HISTORY OF Horticulture In Minnesota. 19;) 



what Ave the causes of failure, as to know wluit has beeu the real basis of 

 success. 



In that regard, nothing that can be given could better indicate that resolute 

 purpose to succeed which has marked the efibrts of all ; that patience ii: 

 bearing repeated and heavy disappointments through years, which has linally 

 been crowned ^Yith success. Moreover. n(j one* can read these reports, and 

 not feel and know that in all that has been done, there has been a cortlially 

 concurrent endeavor betwixt the members of the Society, as remote as possi- 

 ble from a narrow or seltish purpose- that they have acted towards each other, 

 throughout, in a generous and brotherly manner, in the highest degree admi- 

 rable and commendable. Freely acknowledging their mistakes and blunders 

 as they worked their way, they — it will be observed — have just as freely 

 announced for the common good any fortunate discovery or result obtained : 

 have striven in a spirit of emulation to lidp f^arh otli<n\ whilst pursuing a 

 common aim to make Minnesota a fruit growing State, and all this in the 

 face of countless prophecies that it could not be done. They have stood by 

 each other in this matter until their annual meetings have come to l)e the 

 pleasant gatherings, as it were, almost of the same household: their warm 

 greetings as they hail the presence of one another, those which manifest 

 feelings of respect and regarti, tested by years of agreeable intercourse 

 whilst engaged in a common and ennobling pursuit. They stand, at last, they 

 may well say, triumphantly upon the mount they have toiled so hard and so 

 long to climb ; and year l)y year, the evidences accumidate that the importaucte 

 of their labors to the weltare of the State cannot be overestimated. 



All this is pleasant to note now ; and in reviewing the past, the committee 

 are glad to know that the people at large begin to appreciate what has beeu 

 accomplished, evinced through the enlightened action of their representatives 

 in the Legislature, In furnishing the means to place these results before the 

 public of this and other States. And no one who desires to save himself from 

 numberless sacrifices and vexatious consequent upon repeated and costly 

 failures in attempts to grow fruit, shade trees, flowers, etc., can afford to 

 pass by the experiences which are so faithfully given by those who have 

 finally reached success through trials innumerable. 



The needful conditions for success, of climate, of soil, of methods of plant- 

 ing, of grafting, of pruning, of locations for orchards and so on, are given in 

 such complete detail, that there is hardly a difticulty that may arise which 

 will not be found already portrayed in some one's experience ; and we repeat, 

 these, at last are what make this volume peculiarly valuable ; because these 

 accounts left out, "condensed," or curtailed, the work would lose half, or 

 more that renders it valuable as a minute and faithful record of the long 

 continued struggle, undergone in the endeavor to bestow the boon of fruit 

 growing on the people of a great commonw^ealth. 



And if these labors and trials are of iuterest when scanned at this time, 

 how much more so will they be many years hence, in the far distant future. 

 They chronicle labors, and sacrifices, and discouragements, that ought not to 

 be lost sight of for the benefit of those w^ho are to come after us. They con" 



