STATE HORTICULTURA.L SOCIETY. 377 



Prof. Porter will seud out things that are not likely to succeed. Those 

 will be confined to his own station, and he will only seud out the 

 best. He is, therefore, really conferring a favor upon anyone, wheth- 

 er an orchardist or gardener, in putting only reliable stock in his 

 hands. I only wish he had the territory of Dakota under his juris- 

 diction, and that some of us out there might share in these advanta- 

 ges with the farmers and gardeners of Minnesota. 



Mr. Sias. Our chairman says that we want to separate this $15,000, 

 and if it was spread out over the whole State for the support of these 

 different stations it would be pretty thin. That reminds me of a re- 

 mark that Fred Douglas made at the time that Franklin Pierce, of 

 New Hanjpshire, was running for President of the United States. He 

 said that " Mr. Pierce was a good third-rate lawyer of New Hampshire, 

 but you come to spread him out all over this Union he will be so thin 

 he won't amount to anything." Mr. Douglas was simply mistaken 

 for he did amount to something. He became soon after a President 

 of the United States. 



I have been experimenting at Rochester for the past twenty -five 

 years and I have not received a dollar to meet the expenses; have 

 been working hard and living cheap, experimenting in trying to find 

 that " winter apple." I think a number here have been trying, and 

 directing their attention in the same direction. I am satisfied from 

 my experience during these twenty-five years that we should still con- 

 tinue and follow the direction given by Dr. Von Mons and of Andrew 

 Knight. And I think that the plan of Mr. Knight, of cross-fertiliza- 

 tion, is probably the shortest route, and I intend to follow that with 

 some varieties that are much hardier than Duchess, and I think by 

 careful crossing we may hope to find a late keeper and in this way be 

 likely to get a winter apple. If it can be done by any of these super- 

 intendents I am satisfied; but I believe Prof. Porter can use this 

 fund to good advantage, and I believe he will do it in the way of ex- 

 perimenting. I believe his plan is a good one. 



Mr. Pearce said he had drawn up a resolution similar to the one 

 under consideration, which had reference simply to horticulture. He 

 had experimented at Minnetonka a number of years and become fully 

 satisfied that fruit could be grown in large quantities all over the 

 State. During the past winter he had written to many persons and 

 proposed to furnish them stock on a small scale to start with. Prof. 

 Porter proposed to divide this work among specialists. One man 

 should make a specialty of fruit and nothing else. He would suggest 

 the sending out of nothing but known and tried varieties to experi- 



