40 
AMERICAN POMOEOGICAI, SOCIETY 
some thirty-five years ago, has the same light color of the apple parent, and 
also its slight blush and dottings, as well as its slightly oblong conic form. 
As far as I have learned, it is the most pronounced hybrid of the Native 
Crab, and the cultivated apple. It has the soft carpels, and large open core 
character of some of our cultivated varieties, which are not found in any 
of the wild crab seedlings or varieties that I have seen. 
Plums. 
A few words regarding our progress with the plum. With this fruit 
such advances have been made within the last quarter of a century, that 
good judges who have had access to my grounds in the past two summers 
agree with me in that, if the whole list of Northwestern varieties cultivated 
in our nurseries for the last fifteen years were blotted out, they could be 
readily replaced with twenty-five per cent advance. This part of our experi- 
ment work is developing rapidly. Freestone varieties are appearing every 
year, and the characteristics of firmness and ability to cling to the tree 
until the fruit is fully ripe are also being secured. All these are greatly 
desired improvements in our Native plums. 
Pears. 
Concerning pears we have much to say in a few words. The founda- 
tion is being laid for the development of a most hardy type of non-blighting 
pear trees, and without such breeding work, a vast territory in the upper 
Mississippi Valley will ever be barren of home grown pears. There is in 
this section a goodly number of hybrid and select trees that will soon be in 
bearing. One tree, bearing this year for the first time, has a finely colored 
fruit that will rank high among the best pears. There are also three or 
four other good ones among the select and crossbreds. The great hope and 
value of this experiment lies in the remarkable hardiness and blight resis- 
tance of the parent varieties. We are confident that this effort will yet 
command wide attention. The wood of a few trees under trial is here for 
inspection. It speaks for itself as to their adaptation to the climate. 
During twenty-five years experience with two of these foundation trees, 
one from Russia and the other from China, neither tree has blighted except 
in a few instances where blighting sorts were grafted on them, and then 
only to the junction of the limb, never fully touching the body of the tree. 
We now have several hundred seedlings, from some natural crosses of this 
Chinese Sand pear with some of our best adapted varieties. These under 
good cultivation, should in the near future solve this most important problem 
in pear culture, the originating of good pears, borne on hardy, non-blighting 
trees. 
President Goodman: Our friend Patten has been doing work that 
is worthy of any agricultural college or experiment station or the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture; and as such we honor him for what he has done. And 
the more you study his report in the record the more you will admire what 
he has done, and what his prophecy is for the future work followed out 
the way he outlines. 
