EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 47 



Prest. Lyon: The hardy catalpa is wholly so at South Haven; but while 

 Prof. Bailey says it has been winter-killed at the Agricultural College, I 

 have seen it in Minnesota doing well. 



Prof. Beal: Many things go to determine the question of hardiness of this 

 tree, and one of them is whether the seed was from the north or south. Some 

 catalpas in Lansing are perfectly hardy, and I have seen such in Ann Arbor. 



So, too, I have seen ripe persimmons in a garden in Bath, this State. The 

 condition of hardiness is a variable one. 



PKOPOSED CHANGES IN" LAWS. 



Mr. Garfield said he had become converted to one of Mr. Lyon's views upon 

 this question, that of exemption from taxes of plantations kept for forest 

 purposes. When this matter touches the pockets it will advance quickly. 

 He quoted the recommendations of the state forestry commission: that the 

 law be repealed which provides for collection of forestry statistics by the 

 supervisors, because the cost thereof is large and the return unsatisfactory — 

 the commission to secure such statistics by other means ; that a law be passed 

 prohibiting the setting of fires for clearing land, from April 1 to November 1, 

 each year, except by written permission of the supervisor and notice to own- 

 ers or occupants of adjoining lands — boards of supervisors having power to 

 suspend the law by majority vote; that cheap laods, in one or more locations, 

 be acquired by the state and set apart as a preserve. 



On motion, these recommendations were endorsed by the society, together 

 with a plan of exemption of forest tracts from taxation. 



Mr. Linderman thought much of the northern region of the lower penin- 

 sula might well be exempted, or held as a park as the Adirondacks are now 

 in New York. 



C J. Monroe: It would be best not to include this in our recommendations, 

 judging by what has been said of forestry, in the state legislature, many of 

 that body looking upon the whole subject as purely sentimental. 



Prof. Beal: It was not included in the commission's recommendations 

 because of its many complicating conditions. 



OUR NATIVE PLUMS. 



The secretary read the following paper by Prof. J. L. Budd, of the Iowa 

 Agricultural College, on the above subject : 



Mr. President and Members : 



Your secretary requests me to give some notes on our native plums, as 

 found west of Lake Michigan, and their possible improvement by selection 

 and crossing. That it is a subject worthy of careful consideration, even in 

 Michigan, can not be doubted. While we have no native species of the apple, 

 pear or cherry that promises to give us valuable varieties for cultivation in 

 the near future, I think we can say that we have the best indigenous plums 

 of the temperate zones. 



Nearly every neighborhood has its varieties, having a deserved local reputa- 

 tion, and a few varieties, to which the attention of our horticultural societies 

 have been directed for years, are grown quite extensively in the nurseries and 

 have been planted in commercial orchards over large areas of the prairie 



