132 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE NEW HYBRID SAND CHERRY. 



H. KXUDSON, SPRINGFIELD. 



This new fruit, which was originated by me, is a cross (which [ 

 made in the sprinjj^ of 1891) between the saad cherry (Praaus 

 pumila) and the Miner plum. It is botanicall}^ called a cherry. 

 Years ago I received plants of the sand cherry, native to eastern 

 Minnesota, frotn J. S. Harris, and latter on I read an article, written 

 by Prof. J. L. Budd, stating that a cross, no doubt, could be made 

 with it and the tame cherry, which I had imported from Denmark, 

 Europe, in the spring of 1884. The Miner plum I had a year later, 

 and have all these growing in my garden. I had determined to 

 plant some sand cherry pits to see whether there would be any im- 

 provements in that way. I thought of Prof. Budd's article and that 

 I would tr}-- the experiment. I had never done any such work and 

 went at it in a somewhat rude manner. It was in the spring of 1891. 

 I did not remove that part of the blossom which bears the pollen, 

 except upon one blossom, that one being near the ground and cov- 

 ered up with a leaf of the sand cherry. I took whole flowers from 

 the Danish morello cherry and from the Miner plum, being the onlj-- 

 ones to secure pollen from at that time. I applied the pollen of 

 these, both at the same time, to the blossoms of the sand cherry and 

 covered up this blossom on the sand cherry each time with this leaf, 

 which naturally answered the purpose. I did this several times, 

 now and then, after which I left it alone. The other blossoms on the 

 sand cherry bush were not protected. The fruit from this protected 

 blossom when ripe was much larger than the others on the bush, 

 which were mostly carried away by birds, were small and I cared 

 not so much for them. I planted the one I had protected by itself 

 between two sticks, and from it came the hybrid. 



I did not think any more of what I had done till sometime after, in 

 the spring of 1892, when this seedling came up, which reininded me 

 of the crossing work I did in the spring of 1891; and when in 1894 

 this hybrid seedling fruited at three years old from the seed, every- 

 thing showed that the sand cherry had partaken of the pollen from 

 the Miner plum. The tree also fruited again this year (1895), in spite 

 of the heavy freezing in May being the worst we ever had here and 

 which ruined nearly all the other stone fruits I had on ray place, in- 

 cluding the choke cherry, bird cherry, sand cherry, four or five 

 kinds of the tame cherry and many kinds of the native plum. The 

 ■ crop from this, my hybrid sand cherry, exceeded by far that of last 

 year, thus promising to be a productive variety and a sure fruiter, 

 even when others fail, and a valuable tree to plant on this account 

 alone, being so far the hardiest of all the stone fruits and a young 

 and early bearer, and the fruit being the best in quality. The tree 

 is of an upright growth and is, in itself, ornamental. It is some- 

 thing entirely new, distinct and different from anj-^thing known or 

 grown in the fruit line heretofore, a vigorous and healthy grower, 

 and the tree and fruit are, so far, free from insects and disease, in 

 short, free from all objections. It has the best root sj'stem, similar to 

 that of the sand cherry, which it resembles in color of bark, leaf and 



