292 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this time. The experiment station here expects in the near future 

 to make some experiments and determinations along that line. It 

 is the legitimate work of the station. We have, for a number of 

 years, experimented in the planting- of trees on the prairies; that is 

 the line along which the forest investigation and study has been 

 conducted in this state practically up to the present time, because 

 that is what the settlers needed, windbreak and tiinber supply. We 

 have done considerable experimenting along these lines. We have 

 experimented in the southwestern counties, where we have put out 

 quite a large quantity and a very large variety of timber trees to see 

 what thej' would do upon that peculiar dry formation of land in 

 that section of the state — the land is very dry and has a poor sub- 

 soil down there. At Crookston we have recently acquired four hun- 

 dred acres of land, and this year have put out some five acres of 

 timber trees with the idea to see what can be done in the line of 

 windbreaks and tree planting in that section of the country, which 

 has so far had so little done for it in that line. Recently, too, the 

 experiment station has been extended by the acquisition of some 

 four hundred and eighty acres in the vicinity of Grand Rapids. On 

 that farm, there are some two hundred acres in timber and on land 

 that is very suitable for timber purposes. A good deal of that land we 

 propose to use to see what can be done in the matter of re-seeding and 

 encouraging a growth of the most valuable timber which will grow 

 in that section of the country. These are briefly some of the outlines 

 of the work we propose to do aside from our work here. On this 

 place, we have quite a little grove, as you see, and we also have a 

 large variety of timber trees. We have especially a large number 

 of fine evergreen saplings, evergreens that are found only on the 

 prairies of the state of Nebraska. We have on hand at present some- 

 thing like nine or ten thousand of these saplings, which we hope to 

 grow upon the prairies of our state. We have also tried to grow the 

 Rocky Mountain trees, which seem especiallj^ adapted to a very dry, 

 severe situation. We have soinewhere about fifteen hundred of the 



picea pungens; about a thousand, I think, of the (?) spruce, 



which answers for the hemlock,which,as you know,perhaps,does not 

 do very well in this state. The hemlock, as the inost of you know, is 

 not a hardy tree in the state of Minnesota; it is found in Minnesota, 

 but in a very limited wa3^ The work of instruction in forestry is 

 carried on in as practical a manner as we are able to do it. It is done 

 by the study of the trees themselves largelj^ as well as by the study 

 of the theoretical conditions under which they must grow. 



Now, while you are here, you must not fail to see what improve- 

 inents we have made out here. There are quite a number of im- 

 provements, a large dining hall is added, which I wish you to see 

 before you leave; the dairy building has been doubled in its 

 capacity, making it the finest building of the kind anywhere; a new 

 sheep barn has been added, a new pigger3% new poultry buildings. 

 These are, in brief, something of tlie additions we have made. We 

 have had all the students we could take care of during the past year 

 —all the students we could well take care of. I do not remember the 

 total enrollment of boys, but think it possibly about three hundred 



