NORTH AMERICAN STATES 



NORTH AMERICAN STATES 2203 



Wealthy and most of the remainder Oldenburg. Con- 

 siderable trouble is experienced from root-killing of the 

 common apple seedling stocks. In the northern part 

 of the state, apple root-grafts root-kill every winter 

 unless deeply mulched. The winter of 1898-9 will long 

 be remembered as the "root-killing" winter by the 

 fruit men of several northwestern states. Efforts are 

 now being made to remedy this trouble by testing the 

 Russian method of preventing root-killing; viz., the 

 use of the pure Siberian crab (Pyrus baccata) as a stock. 

 If the experiments are successful, apple-culture will be 

 practicable on the most exposed prairies far up into the 

 Canadian Northwest. In making up a list of apples for 

 planting throughout the state, it will be a safe rule not 

 to plant any variety less hardy than Oldenburg and 

 Wealthy, especially if the planter desires a long-lived 

 fruitful orchard and cannot afford to experiment. 



Of plums, those of the Primus americana type, such 

 as De Soto, Wyant, Wolf, Terry and Wastesa, are the 

 standard of hardiness and value for general cultivation. 

 Prunus americana is indigenous throughout the state. 

 In recent years, the list of plums has been largely 

 increased by the advent of the hybrids of the native 

 sand cherry and plum with the Japanese plum and 

 Chinese apricot, Prunus Simonii, originated at the 

 South Dakota Experiment Station. The main difficulty 

 with plums hitherto has been the tender stocks upon 

 which the hardy natives have been worked. Myrobolan, 

 St. Julian, Marianna, Southern Chickasaw, peach, ana 

 other southern stocks all winter-kill, leaving the hardy 

 top to die. Such trees are a snare to the prairie planter, 

 and this fact is becoming more generally known. Trees 

 worked on americana seedlings or trees on their own 

 roots find favor, as no trouble is then experienced from 

 root-killing. The western sand cherry (Prunus Besseyi), 

 a native of the state, has been tested as a stock at the 

 Experiment Station at Brookings, but it is of use only 

 as a dwarf stock for amateur use, the trees being dwarfed 

 and bearing fruit at an early age. It is of some promise 

 as a dwarf stock for peaches, such trees being of suit- 

 able size for convenient covering in winter or for grow- 

 ing in boxes. 



Of other orchard-fruits, pears, quinces, apricots and 

 peaches find no place on the South Dakota fruit list. 

 Cherries are grown to a small extent in the southern 

 counties, but the crop is uncertain in most parts. 



Some raspberries can be grown in the southern part 

 with winter protection. Blackberries are not so hardy 

 as raspberries. Strawberries are considerably grown in 

 the southern part of the state, and irrigation is found 

 profitable, as it insures a crop in dry seasons. 



Grapes are grown to some extent in the southern part 

 of the state, but northward suffer severely from winter- 

 killing and are not on the fruit list recommended for 

 that part of the state. The Beta, a hybrid of the wild 

 grape, Vitis riparia (vulpina), of Carver County, 

 Minnesota, with the Concord (V. Labrusca), was 

 originated about 1870 by the late Louis Suelter, of 

 Minnesota, and has been found to be much hardier 

 than those of the Concord type and is now largely 

 planted. It appears perfectly hardy without winter 

 protection. 



