64 ANNUAL REPORT. 
produce fruit, but I think We have some and they ought. to be 2 looked 
up and given a fair trial. 
The Wisconsin Society has a membership two or three times. nto 
than ours, and is in a prosperous condition, (the Treasurer r re 
over $400.00 in the treasury.) It works hand in hand with ih 
ricultural Society, which society places at their disposal to be to) 
in premiums for horticultural products at the annual State Fair, 
sum of $800.00, and also defrays the expense of making the exhibi- 
tion. 
They are receiving liberal aid from the State in publishing and - 
lustrating their transactions ; in fact the Society has advanced to that 
position which entitles it to general respect, and the Legislature and 
railroad corporations dare not ignore it. The talented, the wealthy, 
the influential, and the enterprising men of the State are working to- 
gether to solve the great questions of fruit growing, home adornment 
and rural improvement, and all are eager to see them result in suc- 
cess. 
Have we nosuch men in Minnesota? We certainly have, and why 
will they stand back and see the Society struggling in poverty, look- 
ed upon with contempt by our legislators, and branded as beggars 
and insulted by railroad officials, when we ask a slight reduction 
in fare in going to our annual meetings when a single dollar per year 
from a few of them would place usin such an advanced position that 
the aid and encouragement we so much need would come to us even 
without asking, for the people would consign to everlasting disgrace 
the legislator who would dare to oppose the granting of libera! ap- 
propriations to aid our work. 
Joun S. Harris. 
La Crescent, Minn. 
CRANBERRY CULTURE IN MINNESOTA. 
BY REV. J. E. WOOD, DETROIT, BECKER COUNTY, MINN. 
This inviting and profitable branch of fruit culture, I am glad to 
learn, is beginning to excite interest and inquiry among the farmers 
of Minnesota. It is really surprising that it has not sooner engaged 
their attention, inasmuch as the best facilities exist in many sec- 
tions of the State, to an extent unsurpassed, if not unequalled, in any 
country. Nature evidently designed Miniuesota as the garden of the 
world for the production of this delicious and healthful fruit. 
I shall heartily rejoice to witness an experiment, under such con- 
ditions, and on such a scale, as shall command the attention of in- 
quirers, and fnrnish them with the information needed to guide them 
in subsequent attempts; but I do not wart to see the experience of 
eastern cultivators repeated here, and the lesson learned by mistakes, 
disappointments and losses. 
Persons, being told that it is a sure crop, may be misled into in- 
