14 MINNEAPOLIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ANNUAL REPORT OF EXECUTIVE BOARD. 
WYMAN ELLIOT, CHAIRMAN. 
We have held four executive sessions the past year, two at the time of 
the annual meeting, one at the summer meeting, and one at the state fair. 
The rest of the business of the year has been managed through corres- 
pondence. 
The principal business of importance has been preparing rules and 
regulations governing the $1,0co premium offered by this society for a‘seed- 
ling apple fulfilling all the conditions named. This, it is hoped, will be far- 
reaching in. its results in the development of pomology for our state. It is 
hoped this inducement will give a great impetus to the planting of choice ap- 
ple seeds all over the Northwest; and it is very much desired by the mem- 
bers of your executive board that this premium offered shall be the means 
of giving us not only one apple that is hardy and possessing all the other 
qualifications stipulated, but that many others of equal merit will be pro- 
duced to help swell the list of apples that are worthy of cultivation. 
The secretary’s office and library room are fast becoming over-crowded 
and provision must soon be made to secure a larger room. 
Suggestions have been made that some measures should be adopted by 
our society whereby the lady friends of the horticultural fraternity of our 
state should become more closely interested in our work, and it is hoped 
these suggestions will be discussed and some action taken at this meeting. 
There are many talented women who are both capable and willing to pre- 
pare valuable papers and participate in our discussions when once their ser- 
vices have been enlisted, and as progressive horticulturists we should seek 
their aid and encourage their efforts along the line of better home making 
and adornment. The raising of choice fruits, vegetables and flowers, un- 
less utilized by some one with acquired taste in preparing them in an in- 
viting and appetizing manner, does not reach the best results. The horticul- 
turist of the present day, with work always pressing him forward to greater 
exertions, needs the assistance and refinement of the gentler sex to tone 
down his rough exterior and make home more pleasant and living more 
economical. We say, God speed the women’s auxiliary societies all over 
our state and nation and may their influence be a leavening power in form- 
ing progressive ideas and sentiments with every true horticulturist. 
SECRETARY’S ANNUAL REPORT, 1899. 
A. W. LATHAM, MINNEAPOLIS. 
The year just closing has been one of interest in the work of the 
society, at least as seen from the standpoint of the secretary’s office. The 
legacy left it from the vear before was not altogether an encouraging one. 
With no printing appropriation and a moral obligation amounting to some 
thousands of dollars due the printers, covering the work of the two previous 
years in the publication of our magazines and reports, and just a dash of 
uncertainty as to what the incoming legislature might see fit to do about 
meeting this obligation and providing the necessary means for continuing 
the work of the society, there was occasion for very serious deliberation. 
It was an assured relief when this crisis in our history was safely passed, 
thanks to the persistent and untiring efforts of our president, of otir fellow 
member, A. K. Bush, fortunately at this time a member also of the legisla- 
