234 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. C. M. Loring^: This is a matter I have been quite largely 

 interested in from what I have seen clone in California. As you 

 know, I offered a premium a year ago, or I do not know but that 

 it was two years ago. In looking over the premium list I find 

 there is no premium offered for plums. I do not know why the 

 secretary should have left it out, but in order that he shall not do 

 it again I wish to make a deposit in the Farmers' and Mechanics' 

 Savings Bank to remain there until such a plum as comes up to 

 the conditions established by the committee shall have been brought 

 before the society. I know nothing about the quality or size of 

 the plum myself, but it is all in the hands of the committee, and 

 that committee knows what is required to bring it up to the stand- 

 ard. I know very well fhere are hundreds and thousands of dol- 

 lars that go to the Pacific Coast and to California for plums. It 

 does not seem a great many years ago when it was not possible for 

 us to raise enough apples. We have be^n satisfied with picking 

 the native plums, and some are really delicious, and some lose all 

 their astringency with the skin. I am going to leave here a check 

 for $ioo to be deposited with the Farmers' and Mechanics' Sav- 

 ings Bank, and I hope it will not be long before some one will have 

 the right to claim it. (Applause.) 



The Chairman : This is a very delightful and inspiring talk 

 Mr. Loring has given us, and we appreciate the spirit in which it 

 was given, and I believe it will have a great deal to do with bring- 

 ing about the happy day when we shall have a great improvement 

 in hardy plums. 



Prof. Sandsten : We have a good example at Madison on the 

 farm of Mr. Marshall. He has a large orchard of native plums, 

 and he has netted as much as three hundred dollars to the acre 

 nn native plums. They are sold in the Madison market at forty 

 cents a basket, five to the bushel, when ordinary plums or 

 Michigan plums, which are inferior to the native plums for pre- 

 serving and canning purposes, have sold for twenty-five cents. 

 We have established a market at Madison, and you could establish 

 a market in Minneapolis and St. Paul. 



Prof. Hansen : Just one thing in regard to the Surprise plum. 

 If there is anything in heredity, here is an example. Plant the 

 Surprise plum among other plums ; never plant it alone in a block. 

 It is something like the Miner plum so far as that is concerned, 

 it has that trouble of self-sterility and does not bear alone. The 

 further south you plant the ^Nliner plum, the less it will bear unless 

 you mix it up well. 



Mr. W. L. Taylor: \\'hat would you advise planting? 



Prof. Hansen : Any kind that blooms at the same time. 



Mr. O. W. Moore : I think the best method of propagating 

 the native plum is to take a few trees of the very best native 

 plums we have. Select for size, color, quality, thinness of skin 

 and as many freestones as possible, and then plant from eight, ten 

 to a dozen of those trees. Isolate them just as much as you pos- 

 sibly can from any other plum groves, get them out alone some- 

 where, plant them so they can fertilize one another; plant them 



