512 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



in the exhibit room below today. I believe Minnesota will in the very 

 near future raise more apples than the eastern states. I am very 

 hopeful of the outlook with the efforts that are being made in ship- 

 ments outside of the state. 



The Chairman : I see another old and valued member before 

 me, whom I know as an enthusiastic and tireless worker, but from 

 whom we never hear a word. Now I am going to call upon Mr. 

 J. R. Cummins for a little speech. 



(Mr. Cummins declined to speak.) 



Mr. Wyman Elliot: Since Air. Cummins declines to speak, I 

 will represent him as his proxy. I want to say that we have not in 

 the state of Aiinnesota a more thorough experimenter than Mr. 

 Cummins. It always gives me a great inspiration to go to his place 

 and see the work he is doing, not only in seedling apples, but in orna- 

 mental plants and small stuff generally. He has demonstrated the 

 possibilities of light sandy soil, and I hope we shall have him continue 

 with us for many years to carry on this work. 



The Chairman : We have with us a gentleman from Duluth 

 who, I believe, has never been with us before, but whose presence 

 we have appreciated, and I believe also that he enjoyed himself. We 

 would like to hear from Mr. Pendergast. 



Mr. R. H. Pendergast : I am glad to say that I enjoyed this 

 meeting very much. It is the first meeting I have attended since the 

 early days of the society. I was one of the early workers in horti- 

 culture in the state. I was brought up in a New England state, and I 

 learned that we had to work for results. I have been doing a little 

 in the line of experimenting. I find conditions for growing fruit in 

 our section of country are very different from what they are here. 

 We find the quality of fruit is better than it is here on account of the 

 clim.atic influence, and one of the things we are not troubled with is 

 too much heat. I have been watching that blight for a good many 

 years. I was in Illinois nearly forty years ago, and I watched its 

 progress further north, and after I went up to the lake I was anxious 

 to see whether we would be troubled with it there. Excepting the 

 Transcendent, which are the worst, up to three years ago I had never 

 seen a sign of it. I cannot speak in regard to the cause of it, but we 

 have cool summers, and that is a great benefit to small fruits. We 

 can beat the world on small fruits. In regard to blight, as I said 

 before, up to three years ago I had never seen a sign of it. Three 

 years ago we had set out thousands of thrifty trees, and a rainy 

 spell was followed by the hottest kind of weather, and inside of a 

 week you could hardly find a Transcendent tree that was not blighted. 



The Chairman : Now we want to hear a word from Mr. Rich- 

 thrdson. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson : I have heartily enjoyed this meeting ; 

 it was the best I ever attended, and I hope I shall live to attend many 

 more. I am glad to see the younger people taking up the work. 

 It is the young people who are doing the world's work, and it is 

 being well done, and I think we need have no fear for the future of 

 this society so long as the present prospects of help from the young 

 people hold out. 



