128 ANNUAL REPORT 



round ovate, color red, skin thin, quality fairly good. Season 15th 

 to 20th of August. Valuable on account of earliness. Aug. 24th 

 he sent me samples of the Meadow plum and Marble plum. They 

 were delayed in the mail and arrived in poor order. They are of full 

 medium size and of fine appearance. About Sept. 1st I received 

 samples of the Peach and Homestead plums. These were without 

 exception the finest dessert plums that have come to my notice. 

 The Peach plum is large, nearly round, color deep red, the skin is 

 thin and peels from the flesh, which is of good consistency, sweet 

 and rich, the stone is nearly round and free. The Homestead 

 plum is of medium size, round, deep red, covered with a whitish 

 bloom, the skin peels off easily leaving the pulp in good shape, the 

 flavor is rich and peachy, pit small and free. 



The Hillside plum is medium in size, deep red in color, skin 

 thick and somewhat acrid. 



Canary, small, yellow, juicy and sweet. 



Bean plum, large, rich golden yellow with soft blush on sun side 

 and covered with white bloom, form oval, pulp soft, flavor rich and 

 good. 



Violet plum, large medium, color violet red, form round oval, 

 skin thick, pulp medium firm, and sweet; a free stone variety. 



City plum, a seedling, very large, nearly round, skin thick, pulp 

 soft, flavor subacid, good. Season 15th of September. 



The Gay lord plum, shown in Mr. Lord's exhibit, at the Winona 

 fair, is of Northern Iowa origin. The fruit is very large, form oval, 

 ground color yellow with red cheek on sun side; is a clingstone 

 variety, pit small for size of fruit; begins to ripen about Aug. 20th 

 and continues for some time. 



The Forest Garden, Weaver, and several other varieties are 

 growing in this state, but have not fruited with me yet. I hope to 

 be able to report upon them at some future meeting. 



The more I see of this valuable fruit the more am I impressed 

 with its usefulness, and as I have frequently said to you, I believe 

 that no time should be lost before steps are taken to ascertain its 

 possibility for improvement through selection and hybridization. 



J. S. Harris. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mrs. Bonneville. I would like to know if mulching would do 

 the wild plum trees any good after they have been set out? 



Mr. Harris. Mr. Lord's experience is, that taking the wild 

 plum tree right from the forest and putting it in the garden where 

 the ground has been manured for other crops, improves it a good 

 deal in size and also fruit. Mr. Lord thinks that mulching and 

 manuring would be beneficial. Perhaps it would be well to state, 

 while I am on the floor, that it has been the experience and obser- 

 vation of many people of late years that this fruit bears better if 

 you have more than one variety together. If you set more than 

 one variety in the rows, the blossoms seemed to be fertilized better 

 and they produce more fruit. 



