Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 | Page 8

fruit. The old trees have seen their best days and will have to give place
to the new kinds as soon as they are tested. We have quite a variety of
the new kinds 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
can them when they were still hard. These canned cherries are meaty
and most delicious. We never tasted any better. It is only a pity that this
seedling cherry is not quite hardy.
As most everywhere in the state, our grapes were a complete failure.
The early growth with its good showing of fruit having been frozen in
May, it was well toward the end of June when the vines had recovered

from the shock and were able to grow vigorously again. There were a
few grapes on some of the vines, but they never got ripe. The Alpha
showed the most fruit, and a few bunches were just about getting ripe
when the frost spoiled them. This May freeze was more severe than we
thought it was. The wood of the old vines was not injured, but the one
year old wood of young plants was killed to the ground. The lesson we
learned from this is very important. It may be stated that vines full of
sap and in growing condition can endure very little cold, but when the
wood is ripe and dormant the vines will seldom be injured by sub-zero
weather. This injury to vines from frost might have been averted at
least in part by precautionary measures. In other countries people start
smoldering fires, making much smoke in the vineyard so that the whole
is covered with a cloud of smoke. This raises the temperature a few
degrees and keeps the frost out. Such preventive means might have
been used here very well to save the grapes, but it was not done.
Our currants were not very good; they ripened unevenly and showed
that they, too, were touched by frost. A few bushes were also attacked
by the currant worm.
We never cultivated any raspberries before. But last year we planted
Raspberry No. 8, sent to us from the Fruit-Breeding