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ANNTJA.L EEPORT 



thoroughbred trees, fruits, flowers and vegetables, and the sooner 

 we set about producing them the sooner will the croakers' cry of 

 ''Minnesota is no fruit State" be hushed, and our State will have 

 assumed the position she ought to occupy. 



HYBRIDIZING. 



The way opened to us is through hybridization — artificial cross- 

 ing and judicious selection — "saving the fittest," This will 

 require specialists or careful, intelligent breeders in various parts 

 of the State; for so large and varied a State as ours, one farm for 

 the experiments and one man to conduct them is not enough; 

 a hundred or a thousand are not too many. Each locality has its 

 peculiarities of soils and meteorological conditions. As yet 

 but little is known as to the most effective and desirable con- 

 stituents of soils and manures in their relation to the formation 

 of variety in their action upon the growing and germinating 

 of the seed. We do not longer need to grope in the dark or trust 

 to accident, after the results that have been attained by careful 

 solution by such men as Dr. VanMors, Andrew Knight, Candalle, 

 Rivers, Rogers and Bull, to whom this generation is indebted for 

 some of the finest varieties of apples, pears, peaches and grapes, 

 but with this method tht elements of chance have remained to a 

 great degree, and millions of varieties have been rejected, repre- 

 senting time, labor and patience, and this calls for a more speedy 

 method, which shall be more certain and satisfactory in its results, 

 viz: artificial crossing and hybridizing. We want a better straw- 

 berry than the Wilson. The Concord is called the grape for the 

 million here in the North. The vine is good enough, but the fruit 

 does not meet our Avants. It is hardly early enough for our short 

 seasons, and perishes too soon after it ripens. In apples we want 

 Duchess of Oldenburg trees, bearing fruit covering the whole sea- 

 son from July to June, with the quality of the early Russets, 

 Northern Spies, Seek-no-furthers, Bellflowers, and Golden Pippins. 

 To get them speedily we want a score of such men as Rogers, 

 Moore, Campbell, Rickets, Peffer, Beall and Budd. 



MORE EDUCATIOIf. 



To bring about these desirable results we must become more 

 thoroughly educated in the fundamental principles of our noble 

 occupation. All honor to the man who first originated the idea 

 ot scientific agricultural colleges. We have met to-day in the 

 Agricultural College of Minnesota, where the preliminary knowl- 



