HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 363 



fruits, currants, strawberries, raspberries, e'c. The conditions of 

 pollenization must be observed to succeed with strawberries, and 

 with all other fruits cultivation plays an important part as well as 

 climatic and other conditions. With all the evidence before us 

 one would hardly be justified in predicting absolute success in cul- 

 tivating wild plums. That many persons have been very success- 

 ful cannot be denied, and it may be safely said that when the same 

 intelligence, care and skill shall be given to wild plums that is now 

 bestowed in the successful culture of other fruits, none will re- 

 spond more bountifully nor will any other fruit give promise of a 

 richer reward for the labor. If therefore an individual has been 

 unsuccessful in bringing plums into cultivation while others suc- 

 ceed, may it not be well for him, if he wish or care to succeed in 

 the future to inquire of himself: Do I know all there is to be 

 known in regard to this fruit? Have I made a wise selection of 

 varieties that are likely to succeed? Have not my old trees out- 

 grown their usefulness? Will the climatic conditions of my 

 locality justify me in trying again? Is my soil and environment 

 adapted to their growth? Have I exercised the good care and 

 judgment that would insure success with other fruits? The prob- 

 ability is, that no one can truthfully answer these questions and at 

 the same time charge a failure to the inherent natural qualities of 

 the plums, and the prediction may here be ventured, that a few 

 years will convince the most skeptical that they are easily culti- 

 vated, susceptible of marked improvement in size and quality and 

 destined to occupy a prominent place among our best fruits. 



WHEEE SHALL WE GET OUR COMING WINTER APPLE. 



Extract from letter of C. G. Patten, of Iowa, to A. W. Sias, Presi- 

 dent of Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society. 



Now a few words about the improvement of our native Grab* 

 Pyrus Coronoria. If you are "loony" on this subject you have the 

 steady company of several very good horticulturists, such as the 

 Hon. C. L. Watrous of Des Moines, Mr. Matthews, of Knoxville, 

 and Mr. Fluhn of Davenport, Iowa. The last named gentleman 

 showed me a native Crab 2| inches in diameter, secured from near 

 Rock Island, 111. Mr. Matthews, has found other varieties nearly 

 as large, and your humble correspondent has seen one with a dis- 

 tinctly bronzed cheek — nearly red — large, oblong ones, and one in 

 Wisconsin, more speckled than a Swarr apple, and almost transpar- 

 ent. The Soulard has been found in two different places, fully 100 

 miles apart in Wisconsin, and as you know by a fortunate combi- 

 nation of effort and accident, I succeeded in obtaining a cross with 

 our cultivated apple, that has greatly stimulated thought in this 

 state. The gentlemen that I have named are all believers in this 



