IN MEMORIAM, FRANK YAHNKR. 1 23 



southern nurserymen were pourinj:^ their agents into this vicinity 

 with their elaborate plate books and winning schemes, and a great 

 many farmers were swindled. Seeing how things were 

 running and being swindled to a little extent himself — although 

 cautious not to go into anything very heavily, for, as he said, a 

 few dollars were sufficient to experiment with and it was worth 

 that nuich to find out the agent and the nurscrx- — he desired, if he 

 could, to put a stop to this, at least in his own county. So he 

 started again in the mu'sery business about fifteen years ago, rais- 

 ing his own trees and for others in the neighboring county, and 

 had been gradually enlarging the business until his death. 



Six years ago he secured scions of sixty different varieties, 

 and when the trees were three years old he planted two of a kind 

 in an orchard for experimental work. He has been experimenting 

 a great deal with new varieties of fruits and originating new vari- 

 eties of apples. Longing for the delicious cherries and plums of 

 the old country he resolved to try some varieties. In the spring of 

 1893 he purchased of Prof. Budd twenty cherry trees of six 

 varieties and ten plum trees of four varieties. This, of course, 

 was nearly a failure. Out of the entire order only two plum trees 

 proved to be valuable. They were two Wyant plums. Some 

 of the cherry trees are dead, and those which are still alive have 

 never borne a crop of cherries. Later seeing the superiority of a 

 cherry which was attracting considerable attention around Homer, 

 Minn. — later named after the place — he planted an orchard of loo 

 trees and two years later loo more, and has been planting more 

 right along until he had at the time of his death an orchard of 250 

 Homer cherry trees in bearing and a little orchard which will com- 

 mence to bear in a few years. This was a good investment, and 

 his returns from it were ver}' encouraging. 



He had been experimenting a great deal with different varie- 

 ites of plums, in which he was also very successful in getting an 

 orchard into bearing and on a paying basis. 



For many years he had been clearing land on the north side 

 of a hill and planting it into apple trees. He had been planting 

 apple trees every spring, until at present there is a young orchard 

 of 1,000 trees started. Those first planted have been bearing 

 for a year or two. 



All through his life he was an active church worker. 

 In 1890 he established a Mission Sunday School for poor children 

 whose parents depended on him as a leader of their children. This 

 was rather a hard task, as he had no place to keep a Sunday School, 

 nor had he any supplies whatever. The first Sunday he kept Sun- 



