64 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



We fruited a good many new varieties of apples the past season for 

 the first time. The fruiting- Russians were mostly early sorts, 

 and their quality averages up much better than I expected. 157M is 

 very tender and of large size; Borovinka resembles the Duchess; 

 fruit more highly colored and does not grow as close to the body of the 

 tree. I also fruited four varieties of Thompson's seedling from the 

 Jewell Nursery. The trees were set the spring of 1891. They all 

 seem to be winter apples and of good quality. I am particularly 

 pleased with the Grundy; the tree was loaded with very large and 

 fine looking apples of best quality. 



We had some blight in our orchard the latter part of summer; it 

 affected the Yellow Transparent, Early Strawberry, Malinda, Charl- 

 amoff and some sprouts of the Transcendents that had come from 

 trees that had died some three years previous of blight. A row of 

 unknown varieties of crab trees were struck by blight in August, 

 and during September many of the best trees were killed outright, 

 the blight working mostly in the body of the trees. The rather 

 scrubby trees on the low land were not affected. I shall cut down all 

 trees of that variety. It is conceded by most everybody that apples 

 can be grown in this section. The Haas, Walbridge and Tolman 

 Sweet fruited in this neighborhood; also the Flemish Beauty pear. 



The plum is our hobby, and we fruited several varieties the past 

 season for the first time. The Hawkeye, which I reported in July 

 as bearing heavily, proved to be the Wyant. I am much pleased 

 with this variety and think it should be recommended for general 

 planting by our horticultural society. The Rockford proves to be a 

 fine plum but so far a shy bearer. The New Ulm trees were over- 

 loaded with large plums of fair quality, but the trees are of too 

 sprawling habit to suit my taste. The Ocheeda is a very sweet plum, 

 of medium size, badly stung by curculio and of unattractive 

 color. The Wolf still holds its good reputation; with me the trees 

 show more individuality than do trees of any other variety I am ac- 

 quainted with. The Desota, as usual, bore heavily; I gathered the 

 best of the fruit and sold it early, and after about ten days I gath- 

 ered and sold the culls, which had grown to be much nicer and larger 

 than the Desotas first gathered. We had some good rains early in 

 September which caused most varieties of plums to grow very rap- 

 idly, causing many of them to crack badly. We got no perfect 

 Cheney plums; plum pockets and curculio got away with them — I 

 have but little use for the Cheney plums. The Mankato plum did 

 not fruit. 



I received samples of what promises to be a plum of extraordinary 

 value; they were sent me by the Jewell Nursery Co. They were of 

 very large size and of good quality; what may prove to be of great 

 value is its exceeding earliness. Trees sent me last spring of this 

 variety, which they call the Itasca, grew vigorously until about July 

 Ist and then ceased to grow, resembling in thisrespect the Manitoba 

 plum, thus indicating that its origin was in the far north. On ac- 

 count of its good quality, large size, earliness and apparent hardiness 

 of tree, I predict for this variety a large range of usefulness, not only 

 in good plum growing sections but in the far north where most 

 other varieties would fail. 



