66 HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IX MINNESOTA. 



ADDKKSS OF COL. JOHN H. .STEVENS. 



3//-. Prcsidf-nt nn<l (rcntlemen of the State Jlortirultural Society : 



In responding to the resolution passed at the last annual meeting, 1 will 

 now proceed to deliver the annual address, but I cannot assume the responsi- 

 bility without much diffidence. 



Permit me to congratulate you on the successful labor of the Society for 

 the past year. Again has the old adage proved true, that patience and per- 

 severance will accomplish many things. 



We meet under the most favorable auspices. Since this time last Winter, 

 the vine has produced more than forty kinds of grapes. The fruit of all 

 fruits the apple, exceeded our expectation. We were favored with an 

 abundance of small fruit. Choice varieties of ornamental trees have been 

 introduced. The delicate, beautiful flower bloomed and imparted its fragrance 

 to the air. An increased interest is being manifested by the people in that 

 which is so closely connected with horticulture. The lal)or of the Society 

 has not been in vain. 



Horticulture is as much a branch of industry as agriculture. It is fraught 

 with as much moment to the world. It is a necessity as well as a luxur}\ 



Said Horace Greeley a few years since to Wilford L. Wilson — "I would 

 not live in Minnesota I " "Why"? asked Mr. Wilson. " Because," replied 

 Mr. Greeley, "you cannot raise apples," Now there are thousands who 

 agree with Mr. Greeley, that a country which is barren of fruit is not lit to 

 live in. This, however, cannot be applied to Minnesota. We are becoming 

 a fruit producing people. The past .season, apples were raised from the Iowa 

 line through the great rich belt beyond the Sauk Kapids. Those who should 

 know best believe we shall eventually supply the Valley of the Mississippi 

 with this fruit, as we now do parties of the East with wheat and flour. This 

 may appear visionary, but we should have been called visionarj' if we had 

 predicted in 1849 that the embryo State was, in subsequent years to furnish 

 New England with the stafl' of life : and yet the probabilities are more favor- 

 able now in regard to the apple than it was then to the wheat. 



True, we were under a cloud for a long time. We planted but did not 

 harvest. Our trees withered and perished. Whether it was the frosts of 

 Winter, or the sun of Summer that caused them to prematurely die, no one 

 has been able to determine. Plant as we would, the trees sickened and died. 

 Possibly, and probably, tender varieties were used, which may account for a 

 portion of the difliiculty. 



No wonder, then, we became discouraged. Orchards to the third and 

 fourth planting, failed; a constant drain on the pocket without a ray of light 

 in the future, influenced us in abandoning the enterprise. But those days, 

 with their trials, have passed away. It is said that the same difficulties in 

 regard to the propagation of the apple, had to be encountered in all new 

 countries. 



And yet some persevered. The far north was visited. Seed was gathered 

 instead of trees. The germ of a few — very few, perhaps one in ten thousand, 



