42 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Note, if you please, the wonderful improvem.ent in horses by 

 intelligent" breeding, until strength or speed can be accurately con- 

 trolled. And so all through the animal kingdom. Those engaged 

 in it have been wonderfully successful in producing desirable re- 

 sults. Is it not high time that the vegetable kingdom should be as 

 intelligently treated as the animal kingdom ? Is it not quite as im- 

 portant that grains, fruits and vegetables should be given as 

 thoughtful consideration as that cattle and hogs should be exalted 

 to the overshadowing of everythiag else? 



Witness, if you please, the money and enthusiasm that is manifest 

 in the building of the great live-stock pavillion in Chicago, where 

 in a few days people will throng to see and admire the fat animals 

 that are ready for the shambles. They are not seedlings or scrubs, 

 but the result of careful selection and intelligent breeding. Is it not 

 time that agriculture and horticulture should learn a lesson from 

 the breeders of live stock? Improve the grains and fruits and 

 flowers and then, in the consciousness of the superiority of our 

 calling, build a mammoth pavillion in which to make our displays, 

 and let us demonstrate that our products are of quite as much in- 

 terest as hogs and cattle. 



What are the possibilities and how, then, can we best bring 

 about improvement m seedlings? The possibilities are so mary 

 and so far reaching that I should weary you with their contemplation. 

 In our own immediate interests in horticulture there is the most im- 

 portant of all, the desirable winter apple for Minnesota and the 

 northwest, as good a keeper as the Ben Davis, as hardy as the 

 Duchess, as prolific and good in quality as the Wealthy. Then we 

 want it to be drought-resisting, so that the dry, hot summers will 

 not injure it on the western prairies. In this particular, windbreaks 

 and irrigation will help to overcome the difficulty, as their applica- 

 tion is understood ; but we must avail ourselves of every resource if 

 we wish to succeed and obtain the best results. 



Then we need a hardy cherry. What other fruit can equal it 

 for sauce and pies? Knudson has already demonstrated that by 

 "breeding" he has improved the sand cherry. Why not go on and 

 cross the Morello on the plum, or perchance the "Hearts" or "Bigar- 

 reaus" could be made hardy by proper "breeding," and, mayhap, we 

 could in this way improve our hardy Americana plums. 



If apples, cherries and plums can be bred to suit our climate 

 and palate, w^hy may we not breed a race of peaches for Minnesota ? 

 I venture to say that if horticulturists had spent one-fourth the 

 time and money to do this that stock breeders have to improve the 

 fat cattle, w-e should now be shipping Minnesota peaches to the soutli 



