270 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



All early flowering kinds were full of bloom, spirea. honeysuckle, 

 snowball, flowerinp^ pluiTij etc. 



The iris is full of bloom. Pansies are just coming out, and 

 roses are beginning to blossom. 



ANNUAL MEETING, 1906, WESTERN HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY, WINNIPEG, MAN., FEB. 15, 1906. 



PROF. WM. ROBERTSON, CROOKSTOX, DELEGATE. 



I have heard it jestingly said that a person lying across the 

 line with his feet in Manitoba and his head in Minnesota would have 

 a very cool head and very warm feet, if the thermometer be al- 

 lowed to tell the temperature on the Minnesota side and the Cana- 

 dian land agent for the Manitoba side. My visit to the Western 

 Horticultural Society meeting in February explained the matter to 

 me. It is the warmth of the Canadian heart that keeps up the 

 temperature of Winnipeg. They use coal in winter, but the thing 

 that captures the Minnesotan when he crosses the boundary line 

 on the north is the warmth of his welcome. 



Can fruit be grown in Manitoba? I answer that it will take 

 more than a few degrees of temperature, more or less, to outdo 

 the boundless enthusiasm and confidence of the members of the 

 Western Horticultural Society. Can fruit be grown in northern 

 Minnesota? For answer look at the accompanying illustration 

 of an actual apple-harvest scene at the home of A. P. Stevenson, 

 six miles north of \Mnnipeg ; then ask yourself if there is any room 

 for the pessimist in ^linnesota, or even on the face of the earth. 

 I keep this picture on my desk here at Crookston. and when anybody 

 comes into my office and tells me that we are too far north to grow 

 apples I do not argue \vith him, I just hand him the picture. Facts 

 are stronger than argument. 



I am afraid, ]\Ir. Secretary, that I became so imbued with the 

 one idea of enthusiasm at the meeting of the Winnipeg Society 

 that it knocked everything else out of my head, and I forgot to take 

 note of details. In fact, I was so captured that I have sold my 

 farm, strawberries and all. in the southern part of Alinnesota, 

 four miles from the Iowa line, and have bought another in Roseau 

 Co., just far enough from the north boundary so I can catch the 

 inspiration of the ]\Ianitoban as it blows across the line. Have ^Iso 

 put out at the State Farm here at Crookston this spring, for trial, 

 a feW' each of thirteen varieties of apples, and have started a 

 new strawberry bed, five rows, 100 plants each, of Splendid, Beder- 

 wood. Warfield, Senator Dunlap and Lovett. They are looking 



