400 SECRETARY S CORNER. 



Premiums ox Fruit at the State Fair. — On account of the pressure 

 of work in the office of Sec'y. Randall, of the Minnesota State Fair, it has been 

 found impracticable to get out the copy of the list of awards in the horicul- 

 tural department at the late fair in time for publication in this number. The 

 complete list is promised for the November number. In the meantime the 

 premiums will all have been paid and an opportunity will occur to check 

 up from the list in the November number. 



Fruit for the Winter Meeting.— Are you storing the usual amount 

 of fruit for the exhibit we are so proud of at the annual meeting of the society? 

 Especial effort will have to be made if the exhibit is kept up to its maximum 

 this year, as so many of the exhibitors have less to show than usual. Please 

 note again the premium list, as published in the September Horticulturist in 

 the Secretary's Corner. 



View at the State Fair. — Three unusually fine photographic views 

 of different parts of the horticultural exhibit at the late state fair have come 

 into the office from Mr. H. D. Ayres, the official photographer of the experi- 

 ment station. They are much too good not to be used, and so while only one of 

 the large ones will appear in this number, the other will soon be used, pro- 

 bably as frontispiece of a later issue of our monthly. 



The Ames Pi.dm. — A variety, of which a dozen specimens reached the 

 office Sept. 19, from Mr. O. W. Moore, Spring Valley, Minn., which he calls 

 the Ames plum, is found to be a very excellent fruit. The best specimens 

 measure up to 1 7-16 inches in diameter, dark peach color, freestone, firm 

 texture, sweet and good. If it is curculio proof— and Mr. Moore notes that 

 while he has plenty of curculio at his place he has never found a plum of this 

 variety stung by it— it is a fruit certainly of much merit. 



Hybrid Plum from Grand Meadow.— Mr. C. F. Greening, of Grand' 

 Meadow, sent to the office a number of specimens of a plum which he believes 

 to be a cross between a native plum and a domestic variety that has been 

 growing and fruiting on his place for a number of years. For a Minnesota 

 plum it is of large size, being in the neighborhood of one and three-fourth 

 inches in diameter, peels easily, firm flesh and a fair quality. If the tree 

 proves to be hardy it is likely to be of value in this section. It is from Mr. 

 Greening's place that we expect to secure a quantity of plum seed to be used 

 in growing seedlings, as it is believed that many of these seeds will be crosses 

 similar to that producing the fruit described above, and it is hoped that 

 something good may come out of this experiment. 



Fruit for Storage — should be picked while yet firm, as fruit that has 

 advanced to a stage of ripeness to be best for eating will almost invariably 

 "break down," and even if it looks well when taken out will be decayed at 

 the core. Some growers of high quality fruit pick their orchards more than 

 once, gathering the fruit as soon as it is well colored, leaving the poorly 

 colored and immature fruits until they have become well colored. Unless this 

 is done some fruit will fail to grade number one for this cause, but each growf s 

 must decide whether or not such a course will pay. 



