3l8 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



choicest fruits earth could afford. Lamentable as the facts may 

 seem, there is every reason to believe that those early inhabitants 

 were not privileged t'o enjoy the society of the gay and instructive 

 tree-agent of today, but that he is a product of a much later age. 

 Some would insist that he came to live after the Christian era. But, 

 leaving the date of his origin, the important fact is that for many 

 hundreds of years the fruit tree has been given great attention, but 

 it has only been in recent years so much attention has been given it. 

 Contrast, if you can, today with the past, and you may draw par- 

 tial pictures, but you can never, plant the real facts. Largely 

 through our instrumentality and that of our salesmen, the laborer 

 of today can dine off delicious fruits that but a few years ago 

 were esteemed as luxuries only to be served in the palaces of the 

 rich. Today the king at his royal table and the laborer from his tin 

 pail enjoy alike the Elberta peach and the Campbell's Early grape. 

 Warriors have not done half such deeds, and their names are handed 

 down from generation to generation, but the poor humble tree-man 

 can never attain this topmost rung of notoriety, but must pass from 

 the present into the future, lay down the platebook, hang up the 

 hoe and go to the place all good tree-men go. 



A CONCRETE FRUIT STORAGE HOUSE. 



A. BRACKETT, EXCELSIOR. 



We are all aware that the nearer we keep an apple, so 

 far as both moisture and temperature are concerned, at an even -de- 

 gree the better it will keep, and the freer we keep it 

 from any contact with decaying wood, paper or anything of that 

 sort the better the apple will retain its flavor. I have here a 

 sample of a "gold brick." It is not the kind we usually read about, 

 but it is a gold brick to the man who wishes to build a house in 

 which to store his fruit. It is a concrete brick made of sand and 

 cement, and it is something that any man can make himself if he 

 has sand, and it takes "sand" to do almost anything. If you will 

 build a wall of this brick, in layers two inches apart, making a ten 

 inch wall with an air space of twO' inches, no moisture or frost 

 can pass through, and you will have a cellar that will last a thousand 

 years and in which you can store almost anything. If you want 

 to make it perfectly safe so there will be no danger of frost passing 

 through in this severe climate, make a wall i6 inches thick with 

 two air spaces. Put in a cement floor. For a flat roof lay a false 

 floor and then lay iron rods across to reinforce the cement, and on 

 this false floor put from four to six inches of cement, and you 

 have a roof for your cellar, or if you want to put a building on 

 top you can do so and use it for a packing house. In such a 

 house you will have room for a large crop of apples and other 

 fruit, and no fire will ever burn it up. 



Mr. Philips : How large are the rods you use ? 



Mr. Brackett : They are half inch iron rods. 



