14 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



It would be speaking within bounds to say that they promise better 

 today than apples did forty years ago. Already four or five kinds 

 of cherries are grown with considerable success, which is more 

 than could have been said of apples at that time. 



The year just closing has not been a prosperous one for horti- 

 culturists. Plums have come nearer to being a perfect fail- 

 ure than ever before in the history of the state. During the season 

 of pollination when it did not rain or drizzle it was misty, and 

 dense fogs filled the air, fertilization being altogether out of the 

 question. It is to be hoped that years will elapse before another 

 such season rolls around. Following the "earlier and the later 

 rains" we may for years to come confidently expect fair harvests 

 of excellent fruit, both large and small. We must not let a single 

 partial failure discourage us. The apple crop, even this year, was 

 decidedly superior to that of corn, and where is the farmer who 

 feels like giving up his favorite cereal on account of the unfavorable 

 season? It looks now as though one would not have to peer very 

 far into the future without seeing the annual fruit crop of Min- 

 nesota surpassing the imports of fruits, something which it would 

 have been considered insane even to think of when our old friend O. 

 D. Storrs used to indulge in his marvelous flights of fancy. 



Much as our society has done in the past it will do vastly more 

 in the future. Our numbers are not only increasing more rapidly 

 than ever before, but, what is better, the young people are fast 

 coming to the front, so that there is now no longer any danger that 

 the society will lack proper guidance and strength when we are 

 obliged to yield the care and responsibility, which to this time has 

 devolved mainly upon the old stagers of "years agone," to the youth 

 of the coming generation, who are so fast following us. There 

 were very few young men in the association when it was organized, 

 but now they are not only in a majority, but they are among the 

 most energetic and useful members we have. It is not too much 

 to say that a general forward movement may be expected right 

 speedily. There is enough to do, and the pluck of both young and 

 old is good. There is no one who, like Sir John Falstafif, finds 

 his "courage all oozing out of his fingers' ends." 



In the fight for standard apples, as far as concerns all but late 

 keepers we have won a great victory, and the kind that is to furnish 

 us with the king of fruits the full year round is already in sight. 

 Our $i,ooo prize offer is doing its work. 



Our plums now rival the best which California has to oflfer, 

 and each vear adds something to size, flavor or productiveness. In 



