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GENERAL FRUITS. 251 
At two or three different times during the season H. Knudson, of 
Springfield, Minn., sent me samples of native gooseberry and choke- 
cherries (P. Virginiana L). One variety of the cherry had stems from 4 to 
5inches long and containing about thirty fruits. The fruitis early in ripen- 
ing and the most pleasant to the taste of any Ihave seen, being al- 
most nearly free from astringency peculiar to that fruit. Another variety 
which he says is a cultivated seedling, has a short, compact bunch with 
much larger berries, (some half an inch in diameter) and very good for 
eating from the hand, although not quite as smooth in flavor as the 
other. I also found one tree in Houston County producing large fruit of 
a quality much superior to the common. An ex-soldier, who had seen 
considerable of northern Minnesota and the Dakotas, tells me that he 
frequently came across better than the ordinary types of this fruit, some 
of them being of large size and better quality than the best of the sand 
cherries. How shall we say that it is not susceptible of improvement or 
that it is not destined at no very distant day to occupy a prominent place 
in our pomology? In October I received from B. A. Mathews, of Knox- 
ville, Iowa, a specimen uf the native American crab apple that measured 
two and one-half inches in diameter, finer in texture and more beautiful 
in appearance than the Soulard. I do not expect that the coming dessert 
apple will be a descendent of this specie, but I do believe that it can be 
domesticated and ameliorated so as to become a desirable and useful 
fruit. It is both wise and prudent for us to test all fruits that the 
specialists of past ages and other climes have sought out and improved as 
food for man, and cherish and cultivate and strive to improve yet more 
all of them that can possibly be grown here. It is laudable in this fast 
age to search throughout cold Russia and other lands for fruit trees that 
for ages have been inured to cold, drouth and extreme changes, to pro- 
duce fruit for our immediate wants. Butshail westop there? Wherever 
man resides we discover that nature has planted nutritious fruits that are 
adapted to the situation. We find scores of them indigenous to this 
Northwest. What are we here for? It is the province of the amiable ge- 
nius of horticulture to explore and find these treasures, and to sow and 
plant, prune and propagate by selection of seeds, crossing, hybridizing, 
grafting, budding, cutting, layering, &c., &c.; and thus transform the 
oftimes acrid wildlings into rich, luscious fruits for the food and enjoy- 
ment of civilized man. If we of Minnesota are up to the advance of the 
age we will not hold back while others do this work, but will at once en- 
ter upon the work for all there is in it. 
REPORT ON FRUIT BLOSSOMS. 
O. M. LORD, MINNESOTA CITY. 
April 28th, a few blossoms were to be seen on wild plums. 
May Ist, the Cheney plum, under cultivation, partially bloomed, and a 
high wind occurring the pollen was nearly all destroyed. 
May 2d, wild gooseberries aud currants were in full bloom. 
