VICE-PRESIDENTS' REPORTS. 315 



men, woiiien and children with aprons, pails, baskets and sacks. 

 Will women steal? Was not the first crime of apple stealing charg-ed 

 up to Eve? Her excuse should have been that Adam was stupid and 

 did not provide for his own household, and she was obliged to help 

 herself. But Eve was a good woman and would not give Adam 

 away, so she slandered the snake. Women of today who steal apples 

 can often charge the crime back on their laxy, shiftless husbands who 

 neglect to plant orchards. 



I offer the following suggestions: Impress upon all that it is dis- 

 graceful to steal, whether they rob an orchard, a henroost or a bank. 

 Enforce the laws we now have and ask the legislature to increase 

 the penalties. Surround the orchard with a high, tight, barbwire 

 fence and. if necessary, place a man inside with a shotgun. 



Fruit trees have gone into winter under seemingly favorable con- 

 ditions, and we may reasonably hope that a bounteous harvest will 

 follow. 



SECOND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 

 S. D. RICHARDSON, VICE-PRESIDENT, WINNEBAGO CITY. 

 Fruit of all kinds was the nearest a failure that it has been for 

 years. In town and in a few isolated cases on the high prairie or on 

 the south side of a lake, there were a few apples and plums that es- 

 caped the frost. Some of the poorest and most worthless of the wild 

 plums survived. Red raspberry canes all winter-killed. The 

 Shaeffer came through all right without covering, but the blossoms 

 were ruined by the frost. Some of the black-caps bore heavily, but 

 the birds were hungry and gathered the most of them. Strawber- 

 ries were poorer than last jear; the frost and hot, dry weather were 

 too much for them— we did not have as much rain here this summer 

 as there was further east and north. Grapes were killed but set the 

 second time and ripened a fair crop of fair quality. Currants and 

 gooseberries were thinned by the freeze, but on good ground and 

 where they had good care were a fair crop. 



FRUIT SUCCEEDING BEST IN THIS DISTRICT. 



The hardiest apples for planting in Minnesota are the Duchess 

 and Hibernal. 



The apples and crabs that have paid the best iii dollars and cents 

 in this section for the past ten years are the Wealthy, Duchess, 

 Tetofsky, Minnesota, Early Strawberry and Meader's Winter. 



The Tetofsky does better on ground that is dry on the surface but 

 where water can be obtained in ordinary years by digging twentv 

 or thirty feet. The Longfield promises well and so do many others — 

 some seedlings, some old varieties and some Russians, that if they 

 do as well in the next ten j'ears as they have in the i)ast will be 

 worthy of general cultivation. Many of them are controlled bj" per- 

 sons who will keep the public fully posted as to their merits, and 

 they do not need to be endorsed by this society in order to be gene- 

 rally introduced. The tree agent will take care that they are not 

 forgotten. 



