HOETICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 361 



And then as the blighting frost has nipped and blighted these 

 beautiful plants, and the snows of winter have descended and en- 

 folded them like a winding sheet, we look upon them with feelings 

 of sadness akin to that we feel when our friends have been taken 

 from our embrace and locked in the cold and icy hands of death. 



And then, again, when the winter has passed away, and the 

 beautiful sun has shed its warming and enlivening rays upon them 

 and broken the bands that had held them in a state of slumber for 

 so many months, and they come forth invigorated with new life 

 and beauty, O, then they tell me the beautiful story of the Resur- 

 rection, how the Great Son of Righteousness shall arise and burst 

 the bands of death asunder, and we shall come forth glorified and 

 clad in the habiliments of immortality. 



I have learned to love these plants, and when I go among them 

 to trim off the dead leaves and pluck up the plants that have be- 

 come uufruitful, I can hardly take the hoe to sever them but often 

 stoop and break gently with my fingers. This, too has often remind- 

 ed me of the sorrow it must cause our Heavenly Father, when He 

 has to deal harshly with His children. A lady came to our house 

 this summer and said she would like to go out and see my plants. 

 As we were passing from one propagating bed to another and I was 

 telling the names of the plants, she said: "How can you remember 

 the names? I thought you had a poor memory." I replied, "So 

 I have, but I remember the names of these as I do the names of 

 my children." May the day be not far distant when many more of 

 our sisters see and realize the enjoyment from this healthful em- 

 ployment. 



ARE NATIVE PLUMS A FAILURE. 



Paper read at the meeting at Rochester, by 0. M. Lord, Minne- 

 sota City, Minn. 



In their wild or natural state some groves bear fruit abundantly. 

 It is said that on the approach of the settlements, the trees rapidly 

 disappear; and this is advanced as one reason why some attempts 

 in trying to cultivate them have not succeeded. 



The most general complaint, iu bringing them into cultivation, 

 has been, that they refuse to bear fruit, another complaint is, that 

 the fruit when cultivated is not desirable. The last objection can 

 only apply to a more favored clime where the finer fruits are grown 

 in profusion. In regard to disappearance of the trees. It is true 

 that many native plants disappear as the country is settled and im- 

 proved. It is readily seen why this occurs with Plum trees, as all 

 kinds of stock will feed upon the branches and young trees; and 

 this alone would have a tendency to destroy them in a few years, to 

 say nothing of other conditions resulting from fires, etc. Another 

 reason why they rapidly disappear is: that the trees are naturally 

 short lived: the great majority of them mature End die of old age 



