244 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



which will be gratefully appreciated by the whole northwest. I 

 sincerely hope that others will make improvements along the lines 

 suggested or in some way which their individual judgments may 

 lead them to consider the best. 



Mr. Dewain Cook : I have one of those varieties Prof. Pender- 

 gast asks information about. It is the Iowa. It is an early plum, 

 but I do not know that I would recommend it for general cultiva- 

 tion, but it is a very early plum and might be valuable in some 

 places. His list is very long, and I think it would be very profitable 

 to strike out almost all of them. If he would confine himself to 

 three or four varieties it would be more profitable. 



Prof. Pendergast : I meant to say that we intend to drop fifteen 

 to twenty every year. 



Mr. Oliver Gibbs : Down where I was born it was the custom 

 that the man who raised the most beans was entitled to the name of 

 deacon, and if Prof. Pendergast does not look out we will call him 

 our plum deacon. 



Mr. Cowles (S. D.) : He says he wants to cut out fifteen or 

 twenty of those trees, and as he says he has one called the Barns- 

 back, I would recommend him to cut that out. 



Mr. O. M. Lord: I only wish to say that it might be interesting 

 to know that Prof. Pendergast has several varieties that go by differ- 

 ent names that are the same plum. For instance, Mr. Elliot will tell 

 you that the Bender, the Paul Wolf and the Wittman No. 2 are the 

 same thing. 



BREEDING LEGUMINOUS CROPS. 



PROF. W. M. HAYES, ST. ANTHONY PARK. 



There are several reasons why it is not so difficult to keep soils in 

 the northern states well supplied with nitrogenous plant food as 

 in the south. Here the soil is frozen several months each year, 

 stopping the action of those bacterial ferments which destroy and 

 make soluble the organic matter in the soil. The rainfall is not very 

 heavy, and the larger part of our soils now under cultivation being 

 rather dense and retentive of fertilizing materials less 

 fertility is lost by leaching. In the southern states the bacterial 

 action the year around makes soluble the humus content of the soil, 

 and the frequent rains constantly percolating into the subsoil carry 

 away the dissolved fertilizing ingredients. There either nitrogen 

 gathering leguminous crops or nitrogenous fertilizers are a neces- 

 sity that paying crops may be secured ; here the fertility stored up 

 in humus compounds is given out less rapidly, and it is not nec- 

 essary tO' grow leguminous crops so frequently nor to annually ap- 

 ply commercial fertilizers containing nitrogen. On the other hand, 

 our growing season is short, and we need considerable available 



