338 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cedure is the same, but the results are of course quite different. 

 The small potatoes will form in the axils of the leaves nearest 

 the graft and about the graft. — Sec'y. 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF OUR NATIVE PLUM. 



L. P. HIGHBY, ALBERT LEA. 



(So. Minn. Hort. Society.) 



There is no other of our native fruits which is of so much im- 

 portance to this part of the country as the native plum. It has within 

 itself wonderful possibilities. There is perhaps no other fruit which 

 responds more readily to cultivation or to any little attention bestow- 

 ed upon it. It is better in the northwestern states than anywhere 

 else, presumably because of our more open woods. 



It should be understood that the more common of our cultivated 

 varieties are nothing more than productions of nature unassisted by 

 man. Desoto, Mankato, Aitkin, Cheney, Forest Garden and many 

 others have all originated in the woods. There are, however, a num- 

 ber of newer varieties originated under cultivation which undoubt- 

 edly will in some respects prove superior to some of those mentioned. 



Many attempts have been made to cross the native plum with 

 European species, but the results has not been worth the trouble. 

 Far better results have been obtained since the Japanese plum was 

 substituted for the European, and some fruits of great value have 

 been obtained ; but it is very doubtful whether we shall ever be able 

 to grow any of those Japanese hybrids in this state, as they are not 

 as hardy as we must have them. 



The most promising way to pursue in obtaining new and im- 

 proved varieties of plums for this section is undoubtedly by breeding 

 from our best varieties of the Prunus Americanus and perhaps from 

 the hardiest of the Hortulana group. This may be done in a strictly 

 scientific way by removing the anthers in one flower and then ap- 

 plying the pollen from another by hand, and so on. But it is fairly 

 safe to say that this way is not practical with the plum, as it would 

 be an immense work if enough flowers should be pollenized by hand 

 to obtain even a few hundred pits, as one certainly would have to 

 to make the experiment at all. We must here depend upon nature to 

 do the bulk of the work ; but it is our part to improve the conditions 

 of the seed-bearing trees so far as this is in our power. 



We have an abundance of proofs, and some of them within a 

 few miles of Albert Lea, that a plum grove if left to reproduce it- 

 self will develop traits and characteristics of its own. I know of one 

 old grove two miles east of the city where all the trees bear red 



