228 ANNUAL REPORT 



of installation, because I had my hands about four times more thau 

 full of routine work, and I had spent a good deal of time already, you 

 know, for the State at New Orleans; and I didn't.intend to do any 

 more work "free, gratis, for nothing," and pay my own expenses. 



Mr. Fuller. I am glad to hear this statement, because it is a mat- 

 ter of which I know nothing, and inquiries have been made. 



Prof. Porter. This report will be published, as that is the inten- 

 tion of both Gov. McGill and Gov. Hubbard. It is understood the 

 report will now be made; the required funds will be furnished by pri- 

 vate parties, or from the contingent fund of the State, or from an ap- 

 propriation by the legislature. It is right and proper that a report of 

 that exhibit should be made. It was the best state exhibit made at the 

 Exposition at New Orleans; our State was the best represented there. 

 The $30,000 expended by the State should be properly accounted for. 

 It has not been done heretofore only from lack of funds. The offi- 

 cers of the State have desired the report to be made. The State had 

 money enough, but it could only be drawn according to law. I have 

 just learned from Col. Young that the report is prepared and is now 

 in the governor's office. 



The following paper was then read : 



THE CULTURE OF SMALL FRUITS. 

 By Wm. Danforth, Red Wing. 



That the cultivation of small fruits should be so generally neglect- 

 ed by people who live in the country, is a fact for which it is difficult 

 to account, especially in a laud so peculiarly adapted to their growth 

 as this. A large portion of our people in this State of Minnesota 

 neglect not only the cultivation of small fruits, but even the vegeta- 

 ble garden. You may possibly find a few beets, onions and cabbages; 

 but no Lima beans, celery or cauliflower. You may occasionally find 

 a few strawberries in some out of the way place, or some neglected 

 raspberri'es in a fence corner, to be out of the way of the plow or 

 team, grown up with grass and weeds — stalks mostly dead. Few peo- 

 ple would turn away from a dish of ripe, plump strawberries pow- 

 dered with sugar, or from a plate of melting raspberries and cream, 

 but farmers think this luxury is not for them. 



I can look back to the time, when a boy, I watched for the first 

 wild strawberries of the season, to get the first ones for my mother, 

 and traveled along the hedges and. stone wall for the earliest raspber- 

 ries, and how highly T prized the small area that was given me to set 



