TRANSACTIONS IIOUTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ll.L. 41;') 



Stamens and on others the pistils are wanting — and only under certain 

 favorable conditions will the flowers be fertilized. He knows one orchard 

 on the west of Peoria lake, where the lake is generally five miles wide 

 at time the Bellflowers are in bloom, in which the trees bear well. 

 Second, the bloom is usually so profuse that the fertilizing power is 

 weakened. 



DISCUSSION ON PLUMS. 

 MINER. 



Mr. Cochran stated that, eight years ago, he procured Miner and 

 also Wild Goose plum trees from Mr. Miner himself, and had no fruit 

 from either. He wished to know of the success of others with the Miner. 



Mr. McWhorter — I procured trees from D. W. Scott, of Galena, 

 which bore young, and have continued to bear well. When an apple 

 tree dies in my orchard, I do not i)lant another in the place, as trees so 

 planted are not likely to do well ; but I plant a Miner plum tree there, 

 and am successful. The fruit is large and of fair quality, though not 

 first-rate. 



Mr. Watrous has seen Miner trees, near Galena, thirty-five years 

 old, with trunks four feet in circumference, two feet from the ground. 

 As a general rule, he says, this tree does not bear young, and is not 

 always successful on low or flat lands; but on high lands it is satisfactory. 



Mr. Crow — Seven years ago I planted two trees, which have grown 

 finely, but produced no fruit till the last season, when I had two specimens 

 of a good variety of wild plum. 



Mr. Wier — I procured one hundred and twenty-five so-called Miner 

 plum trees, from Mr. Barlow, of Wisconsin, and they began to bear a 

 little fruit when quite young, and have continued to give a little from 

 year to year since; but three years ago I saw fruit of the "Hinckley," 

 from Mr. Scott, which is claimed to be another name for the Miner, and 

 the fruit was entirely dissimilar. The Hinckley is large, a little oblong; 

 color, a dark crimson, somewhat mottled. 



I am confident Mr. Cochran's Wild Goose trees are spurious, as the 

 true Wild Goose bears young. 



L. K. ScoFiELD (of Freeport) — The Miner trees have been profitable 

 to me. Trees planted five years ago have borne, but not as well as some 

 older trees near by. These are eight to ten inches in diameter of trunk, 

 and spread twenty feet. The fruit, with the skins taken off, and cooked 

 or canned, is first-rate. The trees are sadly mixed, many ])ersons having 

 spurious ones. 



