32 MINNEAPOLIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



NORTHEASTERN IOWA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 

 ANNUAL MELTING, 1898. 



J. C. HAWKINS, AUSTIN, DELEGATE. 



Your delegate to the Northeastern Iowa Society meeting', owing 

 to delays at Creeco and Calmer, Iowa, did not arrive at McGregor 

 until late Tuesday evening, Nov. 19th. He found all the leading 

 horticulturists of northeast Iowa assembled at society headquarters 

 at the Ryan House — and quite indignant over a misunderstanding 

 as to the society's occupying the new opera house Tuesday after- 

 noon and evening. 



The society had held an informal meeting that afternoon in the 

 hotel parlor, and received the reports from the district directors. 

 The reports were very flattering, and especially in the northeast 

 district the fruit was of good quality — above the average. 



In the fourth district, W. H. Guilford reports great strides along 

 all lines of fruit, especially cherries, pears, peaches and plums. 

 Peaches were quite plenty. He had fifty bushels sold at $1.00 per 

 bushel in Dubuque. Hawkeye is a very large, fine plum. He put 

 them on the market in the same kind of package and at the same 

 price as the California plums. The dealer was afraid they would 

 not sell, yet they did, and in a few days he was making inquiries 

 for more of them, and could sell them at a higher price than the 

 California plum. Mr. Guilford named the following list as the very 

 best for his district: Forest Garden, Wolf, Hawkeye, Rollingstone 

 and Wyant. 



Mr. G. A. Ivens, of Iowa Falls, recommends the Stoddard as a 

 .very tine plum and one of the best for market: also the Old Comfort. 

 Mr. Iveas has a German prune that he thinks very favorably of; it 

 is a free stone. One of the German settlers brought the seed from 

 Europe some years ago, and it is doing so well that quite a sprink- 

 ling of the trees are being scattered over the county. The sprouts 

 or shoots from the roots bear the same as the parent, and are eagerly 

 sought after by the neighbors. Some farmers had bushels of them 

 lying in the warm autumn sun to dry for winter use. Mr. Ivens 

 thinks he has a cure for black-knot. He cuts them out with a chisel 

 or gouge and paints the wound with red lead. 



"What to Plant in a Plum Orchard'— Dr. A. B. Dennis, Cedar 

 Rapids. He has 2,000 plum trees fruiting. The pure Ameri- 

 cana are superior to all others. He has over 300 in cultivation of 

 the native varieties, and would not recommend any other for plant- 

 ing. 



We soon learned that the leading questions for the consideration 

 of this society were marketing fruit and cold storage. The first was 

 a very difficult question, and the conclusions unsatisfactory. 



Mr. George J. Kellogg, of Janesville, Wis., was there to get all the 

 information he could on cold storage. If we could carrysuch varie- 

 ties as the Wealthy, Haas, Utter and Plumb Cider, that would in 

 great part solve the market question. Duchess was a failure with 

 him in cold storage, as it would break down and rot inside of a 



