MINNESOTA FRUIT EXHIBIT AT WORLDS FAIR, FINAL REPORT. 43 



tributors. There were at times several hundred plates of small 

 fruits on exhibition at once. The strawberry exhibit on the whole 

 was very satisfactory, and the same may be fairly said of the ex- 

 hibits of raspberries and other small fruits. We were especially 

 fortunate in getting some very fine blackberries from Excelsior 

 during the month of August. It helped the exhibit out ma- 

 terially at a time when specially needed. 



The last of the cold storage apples being gone about the mid- 

 dle of August we were dependent upon early ripening apples to 

 cover the shelves, as we had anticipated, but unfortunately the 

 season this year was two or three weeks late, and, besides, early 

 ripening apples, especially the Duchess, lacked in many cases the 

 large size which they usually attain. This defect, indeed, was 

 noticed throughout the entire apple season, many of the contribu- 

 tors being unable to send fruit anywhere near up to the usual size 

 of Minnesota varieties. This peculiar condition of things was very 

 unfortunate for the fruit exhibit during the period after the time 

 of the small fruits and before later ripening apples like the Wealthy 

 had matured. Aside from some very fine exhibits of grapes, mostly 

 from the Minnetonka region, and the excellent showing of native 

 cultivated plums made by many contributors, the fruit exhibit 

 from our state during the month of August and up till late in 

 September was not what we could have wished, and yet it was the 

 best that we were able to make with the assistance of a host of 

 willing contributors. 



During the last two months of the fair, the Minnesota fruit 

 exhibit has, I judge from the reports that have come to me from 

 many sources, been a very satisfactory one. Plenty of beautifully 

 colored Wealthy, interspersed with Northwestern Greening, Pat- 

 ten's Greening, McMahon White, and a very full line of other 

 Minnesota varieties, made up an exhibit of which we need not, I 

 am sure, be ashamed. 



Besides the regular state exhibit, of which I had the charge, 

 the Minnesota Commission were also wise in sending down to set 

 up in Horticultural Hall the windmill veneered with apples 

 which was exhibited at the state fair by the Jewell Nursery Com- 

 pany. This exhibit is reported to be one of the most striking 

 features in the hall, and I have no doubt it was worth as an ad- 

 vertisement to the state very much more than it cost. As I was 

 not in charge of this feature of the Minnesota exhibit, I do not 

 speak more in detail of it. An engraving of the windmill exhibit 

 appeared as frontispiece of the last issue of the "Horticulturist," 



