BEST THREE PLUMS OF MINNESOTA ORIGIN. 65 
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season just before the Desota. This we recognize as one of the best 
of our Minnesota plums. 
Then again there is the Ocheeda,a large round, yellow and red 
plum, with thin skin,firm flesh and ofexcellent quality; an excellent 
variety but not very well known. 
Last, and best of all, we come to the Aitkin, one of the latest aspir- 
ants for public favor. We owe the discovery of this grand new 
plum to Mr. D.C. Haselton, of Aitkin, Minn. Many of you know its 
origin, but for the benefit of those who do not I will say that Mr. 
Haselton, while engaged in clearing a piece of land adjoining his 
fruit farm, discovered a plum tree bearing fruit of very large size 
and excellent quality. He was so impressed with it, that he began 
propagating them for hisown use. When he came to market the 
fruit, he found such a demand for it that he was thoroughly con- 
vinced of its value. Samples of the variety have been placed in the 
hands of many of the horticulturists of this and other states, and 
at the experiment stations of all the northwestern states, and the 
reports received from them would indicate that it is the best plum 
for northwestern planters yet discovered. Prof. Goff, of the Wiscon- 
sin State Experiment Station, describes it as follows: “A greenish 
yellow ground, turning to a brilliant red, becoming fully ripe, a 
darkred. The fruit is oval, slightly truncated at both ends, and a 
little paler on the shade side; cavity small and regular. Flesh rich, 
yellow, tender, juicy and sweet; stone large, but remarkably thin: 
a free stone, and can be pared and served with cream, etc., peels 
readily when ripe;a prolific and regular bearer and for cnlinary 
purposes can not be excelled. The fact that this plum stands the 
extreme cold of latitude 4644 degrees north without injury, that it 
ripens very early and bears extra large fruit of uniform size and 
brilliant color makes it the most desirable of our native plums.” 
The Aitkin plum is without question the earliest plum known. On 
the 9th of August we picked the first ripe plum from the Aitkin 
trees. Had we had a frost that would have injured other varieties 
of plums prior to the 9th of August, the only plum we would have 
had would have been the Aitkin. 
A VALUABLE NEW GRAPE.—The Orange Judd Farmer says: 
“Barly in September we received from H. G. McPike, of Lllinois, a 
_ few bunches of black grapes, the beautiful appearance and excellent 
quality of which impressed us so favorably that we had a photo- 
graph taken of one of them. This new variety has appropriately 
been named “McPike,” in honor of its originator, who after thirty 
years of careful and intelligent experimentation succeeded in rais- 
ing this seedling, which in some respects is superior to any existing 
variety. Itis a seedling of the Worden, which it resembles some- 
whatin general appearauce, but its berries are much larger, meas- 
uring from three to three and one-half inches in circumference, are 
of decidedly better quality than either Concord or Worden, have 
fewer seeds, and these separate easily from the pulp. The bunches 
ripen evenly without having ripe and green berries at the same 
time. The original vine is seven years old, its fruit commencing to 
color the latter part of July. The foliage is very large, the wood 
shorter jointed than Worden, and the entire vine is remarkably 
hardy and vigorous. 
