STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



35 



Mr. Murtfeldt. — That's the reason why I am going back to 

 Europe. I can get rid of this work myself and make the women do it. 

 (Laughter.) 



Mr. MiNKLER. — How would it do, Doctor, for the men to help the 

 women do the housework? 



Dr. Schrceder. — Yes, I do it. (Laughter.) 



Mr. MiNKLER. — I wish to urge the farmers to plant evergreens, for 

 wind-brakes. I would rather have a continuous row around my barn- 

 yard than a tight board fence twenty feet high ; they are good for the 

 chickens to roost in, and better for this purpose than any chicken-house 

 that a carpenter can build. 



Rows of evergreens should be planted around our farms — they cost 

 but little. 



I saw one of the most villainous acts performed at Mendota awhile 

 ago that I ever witnessed. A man had cut down his orchard and was 

 cutting down evergreens that had been planted twenty or thirty years, to 

 make room to grow corn. 



The evergreen trees make nice ornamental hedges; nearly all of 

 them may be sheared into a hedge ; the white pine bears the shears as 

 well as the spruces and cedars. 



In reply to the question whether evergreen hedges would turn stock, 

 Mr. Minkler said yes, for they can't see through them. 



Mr. Minier. — I am a farmer horticulturist, and my orchard clears 

 me from ten to one hundred dollars per acre, and I would not try to dis- 

 courage any one from raising trees, plants, flowers and fruit. Trees grow 

 fast, they grow while we sleep, and it will be but a few years, if we plant 

 rightly, before we will have all the fruit we need. 



I would plant peach-trees, for if we get one crop in ten years it 

 will pay. 



Weeds and insects are blessings to man in disguise, they compel us 

 to cultivate, which is a benefit to the tree and fruit. 



A woman raised in the house and afraid to touch anything out of it 

 may be a lady, but is not a woman. 



Mr. Galusha. — There is an increasing interest among American 

 women in fruit-growing and in cultivating flower-gardens. Those of us 

 who are nurserymen can bear witness to the fact that the wives and 

 daughters of the farmers are generally the moving spirits in the purchases, 

 especially of the small-fruit plants, frequently coming with the husband 

 or father to the nursery to make sure of the plants. It is not an unusual 

 thing for orders for plants to come by mail directly from the ladies ; and 



