90 ANNUAL REPOKT 



EEPORT OF DELEGATES TO THE MEETING OF THE 



DAKOTA HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY, HELD AT 



SIOUX FALLS, DEC. 14, 15 AND 16, 1886. 



Mr. President, and members of the Minnesota State Horticultural 

 Society : 



By request of your president aud secretary we availed our- 

 selves of the opportunity offered for attending the third annual 

 meeting of the D<ikota Horticultural and Forestry Society, which 

 took place at Sioux Falls, Dec. 14, 15, aud 16, 1886. 



Sionx Falls is a city of about 8,000 inhabitants, is pleasantly 

 situated, and located in the centre of a large area of the finest 

 agricultural lands in the Northwest. The locatiou posesses many 

 advantages that would naturally tend to make it a large and 

 flourishing town — the metropolis of the region. The Sioux 

 River has here a fall of about ninety feet, affording one of the 

 finest water i^owers in the world. It is being improved to some 

 extent; is running one of the finest flouring mills upon the con- 

 tinent, with a capacity for making 1,200 barrels of flour per day; 

 two or more mills for sawing, turning and dressing stone, etc.; 

 and has power, not yet utilized, to turn the machinery to do all 

 the manufacturing of the entire country tributary to the city. 

 The val'ey of the river is a vast field of granite, of a superior 

 quality for street paving, building purposes, the manufacture of 

 monuments, fine building, etc.; the granite is nearly indestructi- 

 ble, takes oil a polish smooth as glass, and presents beautiful 

 markings. The quarries afford employment for a great number 

 of laborers, and the supply is inexhaustible. 



The state prison and a university are located here, the hotels 

 and business houses are first-class, and the town has an air of 

 solidity and pe>Mnanency about it, as well as the push which is 

 characteristic of the new towns of the West. 



The meeting convened in the pleasant rooms of the Y. M. C. A., 

 at 2 p. M. on the fourteenth, and was promptly called to order 

 by the president E. De Bell, of Sioux Falls. The number of 

 members present at the opening was not large, but continued to 

 increase during later sessions. From beginningto end themeet- 

 ing was deeply interesting, and much valuable and practical 

 information was elicited. ' The order of business and manner of 

 conducting the meeting did not differ materially from that 

 followed in other societies we have met with. In addition to 



