294 ANNUAL REPOET 



failed with everything — that the Duchess won't do anything. 

 Steele County is perhaps the worst place in the State for fruit 

 trees, and what is the use of putting anything there for trial if 

 it won't grow? It would be a failure. 



Mr. Dartt. There is one part of the resolution perhaps that 

 I could speak to; that is the first part. So far as failure is con- 

 cerned I would say that I have met all these gentlemen at oui- 

 state fairs and have taken perhaps my full share of premiums 

 at those I have attended. At the last state fair at Owatonna I 

 took the first premium on the best ten varieties of apples 

 adapted to Minnesota; the first on the best six varieties; the 

 first on the best plate of Duchess, besides other premiums. 

 That would seem to indicate that it is possible to raise fruit afc 

 Owatonna. Admitting that it is the hardest place for fruit in 

 all that section of the State and that it is as hard as any much 

 further west, it seems to me a good reason why a station should 

 be located there. Whatever we could raise there successfully 

 would be thoroughly tested as to hardiness. It could be de- 

 pended upon in trying situations. Some localities in different 

 sections are more favorable than others. For instance, a north- 

 ern slope, on high land in the vicinity of low land, especially 

 with a sweep from a lake surface, might be a favorable location 

 for fruit when otherwise it might be considered unfavorable. 



Mr. J. M. Smith. I rise to endorse what the last gentleman 

 on the floor has said. We have tried experimenting in Wiscon- 

 sin a good deal, and it strikes me the opinions urged by Mr. 

 Pearce, if correct, are really the strongest ones why such a sta- 

 tion ought to be established at such a place. If you have the 

 means to do this and do not do it, is it not equivalent to saying, 

 "You are in a God-forsaken region where nothing can grow and 

 we will let you go to your own destruction*?" I don't believe 

 there is a spot so bad in Minnesota but you will eventually raise 

 fruit. I don't expect to see it myself but those days are bound 

 to come, and the quicker you go to experimenting as to what 

 succeed the quicker that fruit will come. When you succeed 

 in such a place as this it will be something worth while and 

 worth much more than the expense required. 



Mr. Harris. Mr. President, I feel that it is the duty of our 

 State to foster horticulture; every dollar expended for that pur- 

 pose will bring a return a thousand fold to the generations that 

 are to come after us, if not in the immediate future. The rea- 

 son why I favor Owatonna for such a station is because the 



