144 ANNUAL REPORT. 
APPENDIX, C. 2 ae 
REPORTS OF COUNTY AND LOCAL SOCIETIES. 
OLMSTED COUNTY. 
Rocnester, Mrnn., Ava. 15, 1879. 
Chas. Y. Lacy, Esq., Minneapolis, Minn. 
Dear Srr:—Your favor of recent date, asking for copy of proceedings of our 
County Horticultural Society, list of officers, etc., is received. I herewith send 
you a copy of the proceedings of the sixth annual meeting, held in March last, 
as published in the Record and Union; also copy of published proceedings of 
the June meeting, from which you can select such portions as you deem of impor- 
tance or interest to horticulturists. Our county organization is not large, but 1s 
still maintained, despite all discouraging attendant circumstances. Our nursery- 
men and fruit growers have labored patiently for years to advance the interests 
of horticulture in this section of the State. Their efforts have been rewarded, 
thus far, with gratifying results. Repeated and numerous experiments have 
demorstrated the practicability of producing an abundance of choice apples and 
small fruit in Minnesota; and in spite of many partial failures and discouraging 
drawbacks, they are looking forward hopefully to the future, confident of greater 
success to crown their efforts. 
As you are well aware, we have several fine nurseries here, all under the man- 
agement of experienced and painstaking nurserymen. Mr. E. B. Jordon, of the 
Evergreen Nursery, also has some 15,000 trees in orchard, many of them in 
bearing. His trees are remarkably healthy, and almost entirely free from the 
bhght which has been so prevalent and destructive this season. 
Mr. A. W. Sias, one of the oldest nurserymen in this State, and I may say, 
one of the most reliable, has a fine nursery on College Hill, well stocked with 
hardy varieties of apples, as well as leading varieties of the strawberry, rasp- 
berry and other small fruits. He has experimented extensively with Russian 
and native varieties of apples, and propagates only the best and most hardy trees. 
Mr. M. W. Cook, proprietor of the Rochester Nurseries, is our champion small 
fruit man, and I[ enclose you a brief item on ‘‘Strawberries,’’ clipped from a 
recent number of the Record and Union. 
