344 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the berry that Mr. Coe represents. I said if they did not plant 

 them and they i^roved to be good they would be wishing they 

 had planted some, and if they did plant them and they are 

 worthless they would be glad they had no more of them. At 

 present I think it would pay to plant a few of these berries. I 

 would not recommend any one to plant a large amount. Mr. 

 Coe is a better judge of small fruits than I am, and he was 

 there and examined them. 



Mr. Brackett; What can they be bought for? 

 Mr. Philips: About forty or fifty cents apiece; cheaper to 

 the trade, of course. 



Mr, Brackett: Can they be bought any cheaper than last 

 year? 



Mr. Philips: Well, no, I think not. A number of men say 

 they will wait before buying until they get cheaper. My boys 

 said to me last fall, "don't you sell them or give them away," 

 I have not given them away, and I have no plants to sell. All 

 those men that got hold of them are going to grow them. 



Mr. Harris: They do not increase nearly as fast as the Cuth- 

 bert, and I know it is an outrageous price to ask. I said it 

 ought to be tried here, because if it is as good a thing as it 

 looked at Mr. Loudon's, the sooner we get it as a market fruit 

 and a home fruit the better. 



Mr. Wedge: I would like to hear from Mr. Coe in regard to 

 the Columbian. 



Mr. Coe: I want to say just a word about the Loudon first. 

 I was at Janesville at the time that committee met there, and 

 as Mr Harris and Mr. Philips told you, it was a sight. The 

 whole plantation of Mr. Loudon had been dug and dug for 

 plants, and had had no cultivation whatever, but I found the 

 Loudon was fruiting abundantly, good large berries, almost as 

 large as two of any other kind. I considered that a better test 

 than if the plantation had been in a high state of cultivation. 

 A word about the Columbian. Two years ago I was in New York 

 on the Columbian grounds in the height of the bearing season. 

 My people live there. I took the pains to go there and inves- 

 tigate, expecting, of course, to see a large berry, a strong 

 grower and a wonderful yielder, but any idea I had previously 

 entertained was entirely thrown in the shade. The original 

 plant stood in the man's garden— this was in July, and no one 

 was allowed to pick any fruit — and when he picked the berries 

 that year he picked twenty eight quarts from one hill. By his 

 house he had the first patch he propagated from his original 



