376 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



HORTICULTURE AT MINNESOTA STATE FAIR IN 1897. 



A. W. LATHAM, SEC'Y, 



The discouraging- reports early in the season as to the prospects 

 of a fruit crop and the purpose of the management that the horti- 

 cultural display should occupy the greater part of a hall of which 

 we had heretofore made use of only one-half, aroused some apprehen- 

 sion lest we might not succeed in making as creditable an exhibit 

 on this larger scale as we had in the more limited space hitherto 

 occupied. The outcome showed the groundlessness of this fear and 

 demonstrated the ability of the fruit and flower growers of our state 

 in their organized capacity as a horticultural society to easily ac- 

 complish a greater task, and there is the fullest assurance that here- 

 after it will be entirely safe to assign the whole hall to horticultural 

 products alone to the entire exclusion of other things, some of which 

 are necessarily somewhat inharmonious. 



It has long been the ambition of our association to occupy at the 

 state fair a suitable building by ourselves, and it is evident we have 

 reached the stature where we can do so with credit to our associa- 

 tion and corresponding advantage to the state fair management and 

 the public. The structure we now occupy, or another constructed 

 on such a plan as that shown in these columns soine months since, 

 used exclusively for fruits and flowers, could easily be made by far 

 the most attractive place on the grounds, and we should take great 

 pride and pleasure in the work. 



With few exceptions, the old "standbys" amongst our exhibitors 

 were on hand as usual, though several had expressed a purpose 

 earlier in the season not to attend on account of their light fruit 

 crops and inability to make the usual good displa}': but personal 

 appeal and the corps d'esprit, which is strong in our association, 

 brought them out at the last. There is no generally successful fruit 

 region in our state this year, but while there is only a light yield, 

 as a rule, there are localities, and often, too, without apparent reason, 

 that are favored with unusually large crops of fine fruit. The Jew- 

 ell Nursery Co., at Lake City, occupy this year one of these favored 

 sites, and they were enabled to set up one of the finest collections of 

 apples ever made at the fair, easily carrying off the first prize for 

 professional collection of standard apples. Mr. Wm. Somerville 

 came a close second with, as he says, the best lot of apples he ever 

 exhibited. Our Mr. J. S. Harris, who, with his large experiment or- 

 chard, has often filled the first place, recognized the fitness of step- 

 ping down this year to place No. 3. The character of the fruit and 

 extent of his crop this season illustrates well the vagaries of the 

 year. For no apparent reason his crop is very poor and his usually 

 fine fruit markedly imperfect. Mr. Clarence Wedge, of Albert Lea, 

 held fourth place with a fewer number of varieties, counterbalanced 

 largely by the choice specimens displayed. 



To go beyond this, the principal feature of the fruit exhibit, with- 

 out mentioning in detail all the exhibitors and describing the var- 

 ious exhibits might be invidious, and to do this would be impossi- 

 ble in our limited space. A general view and its results can be 



