PROGRESS IN HORTICULTURE. 453 



many chapters of great interest to us and to coming- generations. I 

 know that the horticulture of Minnesota was begun under great dif- 

 ficulties and caused some serious self denial among the early- 

 pioneers. Among these were families who had been reared in bright' 

 beautiful homes that their fathers had reared in another wilderness' 

 homes where the orchard and the garden had been their delight, 

 and they availed themselves of the first opportunity to procure and 

 plant trees in this new and untried region. 



The first plantings were of the unadapted favorites of the east and 

 south, and they had come a long and tedious journey from the dis- 

 tant nursery, much of the way by slow transportation compared 

 with what we have at the present, and often the latter part of the 

 distance in open wagons and exposed to the drying winds of April 

 and May, and were finally planted in unprepared soil. Those that 

 had not already yielded up the ghost of life made but a feeble and 

 late growth and fell victims to some following test winter; and such 

 as might have survived a few of our winters fell victims to mice and 

 rabbits. 



The beginning of the real settlement of southern Minnesota was in 

 about 1851, and from that time on immigrants came in very rapidly 

 and soon scattered out over the most easily accessible parts of the 

 state. As there had been a settlement at St. Anthony Falls, St. Paul 

 and contiguous country for some time previous,there may have been 

 some fruit trees planted, but I have no evidence that previous to 1851 

 fruit had ever been cultivated in Minnesota subsequent to the period 

 when it was the home of a pre-historic race. 



The first settlement in Houston county was made at Brownsville, 

 in 1848. As early as 1851 settlements were made along the Mississippi 

 river, but largely by speculators who were seeking for town sites 

 and steamboat landings. Prior to 1853 or 1854 the majority of settlers 

 came up the river on steamboats; then great numbers began to come 

 by the overland route, through Wisconsin, crossing the river on 

 a ferry between La Crosse and La Crescent, and it was noticeable 

 that many of them brought little bundles of trees, currant bushes 

 shrubbery and even flowering plants in their well loaded "prairie 

 schooners." 



In 1852 or 1853, the first orchard in Houston county was started by 

 Samuel McPhail, and at the same time he started a small nursery at 

 Caledonia. About the same date a nursery was started at La Cres- 

 cent, but did not prove a very great success, as it was located on a 

 dry, gravelly bench, and after the trees had grown to a good plant- 

 ing size the most of them went by the "mouse and rabbit route." In 

 1852, one, John Shaw, brought to Winona county and planted on a 

 claim at Minnesota City a nail keg full of apple seeds donated by 

 his neighbors in Maine. He died the same season but willed that 

 the little trees should be distributed to such neighbors as would 

 care for them. They became the foundation of many fine orchards 

 and greatly encouraged the planting of seed. 



About 1853 or 1854 Peter M. Gideon planted an orchard at Excelsior 

 and at the same time planted a bushel of apple seeds, but had very 

 unsatisfactory results both with the trees and seeds, which had 

 been procured from farther south. Later he procured seeds from 



