96 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I have visited a number of people who are trying to raise apples 

 around here, including- Mr. Mickelson, who, I think, has the largest 

 orchard in the county. He has over 100 trees, about fifty of which 

 bore this year. They are looking finely. He cultivates and has a 

 north slope bn the lake shore. His favorites are the Peerless, 

 Wealthy and Duchess, although he has a number of other kinds. 

 One Duchess bore so heavily he had to prop up the limbs. Among 

 others I visited, the Duchess and Wealthy were the favorite trees, 

 although some liked Peerless, and others the Anisim, according to 

 the nursery they bought from. But from observation and small 

 experience, I should say the Wealthy, Duchess, Peerless, Longfield 

 and Whitney in the order named were good enough for us. 



MEETING OF THE PENINSULA HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



O. M. LORD, MINNESOTA CITY. 



I had the pleasure of attending the fifteenth annual meeting of 

 the Peninsula Horticultural Society, which includes Delaware, Mary- 

 land and a part of Virginia, at Berlin, Jan. 6-8. Berlin, Md., is six 

 miles from Ocean City, on the Atlantic coast, a prominent summer 

 resort. The railroad from Philadelphia runs nearly the whole 

 length of Delaware, the south part of which is almost a continuous 

 peach orchard. At Berlin is one of the largest nurseries in the 

 district, owned by Harrison Bros., who kindly gave me a carriage 

 ride over the grounds, the most of which are devoted to peach and 

 pear trees. 



Peaches and the Keifer pear occupied a large share of the at- 

 tention of the society. The only part of the program of interest to 

 us was the handling, the package and transportation. Greater care 

 in handling the fruit was especially emphasized, and the universal 

 package of five-eighths bushel baskets was shown to be, from mar- 

 ket reports, not equal to the Georgia oblong crate. The evils of 

 discrimination in freight rates were presented and discussed in a 

 manner which we can duplicate at any meeting. 



Strawberries are largely grown here and are a profitable crop. 

 No profit in grapes. The whole peninsula is well adapted to sweet 

 potatoes, and' a strong impetus has been given to their culture by 

 the Department of Agriculture in making several shipments to Eu- 

 rope, which brought double the price obtained at home. This fact 

 soon drew out a spirited discussion in regard to handling the crop, 

 and methods of storage and manner of packing for shipment, the 

 outlook for the crop in future being very promising. 



