18 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



membership: 



The number of annual members on the roll for the year just 

 closing is 760, which is 117 more than for the preceding year at 

 the time of the annual meeting. The life roll has been increased 

 during- the year by the addition of six names, and decreased by 

 only one death, that of Andrew Peterson, who passed away 

 March 31 last. Our life members will be interested to hear that the 

 life certificate, which has been talked of for a good while, has at 

 length materalized and will be soon sent out. We hope it will be 

 handsorce enough to deserve a neat frame, and that you will be 

 proud to hang this emblem of j'our membership with us on the 

 walls of your homes. Besides the foregoing, we must record the 

 deaths of J. O. Barrett and J. A. Sampson, both old members, as 

 occurring during the year. 



, We have felt a special pride in the fine exhibit of fruit at the state 

 •fair. To those of our members who were present no reference is 

 needed, but for the benefit of others the simple statement that there 

 were on exhibition altogether 5,300 plates of fruit, will give some 

 idea of the extensiveness of this exhibit. We occupied practically 

 the whole hall. What we may be able to do next year to improve on 

 this remains to be seen, but certainly it will be very difficult for us 

 to increase upon last fall's show of fruit. It was a source of some 

 regret that we did not have an opportunity to make a horticultural 

 exhibit at the Omaha Exposition, but the funds at the command of 

 the state commission were insufficient to allow our interests the 

 amount necessary to make a creditable exhibit, and it was 

 reluctantly abandoned. 



Reference should by strict right be made in this report to the very 

 efficient assistance rendered the society in its efforts to reach the 

 people by the lecturers on horticulture in the Farmers' Institutes. 

 The different lecturers of late years, including Mr. Clarence Wedge, 

 the lamented E. J. Cutts, Ex.-Sec'y Oliver Gibbs, Jr., for a short time, 

 and during the most of last winter Mr. A. K. Bush, have made a 

 practice of distributing regularly at the institute copies of our 

 magazine and other society literature, which has been the means of 

 securing a good many members for the society, and of promoting 

 very largely the interests which it is the mission of the society to 

 foster. The statement is no reflection on others who ably filled this 

 position prior to this time, as the society then had no similar litera- 

 ture for distribution. You will be pleased to know that Mr. O. M. 

 Lord is this winter to fill the position of horticultural lecturer at 

 the institute, and is today on the platform at Morristown making 

 his maiden speech and giving out good horticultural tracts. 



