HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 115 



bear a very fair crop of fruit wliich sells readily in the market. 

 He has never been called upon to take less than two dollars a 

 bushel for the fruit. 



There is another plum that is cultivated in one or two places. 

 I have exhibited specimens of it, and it is a good canning fruit. 

 It responds well to cultivation. I know of trees that have fur- 

 nished an abundance of fruit for some eighteen years past. It is 

 the largest of jiU plums I know of that have been brought into 

 cultivation. I refer to the Cheney. At our last meeting it was 

 pronounced the best canning plum grown. I believe there are 

 other varieties of great value. I don't expect we can take up 

 everything and improve it. 



Col. Stevens. I wish to say I have a De Soto plum tree in my 

 garden in this city, twenty-two years old, and it bears better 

 every year. All other varieties which I had are dead. This is 

 one which I bought of Mr. Hall when he first introduced them 

 here. 



Mrs. Kennedy. I heard of a gentleman who drove a lot of old 

 rusty nails into the trunks of his trees and he said it seemed to 

 invigorate them with new life and the trees bore abundantly af- 

 terward. He had considerable experience in raising both apples 

 and plums in this state. 



Mr. A.llyn. Mr. President, I would like to say a word on the 

 wild plum question, and would hate to see it run down. We 

 have native trees that are over thirty years old and they bear 

 well every year. Perhaps down at Lake City they have better 

 valrieties, but as the native is a very sensitive tree perhaps it has 

 stepped out and given civilization a chance to come in. 1 have 

 raised the wild varieties very successfully. We have abundance 

 of them and think a great deal of them; and we never failed to 

 get two dollars a bushel for them; we found them growing 

 on the Cannon river some thirty years ago. I would like to 

 hear from others upon this subject. I hope we may be able to 

 keep the plum until we find something better. 



Mrs. Stager. When I first came here about nine years ago I 

 found quite a clump of plum trees as I could tell by the blos- 

 soms. When they fruited I found that they were quite large. I 

 tied strings upon some of the trees that bore the finest fruit and 

 the next spring I had them taken up and set out on our grounds. 

 They have fruited the past two years. I found one very fine 

 plum that was as large as the Weaver which was exhibited at 

 St. Cloud, and they have no bitter taste. I use them for canning. 



