopa and Kakeppa, from which we gathered a few quarts of fruits, we got nothing.  The brown rot, assisted by the curculio, took them all.  It sure looks as if we ever expect to make a general success with these sand cherry hybrids and with the Japanese hybrids, we will have to be better educated along the line of controlling this disease that is so very destructive to the fruit of some varieties of plums, especially of those varieties that have sand cherry or Japanese blood in them.