112 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



any method you can pursue that will bring the amount of moisture 

 to the maximum will yield the largest success in the growing of 

 apple trees in this country. The same thing applies to small fruits, 

 grapes and plums. I was a practical fruit grower for many years 

 in Minnesota, and for th^t matter am yet, and for something like 

 twenty years at Excelsior I was raising nursery stock and a va- 

 riety of fruits. I have heard members talk of poor crops of straw- 

 berries on account of lack of moisture — and I do not say it in a 

 boastful but state it simply as a fact — that as long as I was in the 

 fruit business I never had a poor crop of strawberries on account 

 of lack of moisture. I did not know anything about a dust mulch, 

 I did not know that in carrying out a deep rooted antipathy to 

 weeds I was conserving moisture; I was cultivating all the time 

 right up to freezing, and I was saving moisture, though I did not 

 know it, and the berries did not suffer. 



Mr. Underwood: Did you not raise the best grapes in the 

 state? 



Mr. Latham: I raised a lot of them. 



Mr. Underwood: Mr. Gibbs went right down to the Bucks 

 County fair in Pennsylvania and got the Wilder medal with Mr. 

 Latham's grapes that had been cultivated. 



Mr. Oliver Gibbs: Parker Earle was the chairman of the 

 awarding committee at the Philadelphia Exposition, and he said if 

 Mr. Latham's grapes had had a little more color they would easily 

 have carried off all the honors. When I went over to the Bucks 

 County society with his grapes they gave him the first premium, 

 and they gave him a certificate to that effect. 



SUGGESTED FORM OF CONSTITUTION FOR LOCAL 



SOCIETY. 



(TO BE VARIED TO SUIT CONDITIONS.) 



Article one. Name: This society shall be known as the Horti- 

 cultural Improvement Society. 



Article two. Purpose: The purpose of this organization is to 

 consider subjects pertaining to horticulture, or any other matter 

 of interest to the citizens of * * * and to do anything to im- 

 prove the town and its vicinity, or advance its material interest, 

 political and religious subjects being strictly barred. 



Article three. Membership: Any person may become a mem- 

 ber of this society for the current year by paying to its secretary 

 an annual fee of one dollar ($i.oo), the wives of the members be- 

 ing honorary members' with all the rights and privileges of the 

 paid members. The annual membership shall expire at the open- 

 ing of the annual meeting of this society. This society shall ally 

 itself ofificially with the Minnesota State Horticultural Society as 

 provided for in the constitution of the latter association. 



Article four. Officers: The officers of this society shall con- 

 sist of a president, a vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer and an 

 executive board of three, of which the president and secretary shall 

 be ex-officio members. All officers shall be elected separately and. 



