60 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that the roots always are supplied with moisture, which is very nec- 

 cessarj'^ to the production of a crop of fruit, especially in hot and dry 

 seasons. This will last for six years or more. The trees are thus 

 never exhausted but are better able to perform their work, as they 

 always have some moisture in reserve to draw from and are not ex- 

 erted or excited by sudden changes of the weather, but produce a 

 steady and healthy growth. The roots are the main part of the tree, 

 and as long as the soil contains plenty of the elements necessarj'- to 

 the development of the whole tree, together with plenty of moisture, 

 it will give fruit every year. 



I name a few of the varieties of my own growing for home 

 use and for market: Harvest, Marble, Knudson's Peach, Home- 

 stead and City; these are all doing well. The first two named 

 are early and the other two are medium early, of best quality 

 for home use. The City is a seedling of my own, a little later in rip- 

 ening, of large size, and is the only perfect freestone variety I have 

 yet seen. I also have fruited on my place the Weaver, Luedlof's 

 Red, Cheney and Rollingstone, which are all good varieties. The 

 Rollingstone is a very line variety; it has borne very little fruit 

 with me so far, but is loaded with fruit buds and promises a heavy 

 crop another season; perhaps it does better with age. The Cheney 

 is large and very fine and bears every year here with me. Lued- 

 lof's Red, though not of as large size, is a beautiful red color and 

 fine for eating out of hand, and is the best of any so far for jelly. 

 My Peach and Homestead plums are superior to most of these for 

 dessert, canning, etc.; the Cheney is a No. 1 cooking and canning 

 plum; the City plum is a fine inarket variety, also fine for sauce, 

 etc. In fact, all possess more or less merits. I fruited the Desota 

 and the Hawkeye sparingly for the first time last year. 



Jos. Wood of Cottonwood county sent me specimens of his seed- 

 ling plum, called Wood plum, which originated with him. It is a very 

 fine plum in color and texture; the flesh is firm and of a peachy 

 flavor; the skin is easily removed from the flesh; the fruit is large, 

 earlj^; tree productive and an annual bearer. Another plum he 

 called the Blue Victor, which he says is very good in quality when 

 ripe, good for canning, etc., although somewhat small in size. These 

 were not ripe enough to judge of their merits. Mr. D. Cook of same 

 covxnty sent me samples of the Speer plum, which he thinks a good 

 deal of. The Wolf plums he sent me were the finest and largest of that 

 variety I have ever seen. These gentlemen inform me that H. J. 

 Lvxdlow, of Nobles county, grows verj' fine plums; a variety grown by 

 him called Ocheeda, is one of the best, of high quality, with 

 the flavor of the apricot, and the trees produce an abundance of 

 the beautiful fruit. 



Cherries. — Of cherries, I have growing on my place Earlj'- Rich- 

 mond, Montgomery and two or three of the common European 

 sorts, of the Morello type. We have raised some fruit from all of 

 these more or less for several years past, but this last year the least 

 of any, and the little fruit that set was small and poor in quality. The 

 cherry bloom was scant}', and, consequentlj', we could not expect 

 much fruit. Earlj^ in the spring the trees seemed to be well sup- 

 plied with fruit buds, but by blossoming time most of these proved 



