240 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The North Star Apples. — There are two good varieties under this 

 name. The first sent out under this name was originated by Chas. G. Patten, 

 Charles City, Iowa. It is medium or below in size, slightly acid, good quality, 

 late fall. Color, clear waxen yellow with warm reddish bronze blush. 



The other variety sent out under this name later is a .seedling of the 

 Duchess, originated by J. W. Dudley, Arostook County, Maine, and sent out by 

 a nursery of Rochester, New York. It has a very bright colored, good, pleas- 

 ant subacid, late fall and early winter apple. It is now called Dudley Winter, 

 but in accordance with the rules of the American Pomolgical Society, this 

 name should be shortened to Dudley. One or two years I have noticed this 

 variety on exhibittion at the Minnesota State Fair; its very bright color enti- 

 tles it to a trial, but its season may not prove long enough. 



PROF. N. E. HANSEN, Brookings S. D. 



"The GoIvD Mine in the Front Yard— and how to work it."— This is 

 the characteristic title of a book issued from the pen of C. S. Harrison, of 

 York, Neb , whom the members of our society attending the last few annual 

 meetings will remember well as adding a brilliant feature to these gather- 

 ings. His natural eloquence finds outburst in this book, which, while it is 

 really devoted to the culture of hardy shrubs and herbaceous plants adapted to 

 the front yard especially, is clothed in language abounding in brilliant 

 periods and sprightly sentences, a marked contrast to the standard works pre- 

 ceding this on similar subjects. The reader will be both delighted and in- 

 structed in pursuing this most interesting and yet practical work. He will 

 fall in love with many flowers of familiar name, of which the study of this 

 work may show him that he knows comparatively little about. Special atten- 

 tion, of course, is paid to the subject of peonies, in the growth and production 

 of new varieties of which Mr.*Harrison has long been known as an expert. 

 But the book is by no means confined to this one species of flowers. The book 

 closes on page 279 with the following characteristic paragraph: "There is no 

 farm in the great northwest which cannot be greatly improved and made 

 homelike. A man should have an ambition to make the most possible of his 

 home. It should not be an eyesore and a plague-spot. It should match the 

 greenness of the field, the beauty of the prairie and forest, and repose of the 

 waters and all the loveliness of nature. And so, my friends, you will fix up, 

 wont you?" The first lines of chapter one are equally indicative of the 

 writer: "The home. This should not be a kennel, a sty, a stable or a barn. It 

 is the dwelling place of immortals. It should be the most sacred on earth." 



The book is issued by Webb Publishing Co., St. Paul, 208 pages. Price, 

 $1.00. It is handsomely gotten up, printed on heavy paper and well illus- 

 trated, neatly bound in light colored cloth; an attractive, useful and inspiring 

 book. 



The Western Farmer and Dairyman. — A fourth agricultural paper 

 published in our state is being issued at Mankato under the above title. Mr. 

 W. W. P. McConnell, well known to our readers as for a number of years 

 Dairy and Food Commissioner of this state and the present president of the 

 National Dairy and Food Association, has assumed the position of editor. 

 The title indicates that special attention will be paid by this new periodical 

 to the dairy industry. I note that the numbers at present issued are paying 

 some attention to horticulture, but as yet no one has been appointed to take 

 special charge of that department, which defect will, however, undoubtedly 

 be remedied soon. The subscription price is placed at fifty cents per annum, 

 the same rate charged by our other agricultural papers. 



