114 ANNUAL REPORT 



I had^some trees taken away by a cyclone, but the most of my 

 trees have failed as well as the fruit. I had cultivated trees in 

 nursery rows and sold many hundreds from them and have 

 planted hundreds of trees and fruited some of them; but they 

 have all disappeared. We don't try in my neighborhood to 

 waste a bit of effort any more in this direction. 



Now, that is my experience. These very best kinds that we 

 set so much store ujion and raised trees from the nursery and 

 fruited in the orchard, after they bore a crop or two the fruit 

 declined in quality the same as with t^he trees procured from the 

 forest and become worthless. Trees also would degenerate. After 

 spending more than twenty years at this work I have come to 

 the conclusion that it would not be my duty to waste time on 

 the wild plum. 



Mr. Brand. Did you ever try cutting off the old trees? 



Mr. Taylor. I would say I have tried the plan of cutting the 

 trees, clear to the ground. A gentleman told me once that I 

 should give my trees rich culture and cut them off close to the 

 ground, and I have tried that. 



Mr. Eeeves. It has been our experience that the best plums 

 are grown on young trees. In the forests they only bear well on 

 young trees. If we want good plums we must plant trees every 

 few years, so as to have plenty of fruit from young trees, and 

 cut away the old trees. I think our only chance of growing 

 plums is from native sorts. That is our experience in Iowa. In 

 Minnesota, conditions are different, but we must remember that 

 the plum tree as a native is a short-lived tree. 



Mr. Harris. I am sorry that my friend Taylor has gone back 

 on the wild plum, for I have a good deal of faith in it. I think 

 there are three or four varieties that have been brought into 

 cultivation that are giving good satisfaction. The De Soto, 

 which originated thirty or forty miles below where I live, is a 

 good variety. Eecently there have been some wild varieties 

 found in Houston county that resemble it very closely. The 

 plum bears cultivation well. It can be brought into bearing 

 when three or four years old and it has borne immense crops. 

 Old trees in the vicinity where it was first found may still be 

 seen. I have seen a load of plums brought to La Crosse this last 

 season, and I know those trees still bear fine crops of fruit. Some 

 of the trees are ten inches in diameter. 



Mr. Lord found plum trees growing near his place at Minne- 

 sota City, that are seven or eight inches in diameter and that 



