282 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE FARMER'S PLUM GROVE. 



O. C. GREGG, LYND, LYON CO. 



The time has been when it was considered that fruit of any de- 

 scription was out of the question upon the ordinary Minnesota 

 farm. A close observer, however, in the early days would have 

 seen signs in nature's growth that would have led him to have 

 doubted such a conclusion. The Red River carts, in their annual 

 trips from the buffalo ranges to St. Paul, frequently had their tires 

 dyed red with the crushed wild strawberries over which they 

 passed. The timbered sections of our state almost always gave 

 shelter to the native plum that in its native growth would excel in 

 flavor the best plum ever produced under garden cultivation, at 

 least so we think; indeed, the improved plum, so called today, re- 

 tains the flavor from the wild condition, and we have but improved 

 its growth and size by cultivation. 



I have become much interested in this matter of fruit for the Min- 

 nesota farmer. Many years of frontier experience, and years of 

 work upon the farm under more favorable conditions, give me to 

 understand quite plainly what is a practical thing for a farmer to 

 undertake and what would be beyond his reach and too difficult 

 to be carried out under farm conditions. Very naturally I study 

 the economy of labor in the growing of those fruits. This will be 

 the strong point in this article which I now write upon the growing 

 of plums upon the farms in Minnesota. 



We first began our grove by going to the native woods at the time 

 the pluins were ripe and selecting the best of those that we found, 

 marking them by t3'ing a string to the branches, and then upon the 

 following spring we took them up and transplanted them to where 

 they now stand. We put out rows about eight feet apart, and they 

 were placed quite thickly in the row, but not so thickly but that we 

 could readily pass between the trunks of the trees. I thought then, 

 and now think, that the plum needs to grow in quite a compact 

 mass. This grove was cultivated during the first year or two and 

 kept free from weeds. I am free to say that at this part of the 

 growth of our plum grove I was doing this much to please my 

 father, who then lived with me, and I did not take as much interest 

 in it as I now do. 



I will here stop to say that if I were to do this work again, I would 

 not go to the woods for the native plum in its wild state, because I 

 have suffered very much from plum pocket in the destruction of our 

 fruit, and I am informed that the Deeota, Forest Garden and other 

 improved plums are not so liable to this sweeping blight. I have 

 been very recently told that we could use this foundation stock of 

 the native plum and top-graft to a great advantage, and I may so do 

 in the immediate future. 



After those trees had been growing a short time, I conceived the 

 idea of taking the old straw from the straw pile in the spring and 

 thoroughly mulching the ground beneath the trees, covering the 

 ground to something like a foot deep with straw. We have done 

 this every year since, and with a degree of success that even has 

 surprised me. The trees have put on a wonderful growth, and they 

 look luxuriant as they stand now in that long hedge, throwing out 



