14 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



securing of a water supply. Hundreds of acres of strawberries 

 were ruined the past year by a lack of moisture; the effects were 

 slow in manifesting themselves but were correspondingly severe. 

 Wasted opportunities for irrigating hundreds of acres of land in 

 Minnesota are allowed to pass unimproved. We are slow to realize 

 what injures us but still slower in availing ourselves of a remedy. 

 I would recommend that our society instruct our legislative 

 committee to secure the passage of a law for irrigation at the 

 coming session of the legislature. To do this it would be neces- 

 sary for them to look up the laws of other states on this subject and 

 be sure to get one adapted to our wants. 



One of the most important means by which we may help to over- 

 come the effects of drouth is by conserving the moisture that falls; 

 this may be done to a considerable extent by cultivation, but in a 

 broader and more general way by preserving and adding to our 

 forest areas. 



Many an acre of land is lying idle and worse than useless that 

 could easily be made to pay a pecuniary profit by growing timber 

 upon it, where now it is a barren waste. Actual experiments have 

 proven that land worth not more than $1.00 per acre has been set to 

 white pine and cared for in a poor way for fifty years, and yet it has 

 developed a grove that would now furnish fifty thousand feet of 

 lumber to the acre, or one thousand feet per year, which at ten dol- 

 lars per thousand would be worth five hundred dollars, or ten dol- 

 lars per year for each acre, besides furnishing in thinnings and 

 trimmings enough to pay for the labor bestowed upon the trees. 

 Surely this should encourage the committee which our society has 

 appointed to ask for legislation that shall provide for the care of 

 the cut-over timber lands to press forward with confidence that 

 they are working for the pecuniary interests of the state. But who 

 can estimate the value that re-established forests will have in check- 

 ing the winds and thus preventing the rapid evaporation of moist- 

 ure? I would urge upon our society that they see to it that our leg- 

 islative committee do all in their power not only to re-establish for- 

 ests on cut-over lands but also give encouragement to the planting 

 of trees all over the state — and I think it would be well to increase 

 the number of the committee to five. 



The past year has been one of great interest to the horticulturist. 

 There has been abundant success in raising apples, and, although 

 we have stood with our arms over our heads expecting an avalanche 

 of disaster to crush our buoyant hopes. Nature has been kind to us, 

 and our fruit trees have come through the past several winters in 

 beautiful condition. One of my neighbors raised so many apples 

 this year that he did not pick them all up but turned his hogs into 

 the orchard to eat the surplus. Probably, the United States has 

 just grown the largest crop of apples that the world ever saw: 

 enough to furnish three bushels to every inhabitant of this nation, 

 or, in other words, 210,000,000 bushels. 



Turning from the town to the country, our opportunities become 

 correspondingly multiplied and broadened, and, although my life 

 has been spent on the farm, I am ashamed to say that I think there 



