90 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The wholesale dealers in fruit in this city informed me that Minneapolis 
is one of the best markets in the northwest for the sale of fruit. I cannot 
but help to repeat what I have said in past years, that we, especially of 
Hennepin county, owe much to the good work of Prof. S. B. Green, in 
teaching us all about fruit growing. No one doubts for a moment that in 
the near future we shall throughout the state excel in this important indus- 
try of apple growing, and what a debt of gratitude future generations will 
owe this society. 
VICE-PRESIDENT’S REPORT, SIXTH CONG. DIST. 
MRS. JENNIE STAGER, SAUK RAPIDS. 
All through this part of the country, strawberries fruited exceedingly 
well. Where the worms had not passed through last year, small fruit such 
as raspberries, currants and gooseberries also fruited well, but on our place, 
and on all other places where the worms had put in their work the year be- 
fore, there was hardly half a crop. Hundreds of apple, plum and cherry trees 
died outright, also thousands of oak and other deciduous trees, through the 
ravages of the worms. 
Grapes fruited heavily, but with the exception of the earliest varieties 
none ripened thoroughly. We had a cool, wet fall, which accounted for it. 
Fifteen years ago, currants, a few crab apple trees and wild plum trees, 
could be found here and there around the country. Now almost every family 
has different varieties of fruit planted on their home lots, and fruit culture 
is extending all through this part of the country, mainly through the work 
and literature of the State Horticultural Society. At our St. Cloud state 
fair quite a good showing of different kinds of fruit was exhibited. 
We have had such exceptionally fine weather this October and Novem- 
ber that the fruit, elm and willow trees have commenced budding out, and 
we are feeling anxious about our trees going through the winter under the 
circumstances. However, we will live in hopes. 
VICE-PRESIDENT’S REPORT, SEVENTH CONG. DIST. 
D. T. WHEATON, MORRIS. 
In making a report of horticulture in the Seventh Congressional Dis- 
trict, if it should correspond to the size of the district, it should be lengthy; 
but if it is according to horticulture itself or to the interest taken in it, it 
should be very short. This district consists chiefly of the strip of prairie 
extending from the north line of the state south along the western border 
of the state for some two hundred miles, that part of the state acknowledged 
to be the most difficult in which to raise fruits or to make trees grow. But 
comparatively little fruit is grown and most of that probably costs more 
than the same could be purchased for in the markets. I think more is paid 
for nursery stock each year than the value of all fruits grown, and the 
amount of nursery stock growing today is but little if any more than it was 
ten years ago. 
This view of the condition of horticulture in the district may seem to be 
pessimistic, yet I think has been the condition of horticulture in all parts of 
the northwest in its early days. 
