94 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ANNUAL MEETING, 1898, 
WISCONSIN STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
CLARENCE WEDGE, DELEGATE, ALBERT LEA. 
The opportunity of making a visit to my native state after an ab- 
sence of more than twenty years was greatly appreciated by your 
delegate; and remembering the first visit which I paid to my 
grandparents in that state, away back in the sixties, when there were 
no railroads this side of the Mississippi and it took us nearly a week 
to make the trip, it certainly brought a fresh realization of the com- 
forts of the present day to take a comfortable, steam-heated coach 
at 6:30 p. m., at Albert Lea, and be waked by the nudge of the brake- 
man in Madison long before daybreak. But, come to think it over, 
have we not made almost as great progress in horticulture the past 
thirty years? We do not appreciate what a fruit country we have 
developed until we compare the list of apples, plums, raspberries 
and strawberries then planted with the rich and safe varieties that 
we have today. But we digress. 
Arrived at the capital, the first familiar object that greeted us 
after wending our way through the maze of halls and staircases to 
the fruit room of the society was the benignant countenance of our 
Minnesota plum oracle, Mr. O. M. Lord, with his cabinet of plum 
pits. It has been my good fortune to have had the company of this 
veteran horticulturist at both the meetings I have attended out- 
side the state the past winter, and I feel impelled to say that no one 
need feel ashamed of our horticultural society when Mr. Lord is its 
representative, and that no attendant at any meeting is listened to 
with more evident interest and respect. It seems that in this case 
he shared with Prof. Bailey, of Cornell, the honor of being specially 
invited to be present and instruct the membership in their special 
lines. 
The Wisconsin society has an individuality all itsown. Although 
naturally a better orchard region than either northern Iowa or our 
own state, small fruits appear to hold a queenly sway over their 
councils, and the weight of woe that was unburdened as reports 
were given of failure of prices seemed almost equal to our own 
trouble in regard to the failure of crops. Which is the greater of 
the two evils may well be doubted. I cast about to discover who 
was chief helmsman of their ship, or,as Brother Dartt would say, 
who was “king.” President Kellogg seemed to hold a mild and 
quiet sway, and if, in truth, he be the man, I doubtifhis subjects are 
fully aware of it. The elections passed off as calmly as possible as 
regards the principal officers, but the better part of half an hour 
was spent in balloting for a man to fill a place on some committee 
work. Dartt and Philips had their usual passage at arms, in which 
I shall have to acknowledge that our champion had rather the worst 
of it. However, on his home grounds I have little doubt that the re- 
sult would have been reversed. Prof. Bailey’s lecture on ‘Condi- 
tions Favorable to the Formation of Fruit Buds” was the star attrac- 
tion of the meeting and was eagerly listened to by an audience that 
filled every seat in the senate chamber. There was not much in it 
