STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 103 



or any other expert would care to look upon. We mention this not in a 

 braggadocio spirit, but rather as an example of what others should 

 do for the improvement of our best fruits. I say best because Mr. 

 Louden has fairly demonstrated the truth of what A. J. Downing ut- 

 tered over forty years ago, viz: " Once in the posession of a variety 

 which has moved out of the natural into a more domesticated form, 

 we have in our hands the best material for the improving process. 

 The fixed original habit of the species is broken in upon, and this va- 

 riety which we have created, has always afterward some tendencies to 

 make further departure from the original form." 



Mr. Loudon took the Sharpless, and some others of the largest and 

 finest known varieties and crossed them. The result has been the 

 largest and finest berries known to civilized man. 



IN BLUE EARTH COUNTY. 



July 26th, in company with Mr. Harris, we left Rochester for vari- 

 ous points in the southwestern part of the State. Our first regular 

 visit was Mankato, a flourishing town on the Minnesota river. We 

 have been wondering for years why Mankato made so little noise in 

 the horticultural world, and we are reminded again that '"still waters 

 run deep " Nature has done her part, in ray humble opinion, to 

 make Mankato the garden of the State for all horticultural products 

 at all adapted to any part of her large domain. My acquainauce with 

 Mankato's horticulturists is extremely limited, but that there is leaven 

 there that will soon ferment the whole mass, I am quite hopeful. 



J. H. Vandervort writes Jan. 9, 1888: " Horticulturists of Minne- 

 sota, who have so many difficulties to overcome, will find that there is 

 strength both in union and communion." The Mankato people will 

 yet discover the wisdom in this remark from one of her leading horti- 

 culturists, and organize a local society there that will cause other parts 

 of the State to look well to their laurels. 



IN NOBLES COUNTY. 



Mr. Harris will no doubt tell you of the many good things we saw 

 at Mankato, so I will pass on to Worthington, a beautiful prairie 

 town near Lake Okabena. Our principal object here was to inspect 

 the choice seedlings of J. H. Ludlow. He has here one of the best 

 bearing orchards in the State. We found Mr, Ludlow hauling off 

 apples to market by the wagon load, and we estimated that there was 

 still over two hundred bushels on the trees. I w;is astonished, and 



