356 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Mr. Dartt: I want to suggest that if the note of warning went out 

 that the Baxter apple was no good they would change the name and 

 call it soinething else, and it would go just as it did before, and if 

 we go to work and advertise the list of the best apples for Minnesota 

 and spread it broadcast, those agents will have the same varieties to 

 sell; they will sell those varieties and deliver anything they can buy 

 the cheapest. I think "us" Minnesota fellows here tonight have 

 done ourselves a little wrong. I think it is a fool of a tnan who will 

 convict himself on his own admission. We have admitted that we 

 are a lot of frauds; I am willing to admit that, but I do not want 

 these Wisconsin fellows to come in here and claim they are not 

 frauds. We left as many as came away. I came from Wisconsin. 

 (Laughter.) 



Mr. Pearce: There was the Minnetonka apple sold all over Wis- 

 consin. It was said to be a winter apple. I came back to Minneso- 

 ta, but I could find out nothing about it, never had been heard of 

 before. I finally ran the thing down and catne across the agent that 

 had been selling it, and asked him the history of the Minnetonka 

 apple. "Well," said he, " it is a Russian, and we gave it the name 

 'Minnetonka' because it is popular." They sold it in Minnesota all 

 over the state. 



Mr. F. W. Kimball: It strikes me if there is any way in which to 

 circumvent those agents it is the duty of the state to do so, but how 

 to do it I don't know. There is a question in my mind whether it can 

 be done. I heard some description of how they grew them. The 

 year after planting they would produce a peck of apples, and they 

 would always increase. The reason they would produce fruit so 

 soon was because they reset them four or five times, and when they 

 were finally planted they were all full of roots and thus they were 

 able to produce a peck of apples the next season. In our own sec- 

 tion of the state many have been defrauded by this model orchard 

 business, and they afterwards learn that the time and money spent 

 is absolutely lost. " My neighbor bought a model orchard and paid 

 $80 for it, and it is an absolute failure. What is the use for me to go 

 into the orchard business?" That is the argument you meet when 

 you talk to your neighbors and try to encourage them to plant ap- 

 ple trees. We should try to educate the people to the realization of 

 the idea that standard apples, such as are suitable for our climate, 

 can be bought of any of our responsible nurserymen in the state at a 

 price not to exceed twenty-five to fifty cents, and the people should be 

 made to understand that when an agent comes along and is asking 

 more than twenty-five or fifty cents apiece for apple trees he is un- 

 doubtedly a fraud. The average farmer has paid no attention to 

 home nurseries, and when you go to him and tell him that one dol- 

 lar is a cheap price for such trees, it takes with him, because he does 

 not know their value. If I were a nurseryman and should advertise 

 that I have good.reliable stock for sale at a price not to exceed twenty- 

 five or fifty cents,it would educate the people up to the idea of the value 

 of nursery stock and give them an idea of what they ought to pay. 



Mr. D. F. Akin: I had a little experience last fall with some of 

 those tree sharks at my place. My buildings are south of my apple 



