STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 139 



graft upon Transcendent crab. The fruit is medium in size, ob- 

 long round, in shape, color green, striped and splashed \rith pale 

 red, flavor sprightly, sub-acid, origin unknown. 



IN FARIBAULT COUNTY. 



December 11th. — We called upon John Dean, one of the pioneer 

 fruit growers of Faribault County. He is located near Blue 

 Earth City. His bearing orchard is almost exclusively of seed- 

 lings, grown from seed procured at a cider mill in the state of 

 New York, and planted in 1^3, uj)on the ground where 

 many of them now stand. Nearly all of the trees that proved 

 hardy enough to stand until they fruited are doubtless of Si- 

 berian crab origin, or crossed with that species. He has dis- 

 carded the worst blighting varieties and such as bore worthless 

 fruit, so that the varieties retained will run in size from the 

 Virginia crab to double that of the Transcendent, and better in 

 quality. All of them are excellent for cooking purposes and 

 some of them very good for eating from the hand. All are later 

 keepers than the Transcendent, and we should judge that some 

 of them will keep until spring. A portion of the trees appear 

 to be very hardy. Mr. Dean is also experimenting with the 

 newer Russians and other hardy varieties of apples, etc. 



IN RAMSEY COUNTY. 



Our last official visit was made at the Agricultural College 

 Farm, under the supervision of Prof, E. D. Porter. As we ex- 

 pect that his report will be published in this volume of trans- 

 actions, we will only say that he is starting exjieriments with 

 the Russians, and in small fruits and trees and shrubbery, and 

 we believe that if he has the hearty co-operation of the State 

 Horticultural Society, and the experienced fruit growers of the 

 State, we shall soon obtain valuable results. 



IN CONCLUSION. 



In conclusion we have, in performing the duties assigned to 

 ns, traveled over a considerable portion of Southern and East- 

 ern Minnesota. We wish that we could report better results. 

 The most promising seedling tree we have seen is the Okabena 

 in Nobles County. The next most promising one we have heard 

 of is the Peerless, a seedling of the Duchess growing in Rice 



