HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IN MINNESOTA. Ill 



your closest attention. No New England mode of managing fruit trees will 

 answer here ; nor can we adopt the Middle State method, nor yet that of Ohio 

 or Indiana. We stand almost alone, though Western Wisconsin and Northern 

 Iowa, perhaps, have similar difficulties to contend with. And, indeed, I think 

 I would recommend the organization of a Northwestern Fruit Growers' As- 

 sociation, to include Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. I present this, because 

 I have had some correspondence with the Wisconsin State Horticultural 

 Society on the subject. 



There are many subjects that should receive your best attention at this 

 meeting. Such as are immediately connected with the propagation of fruit 

 trees and flowers will of course be considered in their proper place, without 

 mj^ calling especial attention to them. You will also revise the list of apples, 

 which you will recommend to the people of this State as worthy of cultivation ; 

 and while on this subject, allow me to suggest that you do not make the list 

 too long. Be careful and let them known that it is fruit you are desirous of 

 giving them, and not simply their monej^ you want. 



Another subject presses itself upon my mind, and I hardly know how to 

 introduce it. We should have a committee on nomenclature, a large and 

 intelligent one. And then, at our Fairs, all fruits entered for competition 

 should be named. If there are seedlings, and the originator does not wish 

 to give them names, he must submit them to the committee on nomenclature, 

 and a description of the fruit with its name, should be recorded in a book 

 kept for this purpose by the committee. 



It is high time that our work in the field and hall, should be systematized. 

 Tfcus far it has had the characteristic onlj- of the conglomerate. It should 

 have that of the bright and pointed crystal, and I invite your undivided atten- 

 tion to the necessity of bringing things into line. We also require a full code 

 of laws to govern us at our annual and other fairs ; and while the}- are laws, 

 let them be firmh^ administered ; if wrong make them right at your next 

 annual meeting. If any one has any thing that he thinks is particularh' nice 

 and better than any one else, and wishes to enter the arena, it is his own 

 fault if he is beaten, simply because he is ignorant of what was required by 

 the Society. We must smart for our ignorance with regard to these laws. 

 We must post ourselves up on what is necessary to enter, and contend for 

 the prize, and if we do not conform to these very just reiiuirements, let us 

 hear no whining. While I am a strong advocate of mercy, I think it should 

 Ije accompanied bj' its twin sister, Justice. I have dwelt at length on this 

 subject, for the reason that we so frequently hear complaints after fairs, such 

 as this : " why if I had onl}^ known that, I would have got the premium on my 

 grapes, or Duchess, or beets"; or "I do not think the committee were fair." 



And there is another thing that I want, most especially, to call your atten- 

 tion to, and in the language of the mother of Solomon — " Don't sa^^ me nay." 

 How often do you hear of the failure of fruit trees. They die, they freeze, 

 they thaAv, the dry weather affects them. In the language of President 

 Hobbins, of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society, "I have thought 

 much of the remedy." He says, further — •• My own opinion is that a radical 



