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MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



HORTICULTURE AT ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY. 



A. W. LATHAM, SEc'y. 



The writer lately spent a very interesting twenty-four hours at 

 the school referred to in the above heading. This is a Catholic school 

 conducted under the auspices of the Order of St. Benedict and is said 

 to be the oldest and largest one of its kind north and west of St. Louis 

 or Chicago. It is located out in the hills one and one-half miles south 

 of Collegeville, a station on the Great Northern road, and about fif- 

 teen miles west of St. Cloud. While it has been established in the 

 neighborhood where it now is for some fifty years, it was only about 

 forty years ago that it occupied its present location, which is an emin- 

 ently desirable one. The buildings stand on the north bank of a 

 beautiful lake, perhaps a mile across, the institution owning and 

 occupying something like I, GOO acres around this lake. Of course 



Lake view irom tet. John's Univirsity. One of the orchard sites in toreground. 



the principal object of the institution is the education of young men, 

 of whom some hundreds are in regular attendance. There is also 

 very much interest taken in matters pertaining to the culture and care 

 of the soil, and to this end there are extensive farm buildings and all 

 the necessary accommodations for putting this idea _ into operation. 

 The purpose of my visit there was to note the progress that had been 

 made in experimental forestry and horticulture, which work was 

 begun something like fifteen years ago. About that time Rev. Adrian 

 Schmidt, now a resident of Minneapolis, inaugurated a system of for- 

 estry plantings which have been continued and cared for to the 

 present time. They occupy a considerable tract on the north shore 

 of the lake above referred to and consist in the main of various kinds 

 of evergreens planted in dififerent ways to secure definite results and 

 note their success under varying conditions. The plantings 



