248 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Cook : Not at all ; the De Soto is a native plum. It does 

 not grow faster than any of our native plums. It might outgrow 

 some of our northern class of Prunus nigra, but it will certainly not 

 outgrow any of our native plums. 



The President : It would be considered a good idea? 



Mr. Cook : Yes, sir, it would. 



Mr. Geo. J. Kellogg (Wis.) : Have you grafted the Burbank 

 on any of the Americana? 



Mr. Cook: I have not, but I have grafted some of the Japan 

 hybrids. 



Mr. Kellogg: Did they overgrow? 



Mr. Cook : Slightly. 



Mr. Kellogg: Did that increase the hardiness? 



Mr. Cook : I cannot tell, I have not had sufficient experience. 



Mr, Kellogg : Will the Japanese hybrids if grafted on our native 

 variety of plum! bear well? 



Mr. O. W. Moore : No, as far as my experience goes they do 

 not ; they simply overgrow. I have a pure Japanese now that bore 

 plums last year that was grafted on native stock. The stock, I 

 should judge, at this time is about two inches through. Above 

 the union the pure Japanese is three to three and one-half inches 

 in diameter at this time. In order to support that top I have to 

 stake it securely ; the top is staked the year round all the time. 

 That is the result of putting a pure Jap on our native. 



Mr. Nils Anderson : The Burbank overgrows the stock alto- 

 gether. 



Mr. C. G. Patten : Would it not be better to trim the plum, say, 

 in March, the fore part of March, than trim it as suggested in July 

 and August? 



Mr. Cook: Perhaps it would be. If my subject had embraced 

 the whole season I would have said early in the spring, but I was 

 confined to July and August. I presume the plums would be too 

 thick, and as farmers usually do not thin their plum trees much 

 I put it in at that time. I think spring would be better, in fact I 

 am sure it would. 



Mr. G. A. Mills : There is Burbank's Circle, would that be hardy 

 here? 



Mr. Cook : I don't think those pure Japs would amount to 

 anything here. 



Mr. J. F. Benjamin : What do you do with the leaf lice on the 

 plum trees? 



Mr. Cook : I have never done anything with them, but kerosene 

 emulsion is the remedy. 



The President: You do not attempt to combat them? 



Mr. Cook : No ; some years they are pretty bad, and some years 

 they disappear. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson : Don't kill the lady bugs, and they will 

 take care of the eggs. 



Mr. Prosser : How are we going to graft so the scion will not 

 overgrow the stock? If the Japanese plum is grafted on the native 

 plum it will outgrow it. 



