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\ MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 681 
the best results; at the same time we are well assured that the supply is 
limited, and to some other source we must look for plant food. # 
Judging from the immense amount of tertilizers manufactured and used 
in the older settled States, and in Europe, together with the thousands of 
tons of guano, we are justified in the assertion that they must be our main 
dependence in the future, as aids indispensible in successful gardening. 
W. T. Scort, 
D. A. J. BAKER, 
Committee on Market Gardens. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Harris:—As a Horticultural Society we have not given 
enough attention to vegetables. We need a garden book for the 
masses which is not yet published. Henderson’s ‘ Gardening for 
Profit” is three times out of four a damage to the man who uses it. 
For example Mr. Kramer, of LaCrescent, followed it in manuring 
very heavily for cabbages. The consequence was they grew all to 
loose leaves instead of forming heads. But a couple of years later 
the ground so manured produced a splendid crop. In another case, 
a hotbed was prepared by mixing rich pig manure with the soil and 
the man bought his plants that year. Let us devote more attention 
to garden vegetables hereafter. 
Cutting Potatoes. 
Mr. Scott :—There is not much poetry in gardening but a good 
deal of solid comfort. I have found that, by using seed from the 
seed end of the potato they run out ,in about three years, and are 
also inclined to rot. I have found, also, that potatoes cut for seed 
are better than whole ones. This is contrary to the experiments of 
others where the best results were obtained from whole potatoes. 
The explanation is to be found in the difference in the soils upon 
which the two experiments were made. The selecting of seed is a 
very important point, for we can get in this way almost any char- 
acteristic we want, 
Early Tomatoes. 
Mr. Elliot :—This is a subject I have been interested in for twenty 
years. ‘There are several points of importance connected with it. 
The selection of seed is one of them. When new kinds come around 
they are often adulterated with poor kinds, the vitality of which has 
been destroyed. The potato is a subject of interest and I would 
