110 HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IX MINNESOTA. 



and red-cheeked fruit, in Autumn. Allow me to congratulate you on the 

 favorable auspices under which we have met, gathered as we now are, from 

 the different sections of the State, to hold this our annual, and at the same 

 time, our Winter meeting. The season of the 5'ear is very opportune. The 

 storm king. Winter, reigns without. It is a fit time for us to meet and com- 

 pare notes, exchange experiences, relate to each other the failures, as well as 

 the successes that have attended 'our labors, to impart the modus operandi of 

 our work in our chosen field. Doubtless many subjects will be presented 

 for discussion, about which there will be various opinions, and while I would 

 recommend earnestness in the expression of our views, it behooves us to let 

 our frankness be tempered with that charity that is not puffed up. 



|In our discussions we should take into consideration the various qualities 

 of soil which surround our respective homes, and report our progress in the 

 various matters so interesting and so necessary in the propagation of fruit 

 and trees. Xor can we afford to neglect, in our deliberations, to discuss the 

 best methods of cultivation of the most beautiful gift of Heaven, the flowers 

 and the plants which bear them, the absence of which, around our dwellings, 

 gives our homes a dreary, cheerless and uninviting appearance. 



Horticulturists are more dependent upon their associates who are engaged 

 in the noble calling, than almost any other class of people. Theirs is a pro- 

 gressive life. New discoveries in the horticultural world are of daily occur- 

 rence ; experiment upon experiment is constantly being made ; new things 

 and new theories are constantly coming to the surface. What a boundless 

 field opens before the devoted and enterprising student in horticulture. Nor 

 should our light be hid under a b\ishel, for what we know and what Ave have 

 learned by hard and costly experience, we have no right, as good citizens of 

 this young and growing State, to keep within our own breasts ; but we should 

 herald it forth with tongue and pen, and let our homes, our surroundings, 

 our orchards, shade trees, flowers, and our lawns, blaze forth so brightly, 

 that any passer-by may know that no sordid selfishness reigns within. 



Gentlemen of the State Horticultural Society, you should feel proud of your 

 past year's efforts and success. The darkness that surrounded, and the heavy 

 clouds that hung over your earlier efforts have been dispelled. 



Perhaps it would be premature to say that it is an established fact that 

 Minnesota will be a great fruit-growing State yet. We are warranted from 

 experiences of the past three years, in declaring that such is our belief, at 

 least, in regard to the apple and small fruits. The experience of the past ten 

 years is a sufficient guarantee. We have accomplished much. We have much 

 yet to overcome ; perhaps, however, not more than all new countries have 

 had to contend with, although, in some respects it seems that ours is a pecu- 

 liar soil, climate and exposure, and will require a cultivation peculiar to our 

 State. 



In what part of the world do we find such soil, such extremes of heat and 

 cold, such winds, and such droughts as we most always have, pending the 

 flowering and fruiting of that most delicate of all fruits— the strawberry ? 

 These subjects and the best method to overcome the difficulties should claim 



