MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 55 
assigning to each of these gentlemen such a number as he conld 
make a sure thing of. I take great pleasure in acknowledging and re- 
cording the fact, that these gentlemen fully appreciated the merits of 
this work, and took pride in furnishing us, with probably the finest lot 
of cuttings ever made, for the paltry consideration of $2.50 per thous- 
sand, payable in filthy lucre in the following June. I hope the company 
nor the Legislature won’t go back on me if I invite each of those gen- 
tlemen to take a free ride over the Main Line some day next season, to 
- gee what their cuttings look like now. As the success of this work de- 
pended largely upon the intelligence and fidelity of my force, 1 took 
the precaution of picking my men from a large number, many of 
whom I had known for years and had tested. My own reputation, 
which I considered fully as valuable as the company’s money, was at 
stake, and I selfishly employed men I could go my bottom dollar on 
without risk ; and among those who particularly exerted themselves 
to make this experiment a success, I wish to record the names of 
Wiiliam Somerville, W. A. Stebbins, James F. Wilson, Manning 
McLane, John Hill, Charles Moulton, Henry Brockway, Charles 
Allen, C. E. Hewitt and Wm. Carley, of Olmsted county ; and Jerry 
Leary and Dennis O’Brien, of Kandiyohicounty. While nearly every 
man employed in platting this great lot of cuttings did his duty and 
earned his pay, I feel it only justice that the above mentioned names. 
should have honorable mention in the transactions of this society. 
Making our headquarters camp at Willmar, we divided our force 
in two parties, putting one crew in charge of Mr. Somerville. and 
the other in charge of Mr. Stebbins. We started the teams and 
plows a couple of ‘lays in advance of the planting parties, preparing 
the ground for the cuttings. And rigkt here I wish to remark, that. 
any man who breaks prairie out in that country in the months of 
August, September, October and November, as this breaking was 
done, should be adjudged guilty of a grave misdemeanor, and pun- 
ished by fine or imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. We 
found this breaking decidedly tough. Back-setting had no effect on 
it, except to throw the sod in better shape for the harrow to get 
hold of. We back-set and harrowed this breaking until the sod was 
tolerably well mutilated. We then set our stirring plows in beam. 
deep, and succeeded in burying those wretched sods out of sight. 
May they rest in peace. Then with repeated harrowing, we at 
length succeeded in getting this ground in a tolerably fair condition 
for tree planting. I am particular in describing our method of over- 
coming the difficulty of planting trees on such ground, as many who 
have made tree planting claims will tind the same difficulty when 
they commence work next spring. Some are even now urging our 
Congressmen to procure an amendment of the tree planting act, giv- 
ing them another year to prepare the ground for tree planting, in- 
tending to fit it up for trees by planting some other crop on it this. 
coming season. My Christian frontier friend, let me say to you, 
that an experience of twenty-nine years among the sods and clods of 
the northwest, has convinced me that no paying crop can be raised 
on any such ground. It is simply a fight, you have got into thorough 
inexperience, and you might as well fight it out next spring and 
plant your trees at once on the battle ground, as to ask Hercules for 
