their assistance was highly appreciated. A report of this meeting by Mr. Wedge, our society's delegate, appears in this issue. Prof. L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University, spent a day with them and swapped experiences with the veterans of Wisconsin horticulture. THE "WISCONSIN HORTICULTURIST" IN 1898.-This organ of the Wisconsin Society is to be continued the current year, under the management of Mre. Franklin Johnson, Baraboo, Wis. Subscription, 50c. per year. It is an interesting journal, and contains much that would be found valuable to Minnesota planters. SEC'Y PHILIPS, OF WISCONSIN.-We are glad to hear of his re-election to the office of secretary in the Wisconsin Horticultural Society. His intelligent oversight of the important experimental work that society is carrying on would be greatly missed if he were to retire, and we hope to see him in the harness for many years yet. Mr. Philips' sons, we understand, are to succeed him as the active managers of the hill farm and orchard and leave him more at liberty to pursue his inclinations in this interesting work. The Wisconsin society is fortunate in having so practical an officer. Do You Want the Group PHOTOGRAPH? Many inquiries have come in as to this photograph, the one appearing in a reduced form as frontispiece in the January, 1898, number. It can be had of W. R. Miller, photographer, No. 427, Nicollet avenue, Minneapolis, mounted ready for framing, and delivered at the express office, for $1.25. Send directly to him. The size of the picture is 18 x 22 inches. DEATH OF DR. R. C. RICE, IA.-The sudden death of this gentleman, the president of the N. W. Iowa Horticultural Society, is announced in the opening issue of "The Fruitman," referred to elsewhere in this issue. He is spoken of in that journal as an ardent devotee of our art, and one whose "discreet counsel will be sorely missed." A NEW IOWA FRUIT PAPER.-Northwestern Iowa has just brought orth a new journal of the horticultural variety, under the title of "The Fruitman," edited and published by M. E. Hinkley, of Marcus, Ia. Mr. Hinckley is a nurseryman, evidently with a literary ambition, which this bi-monthly is intended to satify. Price 25 cents per annum. At present he is vice-president of the N. W. Iowa Horticultural Society. The sheet contains much matter of local interest, and we hope may develop, as it has a right to, being, as we understand, the only strictly horticultural periodical in that state. ALMOST AN OBITUARY NUMBER.-The unusual number of deaths that have lately taken place in the ranks of our society casts a shadow across our pathway, and reminds us that the point is rapidly approaching at which the work of each one of our number must be laid aside, and of our career here it will be said, "it is finished." In the light of this solemn and certain fact, how petty and trifling seem the efforts of any to advance a selfish interest to the detriment of the very important public charge committed to our keeping. Let each of us examine candidly his own heart and life and see if his purposes are pure, and looking to the good of others than himself. To have it honestly said over our last resting place, "well done," is an ambition we may most worthly strive for. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: It gives me much pleasure to meet with you at this time. I have long had a desire to attend your winter meeting, but it happens that our Short Course in Agriculture is in session at this time, and we have felt that we must attend to our home duties first, so it is not often that I get away in the winter. My friends seemed anxious that I should come this time, so they sent me in spite of my work, for which I am very glad. I do not feel competent to sum up the plum question. It is true, I am giving considerable attention to the plum at this time, but my experience has not extended over a long period. First, in regard to chickens in the plum yard as a remedy for curculio. I do not know whether Mr. Gibbs visited the New York Experiment Station at the time I was there or not. I was at the New York Station seven years, and during the first six of these years we kept chickens in and the seventh year we took them out of the plum yard. Those six years we had a good crop of plums. The year we took them out we did not have any. Whether or not the chickens ate the curculio,I do not know. The plums that were not protected in that orchard were a total failure. We grew only the European plum,and that plum is almost certain to be a total failure in New York unless the curculio is conquered. Our theory was that the chickens ate the curculios as they came out of the ground in the spring. I will confess I never caught a chicken eating them, but I do know we had plums. Possibly, they ate the larvae as they escaped from the fruit. I am something of a young convert in regard to the native plums. I came west with the idea, which I think a great many eastern people have, that the native plums are not worth growing where we can grow anything else, and I planted our first Americana plums with that idea. We also planted a few trees of the Green Gage, the Orleans, Lombard and some other standard varieties of the east, and some Russian plums. The plums bore some fruit three years after planting. Last year we had a very fine crop of both Americana and European plums. The European plums were very fine, and I began to think that after all we might be able to grow the European plum in the west. But I found on examining the plum buds last spring that almost without exception the European plum buds were destroyed; they were all black at the center after the cold snap we had, during which the thermometer went down to 23° below zero. I examined our Americana varieties and found that every plum bud was bright. I examined our Japanese varieties, and I found that a portion of them was totally destroyed and a portion of them were alive. The only European varieties that opened any flowers last spring were a few of the Russian sorts. So I discovered, at least, the fact that the Americana plums are much hardier than the EuropeIt is a fact I have seen stated frequently, but never had it so forcibly brought to mind before. I began to look up the published reports on the subject, and found in Manitoba the native plums had borne good crops when the mercury during the winter had descended to forty degrees below zero. an. During the summer I asked a variety of questions of a good many people in regard to plums. One question I asked was about the market price of plums. I learned of a plum grower in Manitoba, by the name of Frankland, from whom I received a letter, of which I will read a brief extract. Among other things he says, "This year I had forty bushels of plums, twenty-five of which I sold to Messrs. Robinson & Co., of Winnipeg. I sold some out for preserving, and they were sold at the same price as the Oregon and British Columbia fruit. They conclude a letter by asking advices in regard to next season's crop." When I read this letter I thought of it seriously. Here is a fruit grower living several miles north of Winnipeg, a country that I had supposed not suitable to the culture of any tree fruit, and we find him selling Americana plums, and selling them on the market at the same prices as the Oregon and California plums. It came across my mind very forcibly that the native plum is the fruit that we in the northwest will do well to tie to. It is a fruit that we can grow and grow successfully, furthermore, and a fruit that we can sell successfully. A few years ago, while Prof. Smith was director of your experiment station, he remarked to me one day, "We cannot grow the ap ple in Minnesota; we may be able to grow it in the southern part of the state, but in the central and northern portion I have no hopes whatever that we shall ever be able to grow the apple." I don't know whether he was prejudiced or not. We can grow the Americana plum in northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin and throughout all the northwest, I believe. I have also taken the trouble to learn how the fruit sells in the eastern part of the country, and will read part of a letter from Mr. Kerr,of Maryland, whom some of you know as a plum grower. He writes, "The facts in the premises are about in this way: from about two hundred native trees I have not gathered fruit sufficient to make a test of value between the native and European varieties. But the European varieties were a drug in the market at from 20 cts. to 30 cts. per peck, while the natives sold here readily at from 40 cts. to 60 cts. per peck" I also have a note from Dr. Dennis, of Iowa. He says, "The prices here ranged from one dollar to two dollars per bushel |