104 ANJSUAL REPORT 



immediately donned my thinking cap and inquired if we had been 

 traveling east for the last day or two? When answered in the nega- 

 tive, I exclaimed: "But I was told that apple trees would not produce 

 apples as far to the westward as this: how is it?" I refer you to Mr. 

 Ludlow. 



Will leave the particulars of this pleasant visit with Mr. Harris, 

 who gave you such an accurate account of the situation in our last 

 annual report. Will say, however, that Mr Ludlow's seedlings, viz: 

 The Okabena, Daisy and Wax, surpassed my anticipations. They 

 were all exhibited at our fair at Rochester last September, and took 

 the first prize as the best collection of seedlings. How these varie- 

 ties will behave when removed nor4i from the south border of the 

 State, and from Lake Okabena, this deponent saith not, but they are 

 well worthy of trial. 



It is not improbable, we think, that the Daisy should prove the 

 most valuable; it is the best keeper, and carried the most fruit the 

 present season. 



IN COTTONWOOD COUNTY. 



Windom was our next objective point. Here Mr. Dewain Cook 

 met us and piloted us out some fourteen miles across the prairies to 

 his well cultivated little farm, where flourishes in lavish abundance 

 the Cook's Hardy Dewberry, which, I think, he prefers to designate 

 the "Windom Dewberry" How this plant will succeed on heavy 

 clay soil, or timber land, we cannot say; but for the prairies, similar 

 to that of Mr. Cook's, I very much doubt if it has an equal as to 

 quality. I must say that it fitted my mouth so nicely that I soon 

 became too full for criticism. At the time Mr. Cook brought this 

 dewberry into notice, many planters had become discouraged in 

 regard to blackberry culture, but it does appear as though this enor- 

 mously productive variety must go a long way towards restoring con- 

 fidence again. 



Mr. Cook introduced us to some of the leading gardeners among the 

 Mennonites and we endeavored to glean something new and valua- 

 ble, if possible, in regard to the much talked of mulberry, and other 

 plants peculiar to the Mennonites We came to the conclusion that 

 to buy Russian mulberry plants there, even at the low price of $4 per 

 one hundred (as we had done several years ago), would be a losing 

 game, as it would be like a man's buying common seedling apple 

 stocks for an orchard, as he would not stand a ghost of a chance to 

 get a single trfe of good repute. We found one man there who said 



