SUMMER MEETING, I907. 313 



A feature of special interest in connection witii the fruit ex- 

 hibit was the showing of seedling fruits made by Prof. N. E. Han- 

 sen, of his own origination at the Experiment Station in South 

 Dakota, where he is conducting on a large scale a work which prom- 

 ises to yield very Valuable results to the fruit growing interests 

 of the Northwest, to say the least. To. use his own language, he 

 "exhibited twenty-eight varieties of his hybrid strawberry seedlings ; 

 some of them hybrids of the wild strawberry of the Dakotas and 

 Manitoba with cultivated varieties, others derivative or secondary 

 hybrids of these with cultivated varieties, thus making them three- 

 fourths wild and one-fourth tame. All of these are grown without 

 winter mulch of any kind and are representatives of over 8.000 

 cross-bred seedlings produced at this station. Some of these are 

 of size sufficient for market, others are too small to be of value ex- 

 cept for further work. Fruit was also shown of the South Dakota 

 No. 7, a new and promising hybrid fruit produced by crossing the 

 native Sioux Indian sand cherry with pollen of Prunus simoni, an 

 apricot plum from China. This fruit shown was one and three- 

 eighths inches in diameter, flattened like its Chinese parent. The pit 

 is very small. Last year it bore for the first time on one year old 

 trees in the nursery. In season it showed itself last year to be very 

 early. The present specimens were grown under glass." 



It was something of a disappointment undoubtedly that the extra- 

 ordinary number of entries, six hundred forty-five, delayed the work 

 of the judges so that the strawberries were not passed upon until 

 too late to be served at the first table, and indeed had it been other- 

 wise there would not have been enough to go around. We do not 

 expect this situation to occur again. 



After the lunch had been cleared away and seats arranged for 

 the audience an impromptu meeting was held amfdst these attractive 

 surroundings, continuing from two o'clock until half past four, dur- 

 ing which period a number of representative horticulturists occupied 

 the floor and gave time to the amusement and entertainment of the 

 audience or dealt out to them words of wisdom and experience, all 

 very much to their pleasure or profit. 



Prof. N. E. Hansen spoke first briefly of his third trip to northern 

 Russia, Finland and Siberia. The space allotted for this report is 

 too brief to more than refer to this interesting address. He exhibited 

 also at that time the new fruits referred to elsewhere in this report 

 and talked about them, answering questions as to their origin and 

 ir.ethods of propagation. 



