64 MINNESOTA STATE HORTJCULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



Section 4. The Executive Board of the Minnesota State Hor- 

 ticultural Society is hereby required to appoint a committee 01 two 

 suitable persons to visit said fruit breedino- farm at least once a 

 year to examine the fruit breeding work done there, and to report 

 on the progress of such work to the Minnesota State Horticultural 

 Society and to the Board of Regents of the Minnesota State Univer- 

 sity, together with such recommendations for the future conduct of 

 such farm as may. seem to them best. 



This act shall take effect and be in force on and after its passage. 



Mr. Benjamin: How many acres would be necessary? 



The President : There is no number specified, but this could 

 be left to the discretion of the men in charge. It has been sug- 

 gested that eighty acres would be sufficient, but I told the com- 

 mittee that we ought to have a hundred and sixty acres. 



Mr. A. K. Bush : The society wants to get back of a propo- 

 sition of that kind, and the membership can be employed to good 

 advantage in getting right after the men who represent their dis- 

 tricts. It is said that this work can be done at the station, but 

 the ground there is not adapted to the growing of apples. This 

 farm should be located on soil where the conditions are better than 

 they are at the station. Now, every member should send a letter 

 to his representative or senator asking him to support that measure, 

 and that sort of thing will help wonderfully, a great deal more than 

 anything we can do here. Have it supported m that way and see 

 when this bill is introduced that it is followed up by letters from 

 members of this society, and I believe we can pass it. 



The President : We are entitled to this appropriation anyway. 

 The horticultural interests of the state are entitled to the passage 

 of this bill to furnish them a farm. We had a farm at one time 

 out at Excelsior, and the Board of Regents sold this farm, and 

 I think obtained some $16,000 or more lor it. If that farm had 

 been saved to us so that at this time when the Horticultural De- 

 partment of our State Agricultural School is in need of it, we Avould 

 not have to ask the legislature to pass this bill, and it is simply 

 asking them to give us back what they have taken from us. As a 

 matter of fact, it belongs to us. 



Soils for Orch.'\rds. — In a lecture, Prof. S. A. Beach, of Iowa, said the 

 best land for an apple orchard is one which contains clay or has a clay sub- 

 soil, porous enough to let the water pass through. The premature falling of 

 leaves in orchards during the wet season is often due to a lack of air in the soil. 



