306 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



farm crop; a lot of rooted plants are cut into sections, which are sowed and 

 harrowed in, in the usual manner of faim-sowed crops; usually with a favor- 

 able result. 



Little seems to be known respecting the status of cranberry culture in Min- 

 nesota, beyond the fact that the fruit is indigenous and abundant in its wild 

 state, and that a very considerable amount is supplied to commerce. 



That it is less abundant in the wild state in Dakota and Montana can 

 scarcely be chargeable to unfavorable climate, but rather to a lack of the 

 peculiar conditions of soil and moisture indispensable to the growth and pros- 

 perity of the plant. 



Mr. E. Reeves, of Waverly, Iowa, in a report to the State Horticultural 

 Society for 1886, page 152, says, "The Highland cranberry ( Viburmtm opulus) 

 is not grown as much as it should be. It is a native of our part of the state 

 and is perfectly hardy. It does best on a moist soil, is readily grown from 

 cuttings, and bears good crops of fruit, nearly equal to that found in the 

 markets." 



The plant is indigenous as far north as British America, but is usually 

 accounted but a poor substitute for that already described. This fruit, how- 

 ever, seems quite unlikely to become a competitor of the ordinary cranberry. 



THE APEICOT. 



The apricot {Prunus Armeniaca), is reputed to be a native of Armenia, and 

 to have been brought into southern Europe in the time of Alexander the 

 Great. 



Seeds of a species (or variety?) differing, at least in hardiness, fiom the 

 varieties of southern Europe were brought to this country from southern 

 Kussia by the Mennonites some years since. These have been generally repro- 

 duced in this country, and considerably disseminated as seedlings, which are 

 found to vary grtatly in quality. More recently some western nurserymen 

 have made selections from the best of these and have undertaken their propa- 

 gation. 



The apricot has hitherto proved to be so uncertain a fruit at the north, 

 that a variety of even tolerable quality, that shall prove successful north of 

 the middle states, will no doubt be welcomed as an acquisition. It must, how- 

 ever, be admitted that the question of the value of this new introduction any- 

 where in this country, or for any purpose, is yet to be decided; while it can 

 scarcely be hoped that it will succeed north of central Iowa, and possibly some 

 portion of southern Michigan, Avhere in favorable situations the more common 

 varieties of this fruit tail more especially on account of very early blooming. 



Professor Budd, of Iowa (who is by some persons thought to be occasionally 

 excessively enthusiastic resjiecting the prospective value of Russian fruits). 

 Bays in a bulletin of 1885: 



We find not in Russia, liowever, any varieties of the apricot equal to their best plums. 

 We beheve the best apricdts of tlie world, for our cliuiate, are to be found in north 

 Bokhara ; nd northwest Cliina, 'addin<^] We are sending; out for trial plantsof a variety 

 from the hill country northwest of Pt-kin, China, which seema special!}' promising for 

 the jmrts of the west, south of the forty -first parallel. 



Among those thus named, propagated, and catalogued are the following six 

 varieties introduced by Carpenter »& Gage, of Nebraska: Alexander, Alexis, 

 Budd, Catharine, Gihb, and Nicholas. 



