u was the somber earth. You touched it with the wand of
your power, and beauty, health and pleasure sprang up to bless you.

See what you have done! You have clothed the barrenness of the dreary
plain with gardens, orchards and forests. You have been at work with God
and glorified a vast empire, and now he has blessed the work of your
hands. Instead of the air sodden with tears and tremulous with the wail
of widows and orphans, you are welcomed with the joy of children and the
delight of mothers. All along the lines of progress you receive the most
cordial ovations, and when you pass on to the land where "everlasting
spring abides", may you receive the royal welcome, "Well done, good and
faithful servant."

The Newer Fruits in 1915 and How Secured.

PROF. N. E. HANSEN, STATE COLLEGE, BROOKINGS, SOUTH DAKOTA.

Mr. Hansen: Mr. President and Fellow Members: This subject is not an
entirely satisfactory one this year owing to the fact that we lost about
three sets of tomato plants from frost, the last frost coming the ninth
of June. These conditions, of course, are unusual, but it prevented the
fruiting of a lot of new fruit seedlings which appeared promising.
However, I decided to propagate two new plums because they had borne
several excellent crops. One of these is a very late plum of good
quality, with flesh of peculiar crisp texture, which ripens after all
the other plums, about a week before frost. It is a combination of the
Wolf plum with the Kansas sand plum (_Prunus Watsoni_). The tree is of
late dwarf habit but very productive, and its late season may give it a
place.

Another plum which I decided to place in propagation is a hybrid of the
wild plum of Manitoba with the Japanese plum. The mother tree was raised
from wild plum pits received from Manitoba a few years ago. These bear
very freely and are the earliest of the native plums. The tree is of
low, dwarf habit. The fruit is not as large as my Waneta, which is a
hybrid of the largest native plum, the Terry, (_Prunus Americana_), with
the Apple, one of the best of Burbank's Japanese plums. But since the
range of the plum Manitoba is so far north, it may give greater
hardiness where that is needed. At any rate, it is of interest to know
that the Manitoba native plum can be mated with the Japanese plum.

Pears constitute my favorite line at present. "What can I do for hardy
pears?" is a question I have been asked many times. The prairie
northwest can