, 
406 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The use to which plums can be putin the home are many and 
varied; plum-jelly, plum-marmalade, plum-butter, plum-jam, etc., 
are “jam up good,” but to my notion canned plums are better. 
With the improved varieties the skin peels or strips off easily and 
the varieties that are freestone or practically so are easy to pit so 
they are beautiful to look at, and served as sauce they rival the 
peach, or as a shortcake they rival the strawberry. For eating out 
of hand, plums area favorite with every one, and bya judicious 
selection of varieties a succession of them can be had from August 
1st to November Ist. The*time of ripening will, of course, vary 
according to the soiland location. At our place the past season the 
Aitkin began to ripen August Ist, the Cheney August 22nd, the De- 
sota, August 26th; the Weaver, September Ist; the Hawkeye, Septem- 
ber Ist; the Miner, September 15th—thus covering a period of nearly 
three months. 
As to varieties to plant, consult the list recommended by the 
Minnesota State Horticultural Society or the catalogues of reliable 
nurseries, or the new mentor that has flashed upon our horticultural 
horizon, called “Northern Fruits,’ which I am sure. will be most 
excellent authority. 
I trust that in the few thoughts that I have given I have con- 
vinced you that plums are a valuable fruit and that every one that 
has a place for it will plant this coming spring a plum grove for 
the home. 
FOOTPRINTS IN THE FOREST. 
C. F. GARDNER, OSAGE, IA. 
Having been requested by your executive committee to write an 
essay bearing the above title, giving some of my observations and 
experience with forest trees during the last thirty-eight years on 
the prairie soils of northern Iowa, I shall, in complying with their 
request, try to confine myself to the subject and not burden you 
with extended remarks on the methods adopted and pursued in 
British Burma, Ceylon or China, or the best way to cover the sand 
dunes on the shores of Holland and Denmark with trees. The ex- 
perience in other countries and in other latitudes, while it might be 
interesting to the general reader, would be of little or no value to 
the tree planter in Iowa or Minnesota. 
The first thing impressed on my mind when I came to lowa, was 
that our virgin soil, on the average prairie, in its natural condition, 
was totally unfitted to produce forest trees, either by planting the 
seeds where they were to grow or by transplanting small trees 
directly on the sod. This is true now; there has been no change in 
this respect. 
We found in the process of ordinary farming that it took three 
years to prepare the soil so that it would be in first class condition 
for forest planting. The first year the land was plowed with a 
breaking plow. The second year acrop of small grain was grown, 
harvested, and the land re-plowed in the fall. The third year it was 
planted with some hoed crop, such as corn or potatoes, which were 
