STATE HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 65 



•and witliout reward transplanted to the state farm, Mv. Gideon has advanced the 

 state orcliard fully one-half the time necessary from parent flowers to new seedling 

 fruit, and i>erhaps before these transactions of ours shall be printed we may hear of 

 a still better apple than the Wealthy dropped into our open mouths. Mr. Gideon 

 has his commission from the governor to work away on that experimental fruit 

 .farm at Excelsior. He makes an annual report to the lioard of regents of the State 

 University, as the law directs him to do. Thej' furnish us with a copj' of it. AV^hat 

 more can we require of Mr. Gideon except courteous reception of friendly visitors, 

 which is always accorded? He is put there solely to work out Peter M. Gideon's 

 ideas of fruit propagation by cross breeding, and for trial of new sorts from else- 

 where. The State gives him a little money to do it witll^ payable not from taxes 

 taken from the people, but from the Universit\- fund contributed by the United 

 States Government. It is not all for himself, for out of it ']\Ir. Gideon has to pay 

 for the hired labor he puts upon the experimental farm; aiid the State has made 

 enough in the purchase of that 116 acres of land on Lake Minnetonka to pay, if the 

 surplus were sold at present prices, Mr. Gideon his annual stipend to the end of 

 his life. In honoring Mr. Gideon and giving him this encouragement and employ- 

 ment, it has put money in its own purse by the rise in value of the land. So far, 

 so good. Let it honor itself by continuing to help him as it is doing at present, in 

 his laliors in the propagation of the new and hardy seedling fruits *hat we so much 

 need; and there is nothing else that could offer so good a prospect of success in 

 this direction, except it might be that some of us, or some other of our citizens in 

 the State, should with equal knowledge and equal enthusiasm and industry, under- 

 take to do what he is doing for us One word more. Mr. Gideon has been criti- 

 cised as having no system in his propagation. Mr. President, this is most unjust 

 and unfair. His work is all system at present. Look in the Iowa agricultural re- 

 port for 1879, and his reports to the board of regents, and his communications to 

 the press, and you will see what it is. His methods are exact and are based on his 

 long experience and observation of nature's laws. Again, he has ])een held to ac- 

 count for not exhibiting his fruits at State fairs. All the apples he has raised up 

 to this date have been produced on his own farm, and he has a right to do as he 

 pleases with them. He objects to the undue prominence of horse-racing and does 

 not patronize the State fairs. That is all there is of that. In our own society ex- 

 hil)itions we have never had a large display of "Wealthies that did not come from 

 Mr. Gideon's trees. If he has anything in future that is valuable cither on his own 

 farm or on the State experimental fruit farm, we shall all have the benefit of it, 

 for there is no patent on inventions of this kind, nor can any apple tree be grown 

 and hid under a bushel. 



Mr. Emery said Mr. Gideon was a coniindru]n, and moved to give ui) 

 the discussion and presented the following resolution: — 



Resolred, That the committee on legislation he instructed to use its 

 influence to abolish the act providing $1,000 per annitni for conduct- 

 ing the experimental farm under management of P. M. Gideon, and 

 that an annual pension of $1,000 be appropriated for the benefit of 

 Mr. Gideon, as a token of the appreciation of the State of his .services 

 j]] producing the Wealthy. 

 5 



