28 HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IN MINNESOTA. 



distance, that tlie demand at home is not only large and increasing, but that 

 it also tinds a ready sale in the eastern markets, should stimulate us to especial 

 effort to enhance the value of this branch of fniit growing. The cranberry 

 raisers of New Jersey, find the fruit so profitable as to justify the expendi- 

 ture of from $500 to $1000 per acre in the preparation of their grounds for 

 the business. It may well be questioned whether the marshes of Minnesota, 

 with a much less expenditure, may not be rendered equally productive and 

 rennmerative. Would it not be well to take measures for the ofter of a pre- 

 mium for the promotion of cranberry cultivation in our State. It has seemed 

 advisable to me to extend the sphere of our Society's operations, by render- 

 ing it not alone a Fruit Grower's but a Horticultural Society. It is eminently 

 appropriate that the encouragement of the culture of flowers, shrubbery, and 

 the products of the garden, should be combined with that of fruit, and I 

 would suggest whether it would not be advisable to change the original plan 

 of our society by converting it into a Horticultural Association. 



Gentleman, I have thus touched upon some of the points which it seems to 

 me may be profitably considered by our convention to-day. I have no doubt 

 that your practical experience will enable you to elaborate and perfect plans 

 looking to the advancement of the fruit growing interest of the State, in a 

 manner much better than I could suggest, and I will therefore trespass upon 

 your patience no longer. 



At the conclusion of the President's address, the minutes of the last annual 

 meeting of the Association at Rochester, were read by the Recording Secretary, 

 William Wheeler ; and before taking note of what followed in the convention, 

 it may well be remarked that few preliminary addresses upon reasonably 

 untried projects and possible and desirable experiments in any line of eifort, 

 have been more wise and suggestive of what in the end proved needful. The 

 programme thus foreshadowed, in regard to the necessity of getting outside 

 hardy varieties of trees ; of atmospheric conditions to be met, including 

 dryness, and the estimate put upon the value of the efforts then and since 

 made to Aiake Minnesota a fruit growing State, have all been justified by 

 what has been experienced since ; and remarking further, that in this gather- 

 ing, so far back comparatively, the convention seems to have hit upon 

 varieties of fruit and upon ideas in regard to fruit culture which were so near 

 right that they have not been greatly departed from since, and we may well 

 look upon this particular gathering of the friends of the cause of fruit culture, 

 as amongst the most enlightened and advanced in their ideas of any that have 

 at any time met to discuss the same topics in the State. We shall proceed to 

 show this from the debates which followed. 



furthp:r proceedings. 



On motion of R. A. Mott a committee of three was chosen by the conven- 

 tion, charged with the duty of listening to the discussions, and reporting near 

 the close of the session such resolutions as would seem to embody the views 

 of the convention upon the various questions discussed. The committee 



