46 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The seedling orchard has produced a few fruits, but nothing 

 of any consequence. This seedling orchard, it should be remem- 

 bered, is grown from seed of our most promising hardy varieties, 

 and but few of the trees are old enough to produce fruit. 



It is our intention to work up stocks of those varieties of plants 

 that are new and not as yet offered by the general nurserymen, pro- 

 vided they have some qualities that recommend them for planting. 

 Carrying out this idea, we have grown several thousand seedlings 

 of Acer ginnala and of its parent, Acer tartarica. Seedlings have 

 also been raised of the common thorn apple, sheepberry, Russian 

 olive, wahoo, Pyrus baccata, high-bush cranberry and the Japanese 

 lilac. About 400 seedlings of the Beta grape have also been raised. 

 At the suggestion of some of the members of the horticultural so- 

 ciety, this department bought all the seedlings which Mr. Peter M. 

 Gideon had at his experiment station at the time of his death, some- 

 thing over a year ago. These consisted of about 2,100 plants. 

 About 1,000 of these were used as premiums for the horticultural 

 society members, and the other 1,100 were planted on the grounds 

 here for trial. 



Several years ago Mr. Wyman Elliot sent to the Experiment 

 Station a small package of high-bush cranberries, which he selected 

 from the plants that had borne most heavily in the vicinity of Lake 

 Minnetonka that summer. From these about sixty good plants 

 were raised. They fruited to a small extent in 1899, and this year 

 bore a heavy crop, producing the largest fruit that I have ever seen. 

 We shall continue this method of selection and planting, to see what 

 may be developed from it. 



A new line that has been undertaken the past year has been the 

 planting out of samples of hedge plants. In this planting about 

 twenty-seven kinds have been used, including both evergreen and 

 deciduous trees. Most of these have started well and will soon be- 

 gin to make a good showing, and I think we may expect interesting 

 results from them. 



Among the trees and shrubs that have been recently introduced, 

 .and are attracting attention on our grounds on account of their de- 

 sirability, may be mentioned a dwarf prunus from Japan, which has 

 a very small, shiny leaf and lies nearly flat on the ground. The Al- 

 pine currant, which I believe I have referred to in a former report, 

 still maintains its reputation for hardiness and fresh green color and 

 good form throughout the summer and late autumn. It seems to 

 be especially desirable for planting along the edges of shrubbery or 

 for a division line between city lots. It readily takes on a pretty 



