l8 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There have been three deaths of Hfe members recorded durino- 

 the past society year : that of Prof. J. L. Budd, late of Ames, Iowa, 

 who died December 21, 1904; the name of Rudolph Knapheide, late 

 of St. Paul, is also to be added to this list, although I have not been 

 able to ascertain the exact date of his decease. Recent knowledge 

 has also come to me of the death of Mr. A. G. Tuttle, the veteran 

 nurseryman of Baraboo, Wisconsin, well know as champion of and 

 experimenter wath the Russian varieties of apples, whose death 

 occurred during the past year. I hope to secure some particulars of 

 his decease more than I am able to present at this time. Allowing 

 for the deceased life members, there is a net increase of life mem- 

 bers for this year of twenty, 'making the total present life mem- 

 bership 155 and the total list of members, not including two or three 

 short time honorary members, 1973. I should speak here of the 

 death of Mr. S. D. Hillman, announced in a local paper as occurring 

 November 27th after an illness of only four days' duration.. That 

 Mr. Hillman's name was not on the honorary life list of the society 

 was simply an oversight, I am sure, as his services to the society as 

 secretary for five years, commencing with the year 1885, were highly 

 appreciated, to which Mr. Wyman Elliot can testify, as during four 

 of these years he was president. A suitable notice of the death of 

 Mr. Hillman will appear in an early number of our monthly. 



The usual methods of securing new members and distributing 

 the literature of the society have prevailed this past year with no 

 material change. Three hundred and sixty-one memberships have 

 been sent in to the office from the farmers' institutes, of which Mr. 

 Frank Yahnke has favored us with 108, the lecturer on horticulture 

 with the other institute, Mr. Wm. A. Buggs, of Stockton, sending 

 253. In connection with securing these members, Prof. Green's 

 book, "Amateur Fruit Growing," has been given to the new mem- 

 bers as a premium by the lecturer. A large number of these and 

 other horticultural books has been sent out also to other members 

 of the society who have secured new members, in all, including the 

 institutes, 497 volumes. Thirty thousand of the foldeis of the 

 society have been printed, the little folder which contains the fruit 

 list, etc., with which all of you are familiar. These have been dis- 

 tributed, perhaps half of them, through the farmers' institutes, a 

 large number of them from this office directly, and a very consider- 

 able number by the nurserymen of the state, who give them out in 

 their correspondence and through the hands of their agents. This 

 is good literature for the horticultural society to send out, and the 

 nurserymen should be encoruraged to assist still further in this di- 

 rection. 



