438 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Third. As the work will be conducted on the best methods avail- 

 able, it will act as a valuable educational influence to the inmates, 

 and incidentally through them to outside farmers as the boys are 

 scattered on farms throughout the state, and the farm itself will 

 serve as a sort of object lesson. 



For these and other reasons horticulture will undoubtedly becotne 

 an important industry at the state reformatory. 



Pres. Underwood: Is it customary for the boys to get a lib- 

 eral supply of the fruits and flowers that are grown on the 

 grounds? 



Mr. Houlton: Yes, sir. Perhaps not the fruits; they usu- 

 ally go to the officers' table first. 



Dr. Prisselle: Did I understand you to say that they, taught 

 plumbing there? 



Mr, Houlton: Yes, sir; what plumbing is done there is done 

 by the inmates of the institution. 



Dr. Prisselle: What I wanted to know was whether plumb- 

 ing is reformatory. They usually charge plumbers with being 

 a bad set of fellows in the city. (Laughter. ) 



Pres. Underwood: The intention is to turn out good plumb- 

 ers. (Laughter.) 



GOVERNMEXT SEED DISTRIBUTION.— Over 20,000,000 packages of 

 vegetable, flower and field seed have been distributed by the depart- 

 ment of agriculture during the past spring. This distribution has 

 given to each member of congress -10,000 packages of seed, at a total 

 cost of $130,000. Over a million of these packages were flower seed, 

 and nearly 300,000 field seed, the balance being a great variety of 

 vegetables. In the entire distribution nearly every variety of vege- 

 table known to the agriculturists was distributed. There were 

 thirty-two varieties of beans, ten varieties of beets, twenty-three 

 varieties of cabbages, eleven varieties of carrots, nineteen varieties 

 of sweet corn, eighteen kinds of cucumbers, thirty kinds of lettuce» 

 nineteen varieties of muskmelons, seventeen kinds of watermelons 

 and fifteen varieties of onions. The entire amount of seed distri- 

 buted was sufficient to plant an area of 355 square miles, or about 

 six times the size of the District of Columbia. 



This is the largest distribution of seed ever attempted b}^ the 

 department of agriculture, and it is said that seedmen all over the 

 country are complaining that they do not make sales to farmers and 

 others, because they are getting all the seed they want free from the 

 department of agriculture. 



The distribution of seed in 1893 amounted to 8,800 packages for 

 each member of congress, at a total cost of $68,518; in 1894, each con- 

 gressman got 16,000 packages, the entire cost to the government be- 

 ing $57,000; in 1895, the number of packages of seeds distributed was 

 the same as in the previous 3'ear, but the total cost was reduced to 

 $47,000. In 1896, congressmen got 15,000 packages each, and the gov- 

 ernment paid $80,500 for the whole lot. During the past spring each 

 member of congress has received 40,000 packages of seed, for which 

 the government has paid $130,000. — Exchange. 



