502 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Norway spruce. The trees of Norway spruce grown from German 

 seed have the terminal buds frozen and the foliage reddened in 

 winter, while the Russian form ia perfectly hardy and far superior 

 for ornatnental planting or for timber. 



It is time that planters in the severer sections of the northwest 

 should look to obtaining the hardiest known form of all species of 

 timber trees. Northern tree seed for northern planters should be 

 the rule. 



Edible Russian Olive.— At the Royal Horticultural School at 

 Potsdam, near Berlin, I found a tree of the wild olive {Elseagnua 

 angusti folia) with edible fruit over an inch long. It was the only 

 tree of the kind in Europe. It was brought by the director of the 

 school, Dr. Karl Koopman, from Margelan, in central Asia, north 

 of Turkestan and west of China. A few scions were imported and 

 the grafts are now growing on the grounds of the Iowa Agricultural 

 College. If it proves as hardy in the northwest as the typical Rus- 

 sian wild olive, it will be an acquisition. 



Rosa Rugosa Hybrids — The experiments at the Iowa Agricultural 

 College, by Professor Budd and the writer, in hybridizing this iron 

 clad Russian rose with the best cultivated varieties, have already 

 been described in this report. I am pleased to report that two rose 

 specialists in Germany and Russia have been experimenting in this 

 same line. At Erfurt, Germany, I found and obtained some of these 

 as yet undisseminated. Some bloomed the past season and are very 

 promising. None, however, were superior to some obtained at the 

 Iowa Agricultural College, one of which showed sixty-six petals — a 

 beautiful, double, dark crimson rose. It appears that from this 

 Russian species will soon come an abundance of hardy double roses 

 for the northwest. 



Seed Selectioa.— The greatest seed farms in Europe are at Erfurt 

 and Quedlingburg, Germany, where hundreds of acres of flower and 

 garden seeds are grown for shipment to all parts of the world. I 

 saw great fields of German asters in full blossom. The careful work 

 of seed selection, and "rogtieing," or destruction of inferior plants, 

 was being carried on. The perfect plants are marked by a fibre of 

 raffia; this seed is saved for home use the next year. The vivid col- 

 ors make it impossible for fhe experts to work at this careful selec. 

 tion all day long. It was very interesting to watch this careful 

 method of selection, inasmuch aa all our improved varieties of 

 flowers and vegetables have been developed and imbroved in this 

 manner. It suggests the thought that some of our wild species of 

 flowers and vegetables may and should be developed in like manner 



Columbian Raspberry.— We have fruited this raspberry at our 

 Burlington fruit experiment station, during the present season. 

 The writer visited the plantation there on the 15th of July, and found 

 the Shaffer and Columbian fruiting side by side. The cliief note 

 made was that Columbian was the most heavily laden with fruit; 

 otherwise they were very similar. — Canadian Horticulturist. 