Fruit-breeding at the South Dakota Experiment 

 Station has been carried on under the direction of the 

 Department of Horticulture since 1895. Much work 

 has been done in the breeding of hardy fruits. The 

 frequent winter-killing of varieties brought from milder 

 regions east and south seems to demand the creation of 

 a new prairie pomology. Over 27,000 seedlings of 

 various native fruits were raised at this station in 1889- 

 1890. The wild fruits were crossed with tame when- 

 ever possible, but the main reliance was placed upon 

 pure selection, acting upon the theory that "excess of 

 food causes variation." The native species taken in 

 hand in this work include the sand cherry, choke-cherry, 

 pin-cherry, black currant, golden currant, gooseberry, 



grape, juneberry, plum, red raspberry, black rasp- 

 berry, strawberry. With the apple, the main effort is to 

 originate a good hardy long-keeping winter apple. Work 

 with several Siberian fruits is also under way. Some of 

 this material was picked up on tours of agricultural 

 exploration to Siberia and adjacent regions. In this 

 work, hundreds of thousands of seedlings have been dis- 

 carded. Some have not proved amenable to improve- 

 ment, such as the wild black currant, Ribes floridum, 

 which has reached the fifth generation under cultiva- 

 tion without improvement in quality. The same may be 

 said of the native gooseberry, Ribes gracile. Fully 

 100,000 seedlings of the native sand cherry, Prunus 

 Besseyi, native especially of the dry uplands of the 

 western part of the state, have been fruited, but only 

 three varieties have been named, the Sioux, Toma- 

 hawk, and Champa, with fruit of good size and free 

 from the native astringency. In five plant generations 

 under cultivation, the fruit has been increased to 1 

 inch in diameter and of good quality. However, the 

 plant is too small in stature, and propagation by bud- 

 ding is expensive; some are being raised by layering. 

 However, the sand cherry displays marked adaptability 

 to hybridization with many species. (See South Dakota 

 Experiment Station Bulletins Nos. 108, 130, and 159.) 

 When mated with the Japanese plum, a series of valu- 

 able hybrids have resulted, but hybrids with the peach 

 and the sweet cherry and apricot of Europe are prac- 

 tically sterile. Mating with the purple-leaved plum of 

 Persia, Prunus cerastfera purpurea, gives a beautiful 

 purple-leaved shrub. The native plum, Prunus 

 americana, is found to mate best with the Japanese 

 plum, the latest result of which is the Waneta, with 

 fruit 2 inches in diameter and weighing two ounces. 

 The native plum is found to mate well with the sand- 

 cherry, giving such hybrids as Sansoto and Cheresoto. 

 The native plum mates best with the Chinese apricot, 

 Prunus Simonii, giving fruits with remarkable ship- 

 ping capacity and with the strong fragrance of the 

 Prunus Simonii. Over 10,000 plum seedlings have 

 been raised. The work with the native seedlings was 

 checked with the advent of the hybrids which were 

 found sufficiently hardy. Easily 1,000,000 trees of 

 these new plums are now in the orchards and nurseries 

 of the western states. 



After raising 10,000 apple seedlings, none has been 

 introduced with the exception of one crab-apple, the 

 Amur, a seedling of Pyrus baccata cerasifera, intro- 

 duced 1912. 



In strawberries, the main work has been to combine 

 the wild types as found in the Dakotas and the Cana- 

 dian Northwest and Alaska with the standard Ameri- 

 can varieties and those imported from Europe. Out 

 of 10,000 seedlings but two have been named, the 

 South Dakota No. 1 and No. 2. The fruit is about 1 

 inch in diameter; the plants are hardy without winter- 

 covering, but must be kept thinned, otherwise the 

 fruit runs too small, as is the case of the wild strawberry 

 from which they sprang. 



Out of 13,000 raspberry seedlings, only two, the 

 Sunbeam and Ohta, have been named and introduced. 

 Improvement by pure selection of the wild raspberries 

 of the Dakotas and the Canadian Northwest is slow 

 work, but is not yet given up. The Sunbeam, intro- 

 duced in 1906, is the first of the 7,000 first seedlings to 

 receive a name. It is a seedling of the wild red rasp- 

 berry from Cavalier County, North Dakota, near the 

 Manitoba line, pollinated by the Shaffer. From the next 

 6,000 seedlings came the Ohta, introduced spring of 

 1912, which is a seedling of the wild red raspberry from 

 Cavalier County, North Dakota, pollinated by Minne- 

 tonka Ironclad, a hybrid of the wild raspberry from 

 Maple Plain, Minnesota, with either Turner or Cuthbert. 



Pear-culture is at present a practical impossibility 

 either from winter-killing, or from blight (Bacillus 

 amylovorus). The work of breeding pears immune to 



