34 ANNUAL REPORT. . 
a blessing in developing for us and our posterity a better class 
of fruits ? ¢ 
* 
COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
We are not in correspondence with or in receipt of reports 
from any local or county horticultural societies except the 
Olmsted County Horticultural Society, which was organized 
last March, and is prospering. I believe there are some other 
such societies in the State, and there ought to be more, and if 
abstracts of their transactions could be secured and published 
in our annual volume they would add to its interest and use- 
fulness, and by complying with the requirements and provisions 
of the acts of the Legislature of last winter, providing for the 
printing and distribution of the transactions of the State 
society; would be entitled to receive copies of the same. 
Another plan would be for the State society to assume the 
position of a parent society, and have auxiliary societies 
organized in every favorable locality, these societies to be — 
required to hold summer meetings for exhibition and discus- 
sions, and to send delegates and full reports to each annual 
meeting of the State society. 
After the adjournment of the last annual meeting the State 
Legislature passed an act to provide for the printing and dis- 
tribution of our society reports. Under this act the State 
printer has published the history and an abstract of its pro- 
ceedings from its organization, Oct. 3, 1866, to the annual 
meeting, inclusive, in January, 1873, in a neat and closely 
printed volume of two hundred and eight pages. Aside from 
the aid granted, we have incurred a debt of $225 in collecting 
material and preparing it for the printer. In order to liquidate 
this debt and defray the expense of sending one or more dele- 
gates to the winter meeting of societies in adjoining States, 
and to procure seeds, plants, cuttings and trees for experi- 
menting with, I recommend that we adopt a resolution of 
thanks to the last Legislature for the aid and encouragement 
they have extended to us, and memorialize the present Legis- 
lature, now in session at St. Paul, and ask them to grant us 
an additional annual appropriation of $300. 
Insects injurious to vegetation are rapidly on the increase, , 
and a State entomologist is loudly called tor. We cando no 
less than to ask the Legislature to provide for one. 
Cranberry culture is awakening a lively interest in some of 
the States. There is no State so well adapted for it as Min- 
nesota. Shall we encourage its growth, or let our swamps 
and marshes remain unsightly and unprofitable wastes. It is 
unnecessary to remind you of the importance of planting 
