206 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



slight in degree as to be unnoticed and looked upon as altogether 

 wanting, should be carefully sought out and taken into the account 

 when propagating. The desirable qualities sought will, after a 

 while, occasionally appear so distinctly as to be readily distinguished, 

 but their presence will at first be uncertain and sporadic. 



From this time on the advance will be more rapid. The origi- 

 nal wild type, fixed by a thousand generations, grown under simi- 

 lar circumstances and with the same environments, will be broken. 

 Instead of coming true from seed there will be a great variety in 

 the seedling plants, and the opportunities for originating the de- 

 sired variety will be very much increased. 



In the case of the sand cherry a great start has been made by 

 natural selection. Now much can be effected by crossing the most 

 satisfactory kinds, using good judgment and pains-taking skill in 

 making the most promising combinations and performing the neces- 

 sary operations. 



So much by way of introduction to the matter which I ha 1 in 

 mind in writing this article, viz., the development of the native 

 cherry into one of the most desirable of all fruits, the Xo. i cherry. 

 To begin with, it already possesses some of the essential requisites 

 to successful cultivation in this exacting climate, and these are of 

 the first importance : 



1. It is a fine, vigorous grower. 



2. Neither the parching heat of summer nor the protracted 

 frosts of winter injure it. 



3. It is an early and abundant bearer. 



4. Its enemies are very few. and it has proved its ability to 

 fight its way against them all. 



5. The flavor is better and the fruit larger than is the case 

 with most other wild cherries. 



6. The type already shows considerable variation, the fruit of 

 some bushes, notably the Rocky Mountain, being much larger, more 

 juicy and palatable than that of others in the same garden, showing 

 that the process of melioration has already commenced, and that this 

 variety will readily yield to the artist who lays his guiding hand 

 upon it for the purpose of shaping its future to correspond with his 

 ideal. 



To undertake to change the common buffalo berry over into a 

 large, luscious, marketable fruit would prove a more difficult task. 

 Here one finds a type so fixed and rigid that many generations 

 would pass before arriving at a point already reached by the variety 

 under consideration, which now needs improvement along three 

 lines only to make it one of our most popular, and deservedly popu- 



