COTKAU FAUM. 409 



COTEAU FARM, THE HOME OF MR. O. C. GREGG. 



A. \\ . LATHAM, SKC'V. 



Connected with the State Experiment Station there are three sub- 

 etationa, destined to perform in their respective localities a similar 

 service to the public that the central station is working out at St. 

 Anthony Park. The three, in location and surrounding's, differ very 

 widely. The one at Crookston, is located on the dead level of the 

 Red River Valley in its deep and rich alluvial soil. Another at 

 Grand Rapids, a little to the south and about 150 miles to the east, 

 is in the pine regions near the head-waters of the Mississippi. This 

 station was spoken of at some leng^th in a late number of the mag^a- 

 zine. The third is found at Lynd, a station on the Willmar and 

 Sioux Falls division of the Great Northern railroad, some forty 

 miles south of Granite Falls, the point were that railroad crosses 

 the Minnesota river, and about thirty miles east of South Dakota. 



The location of this station is peculiar in that it stands upon the 

 eastern border of what is called the coteau, or hill, district, which, 

 beg^inning in this locality, trends westward into South Dakota at an 

 elevation of several hundred feet above the surrounding- country. 

 At some points these hills break out above the general level and 

 are unfit for tillage, but at the place of which we are speaking the 

 surface is like that of anj' other undulating prairie. 



Four miles from Lynd station then, across the clear and swift run- 

 ning little Redwood river, and up an easy grade to an elevation of 

 nearly two hundred feet, is located the Coteau Farm, the home of Mr. 

 O. C. Gregg, so well known to the farmers of our state as the genial 

 superintendent of the farmer's institutes. This is the original home- 

 stead of Mr. Gregg, upon which he built his claim shanty a quarter 

 of a century ago, and where he is now exemplifying in a practical way 

 the truths which are taught from the institute platforms, and where it 

 is evidently his laudable ambition to cover the entire field in his in- 

 vestigations. 



Our readers will be more especially interested in what Mr. Gregg 

 is doing in the direction of horticulture, and we are especially glad, 

 of course, that in this practical way he is taking hold of the art we 

 love. Mr. Gregg has always been a friend of horticulture, but we 

 are assured now that he will become as one of us, as the progress of 

 his experiments will surelj' lead him, as it has us, to the second 

 stage of the enthusiast. 



Aside from the windbreaks, which were already upon the farm, 

 the horticultural experiments are at present in the primitive stage. 

 The first plantings of trial stock were made twoyears ago last spring, 

 and include, in a tract of three or four acres, a great variety of the 

 hardier forest, shade and ornamental trees, some of the small fruits, 

 and later a few apple trees. This stock has evidently had the best 

 of care— and, by the way, in the direction of thorough culture Mr. 

 Gregg is already an enthusiast, and judging by the appearance of 

 the whole [)lace and the great variety of improved implements 

 adapted to do thorough work, it is evident that he knows what he is 

 talking about when he speaks of " thorough cultivation." 



