316 ANNUAL REPORT 



against fraud and deception, and steer clear of much loss and dis- 

 appointment, we must go slow on new varieties that have never yet 

 left their mother nurse J Many of them will prove to be like the 

 big boy that left home for the first time — he was too green for any- 

 thing! But these reflections will not bar me from giving an honest 

 account of how this new candidate for high honors behaves about 

 home. Mr. Kramer has worked hard to give the country a better 

 strawberry, and if it should behave as well all over the state as 

 with him, it will, in my opinion, prove an acquisition. The Prin- 

 cess is, in many respects, a wonderful production. Its leaves 

 average larger than any other strawberry plant we have any knowl- 

 edge of, and the same can be said of the size of the fruit. And it 

 is doubtful if we ever saw another plant carrying such a uniformly 

 heavy crop. Neither have we seen any strawberry, except the na- 

 tive wild sorts, that were so sweet. Would suppose it to be a trifle 

 earlier than the Crescent Seedling, but not so good a shipper. It 

 has a peculiar habit of ripening a large number of berries at one 

 time. H. J. Ludlow, of Worthington, the owner of those promising 

 seedlings, Okabena, Daisy, and Wax, wrote us under date of Aug. 

 9th, 1889, informing us that a wind storm passed over his place, 

 destroying his whole apple crop, amounting to some $100. This 

 accounts for our seeing none of these choice seedlings at our fairs, 

 last fall, that attracted such favorable notice the fall before. 



We did not have an opportunity to visit the Brett Seedlings, 

 Houston's Peerless, and many others that we should have been 

 pleased to see, but hope Mr. Fuller will report on some of them. 

 David St. John, of Sumner, Fillmore county, has a seedling apple 

 that is very hardy, and a good bearer, fruit about the size of the 

 Gen. Grant, when seen in its best condition, better in quality, nearly 

 sweet, a fine baking hybrid, and fair to good to eat from hand. 

 The Beach's Sweet, that originated in this county, (Fillmore), al- 

 though not what we now term a new sort, is worthy of a passing 

 notice. Our old friend, Sidney Corp, of Hammond, Minn., showed 

 us a fine tree, that he said bore over fifteen bushels the past fall, 

 and the fruit is valuable. John H. Vandervort, of Mankato, showed 

 us two or three varieties of hybrids that he obtained from F. K. 

 Phoenix, that were fine; he did not know the names. 



Mr. John Bamber who grew 200 splendid strawberry plants from 

 one berry of the Jessie, had considerable bloom the past season, 

 but had the whole crop cut off by the frost. Other parties about 

 Rochester fared in the same way. We found the seedling straw- 

 berry of Wm. Lyon, of Minneapolis, doing finely at La Crescent, 

 on the experimental grounds of J. S. Harrris. Mr. Fuller and self 

 visited Mankato August 27, 1889. And the plant seen there, that 

 made the most favorable and lasting iuipression on my mind was 

 the Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus). Dr. Gray says G. Cana- 

 deusis. The only species, a fine ornamencal and timber tree, wild 

 from West New York State and especially west with rough bark, 

 twice pinnate leaves 2 or 3' long, each partial leafstalk bearing 7 

 to 13 ovate and stalked leaflets, except the lowest pair, which are 

 single leaflets (2 to 3' long) the leaflets remarkable for hanging 



