REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 25 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Your committee report that they heartily endorse the recom- 

 mendations of President Wedge : 



1st. Tliat a sum of money not exceedino- $200 be appropriated 

 for the purpose of defraying the expenses of visiting the fruit grow- 

 ers of the state. The same to be expended under the direction of the 

 executive board. 



2nd. That the executive board be instructed to prepare a bill 

 to be presented to the legislature urging the purchase of 160 acres 

 of land suitable for experimental work in horticulture and in con- 

 nection with work and under the direction of the horticultural de- 

 partment of the Minnesota State Experiment Station. 



3rd. That the executive board be directed to provide bronze 

 medals of some suitable design which, together with p'-emiums in 

 plants, shall be given to successful competitors, for essays, by boys 

 and girls under sixteen years of age upon horticultural topics and 

 according to suitable rules governing the same. 



J. M. UNDERWOOD, 

 S. H, DRUM, 

 DEWAIN COOK. 



Committee. 



IMPROVEMENT OF OUR NATIVE PLUMS. 



CHARLES F. GARDNER, OSAGE, IOWA. 



I think it is generally conceded that the best way to improve 

 our plums is to plant the kinds we want to cross in groups or, 

 what is better, top-work the kind that is high in quality on the 

 best hardy stock where it will be surrounded by interlacing 

 branches and the blossoms will be in the best situation to favor 

 cross-pollination. When this scion bears fruit, plant the pits of 

 those plums that are best developed in size, quality and color. 

 When these pits have made trees five years old, or have borne two 

 crops of fruit, again make selection and top-work as before. Con- 

 tinue doing this, always using those trees for stocks that come 

 nearest to your ideal plum. If you secure seedlings with domestic 

 blood in them and they top-kill some hard winter, do not be dis- 

 couraged but cut the tree down close to the ground and grow a 

 new top. I have known the second growth to be much hardier and 

 better than the first. 



Our native plums seem to do better when growing in bush form. 

 While the tree is young I think it best to pinch or cut back the 

 leading branches and not to allow the tree ro grow very high. They 

 seem to respond the best when the soil is kept actually free from 

 grass and weeds by shallow cultivation. After a few crops have 

 been picked cover the ground with a good coating of manure and 

 in the spring remove all that is coarse and would obstruct the cul- 

 tivator. 



