OUR LATE AGRICULTURE FAIR. 361 



and the honor of the state, to show that fruit couhl be raised, and 

 that successfully, in Minnesota. The raising' of fruit should be 

 encouraged bj- the state by making a larger appropriation to the 

 horticultural society, so that the society could offer liberal prem- 

 iums for the best orchards of forty trees or more that have been 

 fruited for twenty or twentj^-tive years; also for orchards of one 

 hundred trees or more that have been set in orchards five or more 

 years. An\' person wishing to compete for such premiums should 

 be a member of the horticultural society and notify the secretary 

 that he is competing for such a premium, and the executive board 

 should employ one or two competent men as judges to make ex- 

 amination of such orchards and report at ihe annual horticultural 

 meeting on the kind of soil, the condition of the trees and the care 

 and management they have received. This examination should 

 be made the latter part of July when blight is most manifest. 



Until this can be carried out by the state, the agricultural society 

 should be more liberal in offering larger premiums for the best col- 

 lection of apples and grapes grown in Minnesota and exhibited by 

 the grower, for the best collection of summer and fall varieties of 

 apples, the best collection of winter varieties, the best collection of 

 Siberians and hj'brids, the best collection of new Russians, the best 

 collection of seedlings, the best single plates of fall and winter and 

 a greater number of varieties in single plates. The professionals 

 and amateurs should not be brought into competition either by 

 collection or b}- plates. Neither do I think it right to be compelled 

 to buy a season ticket in order to exhibit some article, the premium 

 of which if won would not buy the ticket. We will now look at the 

 amount awarded as premiums at the last fair — among thirty or 

 more competitiors exhibiting over two hundred varieties of apples, 

 the sum of two hundred and eighty dollars, for more than forty 

 varieties of grapes, premiums to the amount of one hundred and 

 three dollars, while for plums thirty-three dollars and fifty cents: 

 making the sum total of four hundred and twenty-six di)llars and 

 fifty cents. Could it be supposed that amount of money would pay 

 the expense of collecting, express charges and passage on railroad 

 and boarding a week on the ground? It certainly could not be for 

 money that this fruit was exhibited, but to make the fair a success, 

 which it did. 



Fruit growing is not like stock raising; it requires time, labor and 

 money to get trees acclimated to our soil and season. But with 

 stock — the farmer is used to them, and there is little of inquirj' about 

 them. At the fair an exhibit of fruit takes the eye of the passer-by, 

 and he stops to infjuire if this fruit was raised in Minnesota, where, 

 how and what variet}', and a thousand and one questions, which 

 you are obliged to answer. Tliis makes one a teacher as well as an 

 exhibitor, and you see but little of the fair outside your own build- 

 ing. There is no farm work which the farmer needs as much 

 educating upon as fruit raising. They are generally willing to 

 receive such knowledge, and why should not every means be used 

 to encourage this branch of industrj- when tliere is such a vast autn 

 of money paid every j'ear to import fruit into our state that should 

 be grown at home, as there are thousands of locations in the south- 

 ern half of the state where apples, grapes, plums and all small 

 fruits can be grown in abundance, sufticient to stipplj- our own 

 market anil some to export. Now in view of all these facts, we con- 

 sider the agricultural society did an injustice to the fruit growers 

 of Minnesota by cutting the premiums down from the previous year. 



