.MI.NXKSOTA IIOKTK'lil/nnti:. 145 



be done with this tree. CorrespondeiUs from the Platte valley write me 

 statins? that traveling salesmen in their neighborhood are selling catalpa 

 promising the planter that it will attain a height large enough for tele- 

 phone poles in six years. This, of course, is an unreasonable statement 

 and ought not to mislead anyone. Personally I regard the catalpa as 

 one of the best and most favorable trees to ))lant at the present time 

 in Eastern Nebraska. The season is long enough, we have a fertile soil, 

 the trees have no enemies; after three or four years the tree will take 

 take care of itself and will nearly justify its planting on $100 land. It 

 should be borne in mind, however, that many farms contain tracts of 

 broken land, ravines, corners or small tracts that cannot be conveniently 

 cultivated in corn or wheat, and such tracts can be very profitably 

 planted to a durable timber like the Catalpa speciosa. 



Chairman: I am sure we have all listened with a good deal of pleas- 

 ure to Mr. Stephens; he is one of our pioneers, like Mr. Pollard. I 

 think we have about covered the ground and our time is limited. 



Chairman: Secretary Marshall attended the meeting of the Minne- 

 sota State Horticultural Society as a delegate from this society. We 

 will now listen to his report. 



MINNESOTA HORTICULTURE. 



C. G. MARSHALL. 



The Minnesota State Horticultural Society is doing a great work 

 for horticulture in Minnesota and the Northwest. Its membership now 

 totals more than 3,000 and consists mainly of farmers and friut growers 

 ol that state, with a sprinkling' through the Dakotas, northern Iowa and 

 Wisconsin. At the annual meeting, held in Minneapolis December 6, 7, 

 8 and 9, some 400 to 500 members from all parts of this section were in 

 atten.lance to discuss the problems confronting the horticulturist in 

 this severe climate of the north. 



The interest and enthusiasm shown at this meeting and in the face 

 of the discouragements before them was certainly commendable. Those 

 from parts where the natural conditions for the production of horti- 

 cultural crops are anything but favorable gave glowing reports of their 

 successes and of what they expected to accomplish in the future in a 

 horticultural way. When success does not accompany their first and sub- 

 sequent efforts to grow certain horticultural crops, instead of giving up 

 the idea of trying to grow these things, the horticulturists of Minnesota 

 set about to originate new and hardier varieties or to devisd some 

 practical form of aid or protection for the varieties that they already 

 have. 



The Minnesota farmer and fruit-grower has many more discouraging 

 things to contend with than those in Nebraska. In common with us, he 

 has the spring frosts, the summer drouths, the codling-moth and other 

 injurious insects, and the fungus diseases to fight. In addition to this. 



