454 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Maine and Vermont, and from them came the Wealthy apple, one of 

 the most famous ppples of the age. 



During the following ten years, thousands of apple, pear and plum 

 trees were planted annually, a number of small nurseries were star- 

 ted, and Minnesota began to be a good field for the operating of 

 agents and dealers. This was before the days of "iron clad," "whole 

 root," "budded trees," and "model orchard" swindles and other 

 humbugs, and yet little progress was made, because the varieties 

 planted were largely unadapted and the people had but an imper- 

 fect knowledge of a pomology that would apply to the region. The 

 first really perceptible progress began soon after the organization 

 of the state horticulural society, in October, 1866, with but twelve 

 members. The membership roll of the society has now over 800, 

 which is a good index of the progress made. At that time Minne- 

 sota horticulture was mostly an ideal thing, existing only in the 

 busy brains of Col. D. A. Robertson, John H. Stevens, J. T. Grimes, 

 L. M. Ford, Truman M. Smith, A. W. Sias. Chas. Hoag, R. L. Cotter- 

 ell, Dr. J. D. Ford, I. W. Rollins, Wm. Somerville, Wyman Elliot 

 and about a dozen others, including the writer, men who were be- 

 ginning or dreaming of beginning in great earnest to plant nurser- 

 ies, orchards and gardens and to ornament their homes with 

 evergreens and shrubbery, and make suitable shelter for families 

 and stock. Here and there, but far apart and of small area, were 

 orchards beginning to fruit, and the fruit was fair and perfect. Here 

 and there, one or two in a county, a farm home had become em- 

 bowered in trees and shrubbery and protected against heat and 

 storms, but in the main the farmers' homes were withoutadornment 

 or shelter from trees of any kind, without flower or fruit garden, or 

 there may have been the ghosts of a few dead apple trees to show 

 that one unsuccessful effort had been made to have an orchard. 



But now, my friends, we are able to record and point with pride 

 to the amazing progress made in a little over a quarter of a century. 

 Today our state is full of orchards, gardens and beautiful homes. 

 Market gardening, then scarcely thought of, has become a great in- 

 dustry. There was not a nursery or fruit establishment in the state 

 really worthy of the name, and now thousands of acres are devoted 

 to the raising of fruits, fruit trees, plants and flowers, and there are 

 enough trees and plants in our own nurseries to supply all our 

 present needs, and yet this is the best canvassing ground for the 

 foreign agent and tree peddler on the American continent. If our 

 people would give their patronage to the home nurseries the 

 progress would be still greater. The saving in cost would be at 

 least fifty per cent. In many cases, like the "model orchard" and 

 "wine grapes," the purchase is worse than money thrown away. 

 Those who saw the the wonderful exhibition of fruits at the laststate 

 fair compared with the three small exhibits, in all less than twenty- 

 five varieties, at the fair of 1866, can form at least a faint idea of the 

 "progress in horticulture." We are getting to the front, we are cre- 

 ating a pomology of our own that will be just adapted to our wants- 

 The coming fruit is the ideal one.and through the work of our state 

 and local horticultural societies, the farm schools and experiment 



