334 AKSVAL EEPOET 



Why should not this law of reproduction regulate the practice of the 

 pomologist as well as of the farmer? * * * Qm- object is not to 

 controvert the opinions of those who believe in the running out of 

 varieties * * * but to enforce the importance of raising new vari- 

 eties from seed." 



Fellow members, the lessons of the late war taught us that fearful 

 repulses like Cold Harbor and Chicamauga will precede final victory. 

 We have met our Cold Harbor and Chicamauga, but athwart the dark- 

 ness of defeat, to those of us who with faces toward the foes which 

 have confronted us, the star of hope shines brightly and victory is just 

 ahead. 



" No waters can swallow the ship where ]ies 

 The Master of ocean and earth and sky." 



All we need now is faith and perseverance. The prospects to my 

 mind have never been so bright as they are now. If we read aright 

 the lessons of the past and are guided by their teachings there will be 

 no more failure, and the pomology of our State will be placed fully 

 abreast of the advanced progress of the age. 



Mr. Brand also placed on file the following correspondence: 



LETTER FROM NORTHFIELD. 



NoRTHFiELD, Jan. 10, 1888. 

 0. F. Brand, Esq. 



Dear Sir : Your card of December 29th is received, asking for the 

 history of my old seedling orchard. The seeds were brought from New 

 Hampshire by my father, Franklin Kelley, in 1855 and planted that 

 fall on laud broken in the spring. The trees grew vigorously and 

 commenced bearing in 1863, and continued to bear until we got as 

 many as one hundred and fifty bushels in '69, and as many two or 

 three years following. 



One year I exhibited fifty varieties at the Hennepin county fair at 

 Minneapolis and received a premium of $10. The same fall I took 

 the premium for cider, of which I made several barrels. I had the 

 honor of making the first barrel of cider in Rice county, which was 

 exhibited at the Rice county fair in 1865, I think. 



My orchard continued to do well, with the loss of an occasional tree, 

 up to the winter of — You know, when they got such a scorching 

 that every one has since given up the ghost. I had commenced to 

 propagate some of the best varieties, and had out about a thousand 



