MORNING SESSION. 



Second Day, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 1888. 



The meeting was called to order at 9 o'clock, by President Elliot. 

 The first thing on the program was the report of the seedling com- 

 mission 



REPORT ON SEEDLING FRUITS. 



By J. S. Harris, La Crescent. 



Mr. President and Members of the Minnesota State Horticultural 

 Society : 



I fully realize the importance of the work of the seedling commit- 

 tee, and only regret that I am not able to make it more effective. 



The season was most unfavorable for the prosecution of our work, 

 owing to the shortness of the fruit crop, which was probably caused 

 by the severity of two or three previous winters, unfavorable condi- 

 tions of the weather in the season of blossoming, and the severity of 

 the drouth that prevailed during much of the summer. 



With the exception of one single locality, I found that even the 

 Siberian and Duchess were not carrying the usual quantity of fruit, 

 and numbers of trees that bore well in 1886 had scarcely a specimen 

 in 1887. 



IN WISCONSIN. 



On the twentieth and twenty-first of July I visited the Russian 

 orchards of A. J. Tuttle, and others, at Baraboo, Wis. There I found 

 the Duchess, Tetofsky, and about twenty of the newer varieties of 

 Russians, fruiting quite liberally. Mr. Tuttle's orchard of new Rus- 

 sians contains over sixty varieties, and about half of them appear to 

 be as hardy as the Duchess, about the same proportion of them are 

 strong, thrifty growers, and comparatively free from blight. Blight 

 was prevailing to an unusual extent in that vicinity, and the Duchess 

 and Tetofsky were suffering about as badly as I had ever seen the 

 Siberians, and Mr. Tuttle's old orchard of the hardiest American 

 variety was about ruined by it. There was, however, but very little 



