324 ANNUAL REPORT. 



promising well. The raspberries bore a fair crop of very fine fruit last season. 

 Tlie canes seem to be as hardy as any variety I have tested except the Turner, and the 

 fruit is large and of fine appearance, and will take well in the market. The fruit 

 of the blackberry is superior in quality to the Snyder or Stone's Hardy, but ordi- 

 narily they will require winter protection. I also set a few young trees of the 

 Rollingstone plums donated by O. M. Lord of Minnesota City, and a half dozen of 

 the Pheeney plum procured from E. Markle of La Crosse, Wis., and Moors Arctic 

 from E. Wilcox, La Crosse. The Moors Arctic is a variety of tame plum that is 

 reported as hardy in the State of Maine. The others are natives that have a good 

 local reputation. The natives are doing well, and I hope to have some fruit from 

 them the coming season, and as I have the De Soto I shall be able to compare them 

 together and determine their relative merits. The Moors Arctic lived and made a 

 fair growth the first season, but one of them was entirely killed last winter, and the 

 other considerably injured, but may recover to produce some fruit. They were 

 worked upon native stocks by budding about one foot above the ground, and did 

 not seem to have formed a very perfect union. I think they would do better as roo^ 

 grafts. Last spring I made some additions to the planting, setting a few trees of 

 the Giant Swaar, Rollins Pippin, Wabasha, Red and Yellow Anis, and McMahon 

 White, procured from A. W. Sias of Rochester, and about sixty trees in thirteen 

 varieties of Russians and a few pears, procured of Prof. Budd of Ames, Iowa. These 

 trees were called two-year olds; they were small and inferior looking compared 

 with American varieties of the same age, and some of them appear to be very slow 

 growers and may require nursing an ordinary lifetime before they will be much 

 trees. I think they would do better if grafted upon stocks from Russian seeds. 

 Most of them were secured under numbers instead of names. I set them in my 

 best garden soil, and they generally have made but little growth, and some of them 

 blighted badly. Three varities, the Antonouka, Anis and No. 4 made a good 

 growth and look well. I also planted three small one-year old trees of the Salome, 

 all looking well. 1 received some cions of the Brett Seedling from Mr. Sias, and 

 have succeeded in saving enough to get a start. I find that although hardy, 

 the Orange and Strawberry crabs do not make good stocks for working by cleft 

 grafting owing, to a wind in the grain of the wood that prevents their splitting 

 freely. In grapes I have set two vines of Niagara and one of Empire State. They 

 have made a fair growth. I also planted two each of Early Cluster and Wilson 

 June blackberry, and have a few one- year seedling apples that I shall hold for trial. 



The following report was next read : 



Mr. Sias. I will say that I have put upon trial everything that has 

 been sent to me. Even varieties that I had tested years ago and had 

 found to be worthless, I have experimented with them. A large num- 

 ber of cions sent me by a friend from Maine two years ago made a 

 good growth the first year, but they were not hardy enough for last 

 winter. My report may have very much of a sameness about it, but 

 here is the result : 



