The following paper, by Samuel B. Green, was then read by the 

 Secretary : 



Developing Hardy Fruits for the North 

 Mississippi Valley. 



By Prof. Samuel B. Green, 

 University of Minnesota. 



The varieties of fruits that were introduced into this country 

 by the original settlers, while they often proved of value for a 

 few years, have generally been superseded by better kinds that 

 have originated in the section in which they are grown. That 

 portion of the United States commonly known as the Central 

 Northwest, including the States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, the 

 Dakotas and northern Iowa and Illinois, have had more diffi- 

 culty in getting varieties of fruits suitable to their conditions than 

 perhaps any other portion of this country. This has been due 

 to their cold winters and especially to an occasional extremely 

 cold winter in which the ground is bare of snow. The climate 

 of this section too is generally drier in summer and not as well 

 adapted to the fruits of western Europe as the portions of the 

 United States lying east or even those sections near the west 

 coast. 



One of the most important of these horticultural problems 

 is presented in the apple, the old varieties of which are not 

 successfully grown in this section. About forty years ago Peter 

 Gideon undertook at Excelsior, Minnesota, to solve this problem 

 by combining the Pyrus baccata and its hybrids with the Pyrus 

 Mains, and thus getting hardiness and good quality. In the 

 course of this work he discovered the Wealthy apple, which is 

 to-day a leading variety over a large extent of country ; but the 

 dozen or more other varieties (which are undoubted crosses 

 between the P. baccata and P. Mains) that he sent out as being 

 especially adapted for the cold Northwest have proven unsatis- 

 factory in many ways, largely on account of their susceptibil- 

 ity to fire blight. The work which Gideon undertook to do was 



