244 



STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



has known. There are large areas of the country in which the common 

 or Domestica plums do not succeed, either because of too great cold, too 

 great heat, or the serious ravages of the shot-hole fungus. In nearly all 

 of these areas there are native varieties which succeed. The natives are 

 inferior in size and flavor to the common plums, but it must be remem- 

 bered that the native plum industry is in its infancy, and that great 

 results should not yet be expected. It is rather a matter of wonder that the 

 present results have been attained with the expenditure of so little effort. 

 The great variation in almost every direction in the existing varieties, and 

 the fact that they spring from three or foui* distinct species, augur well 

 for the future; while the facts that they find ready sale in the markets.* 

 and that many people make their cultivation profitable, are encourage- 

 ments to present effort. 



II. THE CHERRIES. 



1. The Sand oe Dwarf Cherries. — (Figs. 13 and 14). — The dwarf 

 sand cherry has often attracted attention as a meritorious fruit. In 1867, 



A. S. Fuller 

 published an 

 important ac- 

 count of it and 

 recommended 

 its cultivation 

 for fruit. In 

 1889, Professor 

 C. E. Bessey 

 called the at- 

 tention of the American 

 Pomological society to it 

 as "a promising new fruit 

 from the plains" of Ne- 

 braska. ,Tt is only within 

 the last two or three 

 years, however, that the 

 sand cherry has come 

 into actual cultivation for 

 its fruit, although as an 

 ornamental plant it has 

 been sold many years. 

 Professor C. A. Keffer described it last July in a bulletin of the South 

 Dakota experiment station, and a little later Professor Green of Minnesota 

 did the same. Both men have grown it, and have found it to be variable 

 and promising. In South Dakota plants set three years bore heavily the 

 second and third years. The " fruit begins to ripen the first week in 

 August. The cherries on most of the bushes were ripe by August 20, 

 and some few last into September, showing a season of from four to six 

 wseks in a seedling plantation. Classifying roughly according to the fruit, 



*" And as for the Wild Goose plum, it is the best we have here. There have been shipped from here 

 as m£tny as 600 boxes of this variety in a single day, and have sold in the Chicago markets at the enormous 

 price of $2 per one-third-bushel box, or $6 per bushel.— J. R. Logan, Duquoin, III., in Oreeii's Fruit 

 Oroteer.July, 1891. Mr. Kerr sold Wild (jooee readily in 1889 for 6.5 to SO cents for 10-pound baskets: and 

 in 1891 for 40 to 50 cent?. 



Fig. 13. — Sand Cherry (Prunvs pumila). Natural size. 



