HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 113 



The only way to change that is by hybridization and proi^agat- 

 ing a new generation. 



Col. Stevens. You can improve the size by cultivation. 



President Elliot, l^ot very much. 



Col. Stevens. You can make them two weeks earlier. 



Mr. Harris. Mr. Lord has some plums that he claims he has 

 improved, making them somewhat larger and the flesh firmer. 



Mr. Underwood. Mr. Taylor has had sOme experience with 

 plums and I should like to hear from him. 



Mr. Taylor. I am always interested when I hear the subject 

 of wild plums discussed. ' We come here for the purpose of 

 searching for the truth; that kind of truth that will be of some 

 profit to us and that we can use, after we return, to our benefit. 

 Perhaps I can not do better than to give you my own experi- 

 ence. 



In 1864 or 1865 I became possessed with the idea that by mak- 

 ing the cultivation and improving of wild plums a specialty I 

 could do good in the community and also make it profitable. I 

 presented my ideas to Dr. Jewell, who was an experienced hor- 

 ticulturist at the time, and he cordially approved of the idea 

 that I should concentrate my efforts in that fruit line. Well, I 

 proceeded in this way. I did not make any effort to improve 

 varieties by hybridization, but went to searching for superior 

 varieties. I selected and crossed more than one hundred and 

 fifty varieties of the wild plum that I fruited. I collected var- 

 ieties from every state in the United States, where they grew. 

 But about the time that I was very enthusiastic on the subject I 

 met a gentleman, a horticulturist from Michigan, at Lime Springs, 

 la., and when he found what I was doing he told me to go home 

 and not to waste any labor in this direction at all; that in Mich- 

 igan where he lived wild plums were very abundant, but that as 

 civilization advanced they disappeared. He said the same 



would be the result here. 



I.. 



I got many superior varieties of course and had plenty of trees 

 to practice upon. I top-grafted a good deal. But I will say 

 here I didn' t waste much time with them and I have no/aith in 

 the wild plum. In my neighborhood there were hundreds of 

 varieties of very superior fruit down to as bad as those Col. 

 Stevens has depicted, which were very abundant. But the most of 

 them have disappeared; you can't find a peck of wild plums 

 worth anything, and yet years ago they were abundant. 



Vol. lY— 15. 



