124 ANNUAL KEPORT 



Through a process of grouping together such varieties as pos- 

 sess the most desirable points, giving good cultivation, or using 

 tame stocks to graft upon, and planting the seeds from fruits so 

 produced, I believe they will soon break from the original type 

 and give us new forms, and after the first positive variation is 

 secured the field of operation for improvement will be limited 

 only by the intelligence and preservance used in its occupation. 

 With the cultivation of seedlings from selections of the best, we 

 hope to secure firmness of flesh and shipping qualities that will 

 place them beside prunes and apricots, and that they may even 

 lead these as a fruit of commerce. I also believe that by hybrid- 

 izing with some varieties of the domestic plum, we would quickly 

 secure a valuable fruit. 



Those who seek to bring about imjDrovements should work 

 towards certain points, and never lose sight of them in their 

 manipulations and crossings. The most desirable points are to 

 increase the size of fruit and solidity of flesh; lengthen the keep- 

 ing qualities; eradicate acridity or unpleasant after-tastes and re- 

 tain high and distinct colors. A few varieties have already 

 gained more than a local reputation for their good qualities and 

 are proving worthy of a general cultivation. Of such are the 

 I^ Soto, "Weaver, Forest Garden, Rollingstone, alid, best of all, 

 the Cheney; but I believe there are some yet to be found in their 

 native haunts that may surpass even the best of these. They can 

 not be looked after too soon. In the older parts of this state the 

 clearing "up of thickets and the i^asturage of fields has proved so 

 destructive that some of the best varieties of thirty years ago 

 are extinct. 



A report from the Committee on Evergreens being called for, 

 Mr. Brand read the following paper: 



EVERGREENS. 



By 0. F. Brand, Faribaiat. 



Next to the growing of fruit, and among farmers we might 

 say, as a requisite of, and inseparably connected with fruitgrow- 

 ing, is the growing of evergreens. A lengthy article might be 

 written about the value of evergreens and especially of pines as 

 regards the amelioration of climate, by rendering the atmosphere 

 more healthful and the earth's surface more suitable for the home 



