HOKTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 369 



showing a pink bloom. There is as much variation in the form of 

 the trees as there is with the apple, some spreading, some upright, 

 some disagreeably thorny, others have few thorns. The fruit is 

 all colors from yellow all over, yellow on one side and pink on the 

 other, to light red, deep red, carmine and purple. In size the 

 plums range from the Concord grape up to the medium or larger 

 European varieties. Some are perfect freestones, some a medium 

 between a cling and freestone, others as clingy as any peach. In 

 season they ripen from August 15th, to late in the fall, and some 

 sorts never get ripe, remaining immature to be killed by the first 

 hard freeze; although the season of the greater number of varieties 

 closes about September 20th. But it is in the quality of the fruit 

 that we find the greatest variation. The most of them are good 

 enough in quality for cooking, and there are many sorts that are 

 really choice for eating out of hand. There are trees that one can 

 never pass without stopping to eat the fruit in its season. Child- 

 ren who happen to be about my place in August and September 

 seem to divide the honors about equally between the watermelons 

 and the plums, and I have seen them halt by the early grapes of 

 good quality, undecided which to eat first, the grape at hand or the 

 plum a little farther off; finally determining the matter by taking 

 a cluster of the grapes and going to the plums to eat both. One 

 accustomed to our native plums soon learns that the different varie- 

 ties have their special uses. There is some favorite sort for plum 

 butter, another for drying, another for canning, another for pre- 

 serves, and so on. Some of them have the clear, delicate flavor of 

 the California apricot — sugary enough, acid enough, juicy enough, 

 and not acrid either in skin or pulp. A few sorts are perfectly 

 sweet. Some excellent ones are very firm-fleshed, and bear much 

 handling without injury. All of them will carry to near markets, 

 some of the very best can be shipped anywhere and presented in 

 good condition. 



As yet I do not know of a single variety named and recognized 

 in the trade lists. Our nurserymen are watching them closely, 

 propagating such as they think worthy, and preparing for the de- 

 mand for South Dakota native plums that is sure to come; but one 

 of the first things that ought to be done, is to supply our Agricul- 

 tural College experiment station with all the promising varieties, 

 and ask its director and its Professor of horticulture to plant a 

 large orchard of them for a test and eventual naming and classifi- 

 cation of Varieties; and committees of the State Horticultural So- 

 ciety should be sent out as soon as the legislature gives us our 

 appropriation to search for valuable varieties of our native plums, 

 and see that they are supplied to the experimental station and 

 elsewhere practicable for propagation and trial. I do not think we 

 shall make a list of Dakota plums that will crowd the De Soto, 

 Forest Garden, the Weaver, the Eollingstone, the Spear, the Wolf, 

 etc., natives of other northwestern states, off the list; but I do 

 think we shall extend the list considerably with varieties possessing 

 desirable qualities found in none of the sorts named. 



I will not undertake to give directions about laying out, planting 

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