Secretary's (®orqer. 



Rkport op Summer MEExmci. — The regular summer meeting is being 

 held so late this year that it is impossible to publish the report in the July 

 number, so that the list of awards as well as the regular report of the meet- 

 ing will not appear until the issuance of the August number. All premiums 

 taken at the meeting, however, will be paid by check very soon aft^r the 

 meeting, though full information as to premiums taken will not be accessible 

 until the August number is received. 



The Fruit Exhibit at the Coming State Pair. — Are you planning to 

 make an exhibit of such fruits as may ripen well at your place at the coming 

 state fair ? So many of the older exhibitors, who have carried the work of 

 the horticultural department at the fair for so many years, have dropped out 

 that it becomes necessary to seek much new material to take their places. 

 Please look over the premium list early and see what exhibits you can pro- 

 bably make and plan for this weeks beforehand, not leaving it for the last 

 few days before the fair. The secretary, who has charge of the horticultural 

 department as usual again this year, would like to hear from all probable 

 exhibitors and especially the newer ones, and any information desired along 

 this line will be gladly furnished as far as possible to do so. 



The Fruit Breeding Farm. — A good many offers have been received of 

 locations thought by those making the offers suitable for the purposes for 

 which the fruit breeding farm is designed, and quite a number have been 

 visited by members of the board and others. Only one has so far been found 

 which gives promise of being up to the high standard required. This farm 

 is located at Zumbra Heights station on the Minneapolis and St. Louis road, 

 this being the last Minnetonka Lake station on that line of railway, about a 

 mile from the lake and five miles west of Excelsior. An option for thirty 

 days has been taken on this land. Any other sites that seem to our members 

 to be favorable for this purpose, we should be glad to hear of, and the secre- 

 tary or any other member of the executive board of the society may be com- 

 municated with in the matter — but it should be attended to promptly. 



Decker's Seedling — "Has been growing between thirty and forty years 

 on the farm of Mr. J. S. Decker, just east of the city of Austin. This is a 

 large apple, somewhat in shape and color between the Malinda and N. W 

 Greening. That the tree is hardy enough to stand our climate seems almost 

 assured. The original tree was a Duchess root graft, the Duchess growing 

 upright as the main tree and this seedling springing up as a sprout below the 

 graft on either side, making two low trees spreading out underneath the 

 Duchess, one at the north and the other at the south. Being thus so over- 

 shadowed by the Duchess, it seems exceedingly strange that it should ever 

 have held on so well and borne so much fruit. Scions cut from it look bright, 

 clean and hard. Mr. Decker assured us that he had picked as high as a 

 V)arrel apiece from those two low growing root sprouts, of which the tree 

 consists. In quality this variety ranks very high, being given the highest 

 .score of all seedlings of its class by the committee on awards at the late 

 meeting of the State Horticultural Society." Clarence Wedge. 



