Who would have thought it possible that in spite of all the frost and cold rains we would get a pretty good crop of cherries?  And yet this is a fact.  We have four varieties, and among them is one originated by the late Clem.  Schmidt, of Springfield, Minn., which was bearing a good crop of very fine cherries while the three other sorts did not do a thing.  To get ahead of the many birds we picked the cherries a few days before they were ripe and put them up in thirty-two half-gallon jars.  As the cherries become very soft when dead-ripe, it was of advantage to can them when they were still hard.  These canned cherries are meaty and most delicious.  We never tasted any better.  It is only a pity that this seedling cherry is not quite hardy.

As most everywhere in the state, our grapes were a complete failure.  The early growth with its good showing of fruit having been frozen in May, it was well toward the end of June when the vines had recovered from the shock and were able to grow vigorously again.  There were a few grapes on some of the vines, but they never got ripe.  The Alpha showed the most fruit, and a few bunches were just about getting ripe when the frost spoiled them.  This May freeze was more severe than we thought it was.  The wood of the old vines was not injured, but the one year old wood of young plants was killed to the ground.  The lesson we learned from this is very important.  It may be stated that vines full of sap and in growing condition can endure very little cold, but when the wood is ripe and dormant the vines will seldom be injured by sub-zero weather.  This injury to vines from frost might have been averted at least in part by precautionary measures.  In other countries people start smoldering fires, making much smoke in the vineyard so that the whole is covered with a cloud of smoke.  This raises the temperature a few degrees and keeps the frost out.  Such preventive means might have been used here very well to save the grapes, but it was not done.

Our currants were not very good; they ripened unevenly and showed that they, too, were touched by frost.  A few bushes were also attacked by the currant worm.

We never cultivated any raspberries before.  But last year we planted Raspberry No. 8, sent to us from the Fruit-Breeding Farm.  This sort is a very vigorous grower; some canes grew over six feet high.  It fruited this year; it is very prolific; the fruit is very large and of good quality.  It would be quite satisfactory if it were a little hardier.  Not being protected more than half of the plants were lost last winter.