HORTICULTURE AT THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR, I9O5. 369 



Some changes were made in the arrangement of the horticultural 

 part of the hall, made necessary from the fact that the honey exhibit 

 was crowded out of its old place in the agricultural part of the hall 

 by the unusual number of county exhibits. So room was found in 

 the horticultural department, which resulted in the necessary placing 

 of some of the florists' exhibits where they interfered somewhat 

 with the general plan of the hall whereby the whole interior could 

 be seen at a glance. With these slight defects, which will be readily 

 remedied another year, the plan upon which the hall had. been newly 

 arranged was carried out in its fullness. 



The fruit exhibit differed in detail and in its totals only very 

 slightly from the year before, though the fruit was somewhat riper 

 from the fair being held a week later. The exhibit figured up a total 

 o'f 3,493 plates of fruit exhibited in the horticultural department as 

 against 3,538 in 1904. It would not be out of the way in reciting 

 the details of this exhibit to mention the fact that an unusually large 

 amount of fruit was found in the county exhibits in the agricultural 

 department, in some places the number of plates running up into 

 hundreds. So much have the orcharding interests of the state de- 

 veloped that they have become a large factor in the county ex- 

 hibits. Going a little into detail as to the fruit exhibit, there were 

 fourteen pecks of Wealthy displayed, for which a pro rata premium 

 of $20.00 was offered, evidently too small an amount for the number 

 of exhibits. There w^ere also seventeen collections of ten varieties 

 of apples, a wonderfully beautiful exhibit, occupying one side of 

 a long table. The pro rata premium for these was $30.00, also 

 too small for the number and quality of the exhibits. There were 

 only two collections of apples in the professional class and four in 

 the amateur class, which is explainable from the fact that through 

 an oversight in the premium list the usual pro rata premium of 

 $75.00 did not appear, and in its place was found "first premium, 

 $10.00; second premium, $5.00." This oversight was, we under- 

 stand, corrected later by the management, but not in season to bring 

 out that particular class of exhibits in its entirety. There were 

 thirteen collections of crabs and hybrids, ten varieties each, which, 

 including the single plate exhibits, filled up one side of a long table. 

 The single plate entries of apples of the professional class numbered 

 170, and the same class of exhibits for amateurs numbered 333. 

 These being the finest apples exhibited, they were placed upon two 

 new tables which had been constructed with four shelves on each 

 side, rising one above another at a distance apart of six inches and 

 having the spaces between the shelves covered with mirrors, which 

 reflected verv beautifullv the fine fruit shown thereon. These two 



