NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS FIELD STATION, 1913-1922 33 
Pecans and hickory nuts.—A few pecan and hickory trees have been potted, 
but no crosses were obtained, and the potted plants have been destroyed. 
Plums.—More breeding work has been done with plums than any other fruit. 
Thousands of seedlings have been grown from the wild native plum and from 
cultivated varieties. A great deal of variation has been found within the Prunus 
americana species, and more than 50 selections have been made, many of which 
have been propagated and are undergoing a more thorough test to determine 
their value. ; 
Many varieties of plums have been potted for hand-crossing work. Hardy 
P. americana and P. nigra varieties have been crossed or crosses attempted with 
Japanese plums, P. stmoni, apricots, domestica plums, sand cherries, P. fomen- 
tosa, and with such hybrid plums as Waneta and Sapa. A hardy little yellow 
plum (S. P. I. No. 36607) has been crossed with Japanese plums. A few seed- 
lings of known parentage have borne fruit, but as yet none seems to be of any 
special value. 
Ras pberries.—Seedlings of a number of cultivated varieties and of wild rasp- 
berries have been grown in testing blocks, but with the exception of a few seed- 
lings of the native black raspberry all have been discarded. None of the dis- 
earded plants were hardy without winter protection, and none bore especially 
good fruit. Raspberries have also been potted and crossed by hand, but no 
seedlings have been obtained from such work. At present no breeding work is 
being done with raspberries. 
Strawberries.—Several hundred strawberry seedlings were grown from standard 
varieties. Several selections have been made from these for further testing. 
There has been no hand-crossing work with strawberries. 
Walnuts —A few seedling black walnuts, and a few seedlings of Juglans mand- 
schurica, have been grown, but no nuts have been produced. Several varieties 
and species of Juglans were potted for breeding work, but were discarded before 
reaching bearing age. 
Cydonia.—Some attempts have been made to produce a hardy quince by cross- 
ing standard varieties with Pyrus, Malus, and Crataegus species. No seeds 
resulted, and quinces were discarded. 
Elaeagnus.—Elaeagnus angustifolia and E. multiflora (EL. longipes) were grown 
in pots and crossed with buffalo berries (Lepargyrea argentea), but no seeds were 
obtained. These plants have been discarded. 
Cornus.—Cornus siberica and C. stolonifera were grown in pots and crossed, 
but no seeds were obtained. All Cornus plants have been discarded. 
Aronia.—A few seedlings of Aronia melanocarpa were planted, but the fruit 
was of no value. But little variation within the species was observed. A. 
melanocarpa and A. arbutifolia were grown in pots and crossed with Amelanchier, 
Cydonia, Crataegus, and Pyrus species, but no fruits were borne. Potted Aronia 
plants have been discarded. 
MISCELLANEOUS EXPERIMENTS IN HORTICULTURE 
Nursery and seed-bed data, soil-moisture work, and horticultural 
cooperators are included under this heading. 
NURSERY AND SEED-BED DATA 
A quantity of data has been accumulated on handling seeds and 
srowing seedlings, particularly of the different native fruits. Many 
notes have been taken regarding stands, growth, and hardiness in 
the nursery. 
SOIL-MOISTURE INVESTIGATIONS 
Some soil-moisture work has been done to determine the depth 
and the area of feeding of fruit trees, but without conclusive results. 
Because it is impossible to pursue this work with the intensiveness 
necessary to results, it has been discontinued for the time. The 
water content of the soil in the different plats of apples in the 
cultural experiment previously described was studied rather thor- 
oughly. The only marked difference found was the greater dryness 
in the fall of the plat growing a cover crop. 
5381—25{,——3 
