WIS. STATE HORT. SOCIETY MEETING, 1901. 101 



ANNUAL MEETING OF THE WISCONSIN STATE 

 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1901. 



W. W. PENDERGAST, DELEGATE. 



Hutchinson, Minn., Jan. 2i, 1901. 



Having been appointed a delegate to represent our society and 

 exchange greetings with that of our sister state at the Oshkosh 

 meeting, held the first four days of last week (Jan. 14-17), it now 

 becomes my pleasing duty to give a brief report of the work in which 

 I found the society engaged and how they propose to carry it on. 

 If we can learn anything from them that will help us in our ef- 

 forts to do better work, that will be of special interest. 



The sessions began Monday evening, in order to close a day 

 earlier, thus giving members from a distance two days during which 

 they could visit neighboring orchards and nurseries — of which there 

 are many in the vicinity of Winnebago Lake — and get some object 

 lessons to illustrate the various papers and addresses made at the 

 meeting, thus fixing the methods recommended more firmly in their 

 minds, to be used as subjects of thought and experiment till the 

 next meeting offers another opportunity for a general consultation 

 and clearing up of the points not thoroughly understood or for 

 further discussion of those whose correctness they feel like chal- 

 lenging. 



The number of different subjects treated was very small in 

 comparison with ours. For instance, instead of assigning the prop- 

 agation of raspberries to one man, cultivation to another, fertiliza- 

 tion to still another, pruning to a fourth, winter protection to a fifth, 

 the best kinds to grow for the market to the sixth, will it pay to ir- 

 rigate to the seventh? etc., they would give the entire subject of small 

 fruits to one or two members and use the time so gained in discus- 

 sion. The discussions were very valuable, but I doubt if so many 

 members are called out to the meetings as would be the case if sixty 

 or seventy had parts assigned them a couple of months beforehand, 

 and it was understood by all that no failures to respond at the proper 

 time would be looked upon with the least degree of allowance, unless 

 a good reason could be given. Both plans have their advantages, 

 but it is almost always true that the better the attendance and the 

 more widely the work is distributed, the more profitable the meeting. 



The talks given and the papers read were of a very high order, 

 full of enthusiasm and earnestness and also full of meat. When it 

 came to the discussions there was no lack of bright and experienced 

 men to do their full duty by throwing additional light upon the 

 various subjects and pointing out mistakes and showing wherein 

 their individual experiences had led them to different conclusions. 



