STATE HORTICULTUliAL SOCIETY. 131 



be grown. This place is the home of O. M. Lord, one of the 

 managers of our Society's experimental stations. He is engaged 

 in testing our native plums more extensively and thoroughly 

 than any other party in the State, or perhaps the entire Xorth- 

 west, and is gathering in for the purpose every variety that has 

 gained local notoriety, and planting them side by side with the 

 Eollingstone, a variety he found growing wild upon his farm. 

 Among those that have fruited he has not found any one that 

 surpasses that variety for general purposes, and very few that 

 anywhere near approach it as a dessert fruit. The fruit of this 

 variety is medium large, round, and of a purj)lish red color; flesh 

 more firm than any other variety of natives we have seen, flavor 

 very good; skin thin and nearly tasteless, and when the fruit is 

 thoroughly ripe is easily peeled from the flesh. The fruit will 

 keep longer after ripening and bear shipping further than most 

 of the native plums. The trees are hardy, strong growers, of 

 a lower, more spreading habit, than most of the Canada species. 



His trees fruit annually and come into bearing when very 

 young. "We found a portion of them just ripe, and judged by 

 the appearance that the full crop would mature within two 

 weeks from the date of our visit. He has trees of the Cheney 

 plum — a variety introduced by Mr. Markle, of La Crosse, Wis., 

 — that are looking well. The Cheney proves to be the earliest 

 and largest, and has no superior for canning and preserving, as 

 it is almost free from acidity in skin and pit. Mr. Lord also 

 has the De Soto in fruit, and esteems it very highly; it is a little 

 later in ripening than the Rollingstone. A considerable num- 

 ber of the variety bore some fruit, but this being their first 

 year, and the sefison a very dry one, we do not think it fair to 

 make comparisons, but will say that this season the Weaver is 

 very fine, and being a free-stone variety and a little later than 

 the others, is very desirable. Now we think we have found a 

 good set for the farmer's garden, viz.: Cheney, Eollingstone, De 

 Soto and Weaver, that will afford a continuous supply of fruit 

 for a whole month. We hope yet to find good earlier and later 

 varieties, and that through cultivation and propagating by seed- 

 lings we shall increase the size and improve the texture and 

 keeping qualities of this most delicious and wholesome fruit. 



His apple orchard was nearly annihilated during the winter 

 of 1884-5; nothing but a few trees of Duchess, Wealthy, Early 

 Strawberry, and two or three other Siberians remain. These 

 are all fruiting well this year. Mr. Lord says this is the second 



