Mr. Pfeiffer: Right here I will say to those gentlemen who are looking for a cure for brown rot or curculio, they had better plant Surprise plums. (Applause.)
Pres. Cashman: I am glad the Surprise plum has at least one good friend in this audience. I think it has several.
Mr. Ludlow: What has been your experience with the Ocheeda? I see you mention it.
Mr. Pfeiffer: The Ocheeda at the present time, I am sorry to say, I am disappointed with. I planted some fifteen years ago, and they were nice large plums, as you have described, and they were on sandy soil. I have twenty Ocheeda trees now, and they are quite badly subject to brown rot. Their quality is very nice to eat from the tree out of hand, nice and sweet.
Mr. Street: I want to second everything Mr. Pfeiffer has said. I joined this society about twelve years ago, and it was through studying the reports of this society that I got interested in the native plum. The Surprise plum does very well with us in Illinois. Professor Hansen is one of those that are responsible for my starting in with the Surprise. It was years ago at our state meeting that he mentioned that as one of the good plums for Northern Illinois. Well, I put it alongside of the Wyant and the native plums that are of the same sort. I may state the conditions under which we grow them. We always cultivate before bloom, cultivate thoroughly. Before the growth starts we give them a very thorough spraying with lime-sulphur spray; then just before the bloom, just before the blossoms open, as late as we can wait, we use about 1 to 40 or 50 of the lime-sulphur solution, also put in three pounds of arsenate of lead. Then after the blossoms fall we use the same spray again, perhaps two weeks after that again, and we keep that up for about four times. We have had abundant crops, and they have been very profitable.
Pres. Cashman: I am very glad to know that the Surprise plum has friends in Illinois, and we are also pleased to know that Mr. Street is with us and we hope to hear from him later. The president of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society, Mr. Rasmussen.
Mr. Rasmussen: I will say the Surprise plum has given just about the same results with us—it is the most profitable we have.
Mr. Sauter: I was over to the Anoka county fair; it was the first part of September, and all the other plums weren't ripe, all the stuff they had in was green. But all the Surprise were ripe, so that certainly must be an early ripener.
Mr. Pfeiffer: Not especially early.
Mr. Hall: I was certainly glad to hear Mr. Pfeiffer so ably defend the Surprise plum. The Surprise plum was the only one I got any good from. The DeSoto, Wolf and Stoddard and all those, the brown rot got them, but the Surprise plum had perfect fruit. I am surprised that it has a black eye from the society.