308 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr.E.H.S.Dartt: I want to say that I was down around Chicago 

 for awhile, and I wg,tched the motion of things in that great 

 hall with those long tables of fruit. I watched the crowd that 

 passed along those alleys, and the only place they stopped 

 was in front of the Minnesota exhibit. 



Mr. Barrett: I move a vote of thanks be extended to Col. 

 Reeve for his able and interesting remarks. (The motion was 

 carried). 



Pres. Underwood: I wish to say just a word with regard to 

 Mr. Latham's part in this exhibit, and particularly with re- 

 gard to the design of the booth. Mr. Latham is altogether too 

 modest a man, and he works in a quiet way. Still waters are 

 usually deep. 1 do not know of any one to whom more is due 

 for the work performed there than is due Mr. Latham, and I 

 think it is something we want all to understand. In his report, 

 which I admired very much, there is that same spirit which 

 always characterizes me in a horse trade. A horseman once 

 told me I never could trade horses, because I was always talk- 

 ing about the defects in my horse, and that is the trouble with 

 the secretary's report— he does not say anything of the defects 

 or drawbacks under which he had to labor. There is so much 

 that was good and grand to sjDeak of that it is not necessary 

 •to talk about the little difficulties that we were under at times. 



THE DISCOURAGEMENTS OF THE YEAR. 



MkS. A. A. KENNEDY, HUTCHINSON. 



The discouragements of the j-ear have been nianj-. Poor crops 

 and hard times have been the crj'. Perhaps, we horticulturists felt 

 it as keenly as any one class, because we wanted to do something- 

 grand at the World's Fair. I, for one, wanted to hand mj^ name 

 down to the coining generation bj' furnishing some cans of fruit 

 that would make the mouths of those from more favored climes 

 water on account of, the size and delicious flavor of ni}' fruit. But 

 ala.s, alas, when I fain would have gathered from my garden some- 

 thing that would astonish the nations! 



I found nothing in the strawberrj' line but a few little, hard 

 nubbed things not fit to be called strawberries. I gathered enough- 

 euch as they were, to make three shortcakes (and they were short- 

 cakes, too). And then mj^ raspberries were so inferior in size that 

 1 had no desire to see how they would look after thej' were canned. 

 So I did not can any. 



I received a letter from our secretary saying, "Cannot j'ou send 

 me soine fruit? There must be some somewliere that will do to 

 place on exhibit." I read it over and over, tlien said, "Well, it isn't 



