114 HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE L\ MINNESOTA. 



Our elder sister. Iowa, has sucli a law, which is simply this. P^very acre of 

 forest trees plautecl, releases taxation for ten years on one hundred dollars 

 valuation ; and for each acre of fruit trees planted, tax is exempted on tifty 

 dollars valuation for five years — and in proportion for shade trees and hedges 

 along the public highways. There is now in that State, maple forests from 

 which sugar is made, where fifteen years ago there was nothing but prairie 

 grass, and hazel bushes. 



Let us reap advantage from the experience of our Iowa friends. Many of 

 us are looking forward to the time, when each school-house will have its 

 gardener, and also to the time when some of the branches of horticulture will 

 be taught in our public institutions of learning. Many of the Western States 

 are full of experiments. This is one which will sooner or later be made, and 

 if ours should lead off in the movement, it will not be the first time we have 

 inaugurated, in advance of other States, improvements of a judicious character. 



What the Society should have most at heart, is the best interests of the 

 people of the State. Our efforts in horticulture are being acknowledged all 

 through the country. We see it in the formation of county societies, the 

 crowds that attend our fairs, the eagerness with which people listen to any 

 discussion on the subject of fruit growing. Now let the Legislature lend us 

 a helping hand. Let it make an annual appropriation of a smajl amount, to 

 publish our transactions, carry on our experimental gardens, and offer liberal 

 premiums. 



Nor would this be giving us more than our just deserts. Hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars are annually sent out of the State for fruits. If the 

 Legislature will lend us the asked for aid, we will in a few years put a stop 

 to the drain, and in due time pay it back to the State in increased valuation 

 of property for taxation. 



One more subject and I am through. Scarcely anywhere in my acquaintance. 

 North, South or East, is the interest of the horticulturist so preyed upon by 

 insects as in Minnesota. Plant, flower and fruit, have each their entomo- 

 logical enemy. Vegetable, shrub and tree, is trimmed, cut and bored by 

 individuals of the many myriads of insects that live away on till Winter sets 

 in. And with a A'iewthat our people may have some knowledge of what they 

 have to contend with, that they may know their friends from their enemies, 

 I would suggest that you also look toward the appointment of a State Ento- 

 mologist at an early day. And this also should receive Legislative aid. 



And now. gentlemen, in concluding my remarks, it is my painful duty to 

 allude to the loss the Society has met with in the death of its late correspond- 

 ing Secretary, J. W. Ilarkness, of Faribault. He was one of our most active 

 members. He labored faithfully and earnestly in the good work. Taken 

 from us as he was, in the prime of manhood, cut oft" from a life of usefulness 

 in this world of sorrow ; his friends and associates Avill cherish his memory, 

 and his name will long be remembered in connection with the earlier history 

 of fruit growing in Minnesota. 



From the first dawn of horticulture as a science, men of ail classes and 

 grades have engaged in it. As a general thing their standard of morality has 



