JOINT CONVENTION. 



On Tuesday evening, February 7th, at T: 30 P. M., the society 

 united with the State Agricultural Society in holding a joint 

 convention. At the opening session addresses were delivered by 

 Messrs. Smith and Fratt, the presidents of the respective societies. 

 Of the numerous papers read and various subjects discussed 

 during the joint convention, only the part pertaining to horticult- 

 ure will be here given. 



At the conclusion of the address of President Smith, Mr, 

 Harris of La Orescent, Minnesota, president of the Horticultural 

 Society of that state, said that though a citizen of another state 

 he felt great interest in the subjects presented here this evening. 

 At home he was connected with the Agricultural and Horticult- 

 ural State Societies and was engaged in tilling the soil, and he 

 had come to represent these societies at this convention, not to 

 instruct, but to get light on subjects in which we had common 

 interests and to carry it back to them. While the last paper 

 was being read and market gardening was mentioned, his mind 

 was carried back to the time when he commenced gardening 

 twenty-nine years ago on the sand banks of the Mississippi 

 valley, near La Crosse. For the first two years he supplied all 

 the vegetables that that market required with a wheelbarrow. 

 From that time the demand increased so that a team was neces- 

 sary. After a time he moved over into Minnesota, still making 

 La Crosse headquarters. He had been engaged in the business 

 there for twenty-five years and had seen the business grow from 

 a small beicinnini' until now hundreds of hundreds of loads 

 of produce are brought into that market, much more than 

 La Crosse car* consume. Much is shipped from there down the 

 river to St. Louis, and a great deal is shipped over the river 

 again and distributed aloufj the line of the railroads throufjhout 

 Minnesota and Dakota. Gardenino: and the various branches of 



