164 (awswat weponr, 
and effective in producing early satisfactory results, fronithetite | 
that the results will enure to the individual planter, and is not de- 
pendent upon statutory enactments, or combined public efforts. 
The attention of orchard planters being called to the he tai 
planting evergreen belts for the purpose of preserving the 
of fruit trees, and for the purpose of preventing the fruit from 
blown off the trees, and for the purpose of beautifying the 
scape and enhancing the value of real estate will not hesitate to 
adopt the principle that the planting of an evergreen belt is oo 
necessary a requisite as the planting of the orchard itself. . 
Orchard protection being not only beneficial is aiso entirely prac- 
tical from the fact that small evergreen seedlings, suitable for tim- 
ber belts, and forest tree plantations, are now grown from seed in 
America’ (as in Europe) by the million, which can be purchased | 
and planted at so small an outly of money, that the entire expense 
need not exceed the cost and labor of planting the fruit trees con- 
tained in the orchard. 
CRANBERRY CULTIVATION IN RICE COUNTY. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
Iam happy to report that after the lapse of many years of talk, 
essays, and agitations of the cranberry question’ by our Society 
and the State at large, a beginning has been made by a few citizens 
of Rice county, to develop the latent wealth that exists in this nat- 
ural product of the State. It is estimated that there are in Rice 
county 800 acres of the natural beds, and about 3,000 acres of 
marsh which can easily be brought under cultivation. You will 
undoubtedly remember the prominent notice this subject received in 
the message of Mr. A. W. McKinstry, when President of this So- 
ciety, and it is evidentiy owing to the valuable facts and sugges- 
tions given at that time by him that caused an investigation of the 
subject, and induced others to embark in the business. During the 
past summer Mr. McKinstry visited the marshes, and I herewith 
add the result of his observations in the vicinity of our small fruit 
friend, Seth H. Kenney: 
Before leaving the Kenney neighborhood we took the opportunity 
to visit the cranberry marsh belonging to Messrs. C. Russell, W. 
A. Shaw and Chas. Lane, which lies a short distance south of Mr. 
Kenney’s. We have long had faith in the possibilities of Minne- 
sota in the way of cranberry culture, and this was greatly strength- 
ened by what we saw here. We found a large marsh as level as a 
house floor, which had apparently once constituted the bed of a 
lake, but had been filled up by the gradual accretion of vegetable 
matter, as the soil is a spongy, fibrous peat, of an indefinite depth, 
and trembling beneath the tread. Trenches have been cut around 
the forty acres owned by Messrs. Russell, Shaw and Lane, which 
take off the surplus water. Two acres of this ground are now cov- 
