398 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



but the fruit is small and the trees generally scrubby in appearance. 

 The Aitkin plum is the best plum that has been tried here, it be- 

 ing adapted to this section on accoaint of its extreme earliness. 

 Pyrus baccata is doing well here and bearing lots of fruit this year. 

 While the fruit is small, yet it is regarded as being valuable for 

 preserving. The trees are probably ten years old. The Box Elder 

 hedges not onl}^ protect most of the farm but form the borders of 

 the drives, which are generally about twenty feet wide. As these 

 are kept well pruned they form an exceedingly ornamental feature. 

 At the entrance of some of the drives the box elder grows together 

 over head so as to form an archway perhaps fourteen feet high. 

 In front of the house is a very nice flov/er garden well laid out and 

 cared for. The dahlias were doing especially well and all the cold 

 climate annuals. A. border of white and yellow Eschscholtzia was 

 especially fine. 



This year they have had about ten inches of rain fall, but or- 

 dinarily they do not have more than seven inches. Mr. McKay 

 says that with five inches of rain fall he feels sure of a crop, and 

 it is about as much as he wants. In a coolie near by, which was 

 perhaps thirty feet below the level of the surrounding country, were 

 growing large quantities of Saskatoon berries. This is a form of 

 our common Jimeberry but is quite a little different in form and 

 quality of fruit and general appearance of the plant, so much so 

 that I think it quite likely a separate species. The fruit has more 

 rich quality to it than our Juneberry and is used in considerable 

 quantities by the settlers. In former years it formed a very con- 

 siderable portion of the diet of the Indians. They were dried and 

 used with pemmican. 



The grain crops in this vicinity are generally good this year. 

 The farmers here are generally prosperous and spend their winters 

 in Ottawa. Land is quite valuable, and some sections near Indian 

 Head have sold as high as $25 per acre. The government has made 

 an effort to introduce dairying into this section and built creameries 

 at Indian Head and other places. At Indian Head, at one time, 

 about 500 cows were kept, but successive good crops of wheat which 

 have sold at high prices have eclipsed the development of this in- 

 dustrv, so that now the creamerv here is idle. 



