16 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
est. For the convenience of those who cannot spare the whole amount at one 
time, two annual payments of $5.00 each have been arranged.- The fact 
should not be overlooked that as a life member you will receive a file of our 
back reports, which is in itself quite a library, as we are now issuing volume 
number twenty-seven. Fifty of the members in attendance at this meeting 
should square themselves with the secretary and have their names placed in 
this roll during the progress of this meeting. If you have already paid the 
annual fee for this year the amount can be deducted from the first annual 
payment, leaving only $4.00 more to be paid. Let us get to the front in this 
line also. 
A few changes have been made the past year in the equipment of the 
secretary's office, mainly in the way of additions. Of these none is so highly 
prized as a framed photograph of the late Peter M. Gideon, presented to the 
society by Mr. Wyman Elliott. Within the writer’s recollection this picture 
has been hung on the walls at our annual meetings. It is an excellent like- 
ness of him as he appeared twenty years ago when in the fullness of success 
in his work. 
Next in interest to this is a cabinet of wax models of twenty-six varieties 
of apples grown in our state. It is a valuable collection and should be sup- 
plemented by a similar one of grapes and other fruits doing well with us. 
Seven substantial chairs have lately been added to the office furniture, 
made advisable by the increasing solidity of the office corps of the society. 
The older incumbents are still there, and visitors are cautioned to make care- 
ful selection proportionate to the bulk to be deposited thereon. 
The executive board a year ago authorized the secretary to get a safe and 
book cases with glazed doors for the whole library, but careful computation 
showed the impossibility of accommodating the materials already accumu- 
lated in receptacles that occupied more room than the present arrange- 
ments. So these improvements were reluctantly postponed till it seems ad- 
visable to move the office into larger and, necessarily, more expensive 
quarters. 
No feature of the work of the office during the past year is of greater in- 
terest and, we hope, promises more for the pomology of the state than that 
connected with the award of $1,000.00 offered by this society for a certain 
ideal winter apple. The regulations pertaining to this award were finally 
agreed upon and the permanent awarding committee appointed by the board 
in September. Copies were at once sent to some twenty-five applicants and 
very soon after to all the agricultural and horticultural papers of this country 
and Canada, something over 150. The letters coming in indicate that these 
journals gave wide notice of this offer, and a considerable number of informal 
applications are being made as a result, most of them containing a descrip- 
tion of a seedling apple which seems to be about what we need. There are 
evidently a good many valuable seedlings the nurserymen have not yet got 
hold of. The chairman of the awarding committee will present fuller report 
on this subject. 
Amongst other pleasant services the secretary had the opportunity early 
in the year of aiding the work of the Women’s Auxiliary by sending out some 
thousands of a circular setting forth the purposes of the organization and 
containing also much other good practical literature along the line of their 
work. 
In connection with the Farmers’ Institute, as in former years, the lecturer 
on horticulture in the corps has distributed the surplus magazines from this 
