s on trial from the Minnesota State
Fruit-Breeding Farm and wish to say that they are very vigorous growers.
Many of them made a growth of four feet and more. We expect that some
will bear next year and we are only waiting to see what the fruit will
be before making a selection for a new plum orchard. We have already
selected No. 8 for that purpose, as one tree was bearing most beautiful
and excellent plums, of large size and superior quality, this year. They
were one and three-fourths inches long by five and one-half inches in
circumference and weighed two ounces each. They kept more than week
before they got too soft for handling and are better than many a
California plum. It seems to us if a man had ten acres of these plum
trees, he could make a fortune out of them. We will propagate only the
very best kinds for our own use and may have more to say about them
another year.

[Illustration: Cluster of Alpha grapes from Collegeville.]

Two or three of the imported pears bloomed again last spring, but the
frost was too severe and they set no fruit. We have lost all interest in
them and so, too, in our German seedling pears. The latter are now used
as stocks and are being grafted with Chinese and hybrid pears. Of those
already grafted this way some have made a growth of four and five feet.
We have been successful in grafting the six varieties of hybrid pears
obtained last spring from Prof. N.E. Hansen, of Brookings, S. Dak., and
have trees of every variety growing. These, too, are very good growers,
have fine large leaves and are promising. From the manner of growth in
stem and leaf we would judge that at least two distinct Asiatic
varieties have been used in breeding. We have gathered a little grafting
wood and next spring some more German seedlings will lose their tops. It
is only from continued efforts that success may be obtained in growing
pears in Minnesota.

Who would have thought it possible that in spite of all the frost and
cold rains we would get a pretty good crop of cherries? And yet this is
a fact. We have four varieties, and among them is one originated by the
late Clem. Schmidt, of Springfield, Minn., which was bearing a good crop
of very fine cherries while the three other sorts did not do a thing. To
get ahead of the many birds we picked the cherries a few days before
they were ripe and put them up in thirty-two half-gallon jars. As the
cherries become very soft when dead-ripe, it was of advantage to c