ANNUAL MEETING, 1896. 515 



(2) We desire to express our thanks to the press of the city for the 

 fair and full reports of our proceedings from day to day. 



(3) We express our appreciation for the courtesy extended by the 

 Passenger Association in granting excursion rates to members of 

 this society attending the annual meeting. 



(4) Our thanks are also tendered to visiting delegates, H. M. Dun- 

 lap, of Illinois; C. G. Patten, C. F. Gardner and Jerry Sexton, of Iowa; 

 Prof. N. E. Hansen, of South Dakota, and A. J. Philips, Geo. J.Kellogg, 

 D. C. Converse andChas. Hirschinger, of Wisconsin, and hope this 

 exchange of courtesies between the societies of the neighboring 

 states and our own may prove of mutual benefit and helpfulness. 



We congratulate the horticulturists of the state on the bountiful 

 crop of apples produced the past year and the hopeful outlook for 

 the years to come, and urge upon the members, one and all, the im- 

 portance of gathering and disseminating the experience of horticul- 

 turists and tree planters. 



C. L. Smith. 



Dr. C. E. Leonard. 



Dewain Cook. 



On motion of Mr. Harris the report of the committee was 

 adopted. 



Mr. J. S. Harris: It hardly seems right to have this meeting close 

 without a parting word. Thirty years ago last October the little 

 child, the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, was born down 

 here in our neighboring city of Rochester, and there were only 

 twelve members present, some say only eleven. It was a long, hard 

 struggle for life, and now I am the only one of all those original 

 members that has kept up the membership and attended all the 

 meetings, when I could get out of bed, with one exception; once I 

 could not raise money enough to get to the meeting. Nearly all of 

 those members are still living, and it is a matter of great satisfac- 

 tion to them to see the wonderful advancement that Minnesota has 

 made in horticulture in the thirty years past. In those days the 

 fruit of Minnesota consisted of a few Transcendent crab apples.wild 

 strawberries and raspberries, and now and then a man h?d a Duch- 

 ess apple tree and, occasionally, a seedling apple. That was only 

 thirty years ago, but in those thirty years we have had a great 

 many reverses, reverses that tried the souls of the stoutest hearted, 

 and we have seen our fondest hopes dashed to the ground; and yet 

 the cause of horticulture in Minnesota has gone on until now 

 thousands of bushels of fruit are raised, and thousands of bushels 

 have gone to waste, so immense has been the crop — and I feel very 

 much encouraged. From the time the society was organized up 

 to the present time I have freely given my time and strength to de. 

 velop the horticultural resources of the state of Minnesota. I feel 

 highly gratified at the result, and more than all I feel gratified to 

 think that instead of eleven or twelve members, and we were middle 

 aged men at that time, that today the members of this society num- 

 ber half a thousand. I feel gratified also to remember that those 

 things which troubled us a few years ago, the thought of who should 



