364 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



thick sod of stout perennial grasses. Young- trees will not grow on 

 the same ground with the several species of western quack-grass, 

 such as Agropyrum repens and Agropyrum tenerum. Our trees 

 must be cultivated for a long time, inuch longer than has usually 

 been advised. I admit that this calls for work; but no good thing 

 comes in this world without work. « 



THE SAND CHERRY. 



A DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Clarence Wedge: I have some plums and stocks I 

 would like to show in which the members might be interested. 

 Mr. Pearce spoke about grafting the peach on the plum, the 

 native plum. I have tried the experiment at my place of prop- 

 agating the peach on the sand cherry. (Mr. Wedge illustrated 

 his remarks with a sample tree showing the graft). You will 

 notice here the union; these were all one year trees. I grew 

 some fifty trees this style. If you will cut down, you will find 

 the union is absolutely perfect, and the stock seems to have 

 kept up with the top. One point I thought was in favor of this 

 stock was the ease with which it could be thrown to the ground. 

 The plum roots are stiff, also peach roots, but the sand cherry 

 is pliable and inclined to grow surface roots; but I thought the 

 most surprising thing of all was the union it was possible to 

 obtain between such totally unlike species, and the peach is 

 one of the most rapid growing of our stone fruits. Here I 

 have with me a specimen of a two year old tree of the Compass 

 cherry that attracted my attention, which was originated by 

 Mr. Knudson, of Springfield. This little tree of this age bore 

 quite a crop on my grounds. It certainly is very astonishing 

 to see a tree bear a heavy crop the second year of its growth. 

 As I stated in my paper, the fruit is absolutely free from any 

 astringency, quite tart and acid, a little too much so for my 

 taste. 



Pres. Underwood: I have a sample of them out in the other 

 room kept m cold storage. 



Mr. Wedge: If any of you are interested in talking on this 

 subject, you can do so after we adjourn. This probably next 

 year would have been a perfect mass of fruit. 



Mr. Philips, (Wisconsin): It is called the Compass cherry; 

 by some called the Compass plum. 



Mr. Wedge: It was originally named by Mr. Knudson. It is 

 really a plum, because the sand cherry is rather more like a 

 plum than a cherry. 



