18, ANNUAL REPORT. 
of not receiving our premiums, I must say that I think such a course 
would be suicidal and contrary to all principles of Horticulture ; for 
we all well know our last State Fair was held during the very worst 
weather of the season, and the elements, more than anything else, 
killed our Fair, financially. Now horticulturists are not the men, 
and should not be the men, to give up at one or two failures; if so, 
we may as well abandon our calling and go at something else. But 
I for one will not admit that our Society or its members are com- 
posed of any such material; but on the other hand, though we fail 
-one hundred times, we will up and try, try again; and now let each 
cand every member make up his mind to make the greatest effort and 
to make the best show of our products at the next State Fair ever 
‘made in this or any of our sister States, and help in every way to - 
make the State Fair of Minnesota, next fall, a decided success in 
every way, and then we will be not only enabled to secure our back 
but future premiums, and the good will, not only of the State Agri-. 
cultural Society, but the State at large. You must remember that 
-our business depends more upon the success and prosperity of our 
State and citizens at large than almost any other, for we have almost 
solely to depend upon a local and home market for our saies, and 
consequently everything that advances and enriches our State helps 
us; and the good time for Horticulturists in Minnesota is yet to 
come, and may many of us who have struggled and worked in its in- 
fancy and borne the heat and burden of the day yet live to reap 
some of its rewards, and if not, die with the prospect that our chil- 
dren may receive some of them, and that the world, and Minnesota 
in particular, is better for our having lived, and that the Minnesota 
State Horticultural Society was not established in vain. And in 
speaking of the welfare of Minnesota, brings to mind the import- 
ance and necessity of being represented in the next meeting of the 
American Pomological Society, to be held at Chicago, Ill., in Sep- 
tember, 1875. Now will not the Legislature of our young and grow- 
ing State take a sensible and business-like view of it, and assist us 
to send delegates with the best show of fruits and vegetables that 
Minnesota can produce? All who ever have had much to do with the 
subject of inducing emigration to our State know the great draw- 
back, and the chief argument to be met, and the ones used by States 
and railroads south of us having land to sell, with the greatest force 
is, ‘*‘Do not goto Minnesota. I would not live in a country where 
you cannot grow fruit.” And this is the argument that keeps thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of emigrants from our beautiful and 
healthy State. And now let the State Legislature aid us to show 
them at the show of fruits at Chicago next fall, that they have be- 
lied Minnesota; and if the Legislature and the railroads will provide 
us with the means—$300—to collect fruits and send delegates to at- 
tend the meeting at Chicago, I think we can not only redeem Min- 
nesota from the reputation that we cannot grow fruit, but will in- 
duce 1,000'to make Minnesota their future home, and thereby do 
more and lasting good to Minnesota than $10,000 worth of emigra- 
tion tracts. For seeing is believing, and many will not believe we 
can grow fruit until they can see it; and they will not believe we 
can grow fruit unless we show it at that meeting of the Pomological 
