STATE HORTTCULTUEAL SOCIETT. 427 



The statistics of Dodge county show that we have now growing 

 forty-five hundred apple trees, and only orys hundred and thirty-one 

 grape vines. This is a poor showing for a county as well settled as 

 this is; also a fine field for a good, reliable nurseryman to work on. 

 Now, my friends, don't conclude from the above statement that Dodge 

 county farmers are not a fruit loving people, for such is not the case. 

 We have been duped by tree agents often, and still there are many of 

 us ready to try our luck again. I have seven Duchess trees that are 

 now about twenty-five years old. They stand about twenty-two feet 

 high and well proportioned. They look as hardy as oaks. I have 

 probably taken six hundred bushels of apples from them. I have a • 

 few Wealthys also that are doing very well. The spring of 1886 I 

 planted out two acres of the Ancient Briton and Snyder blackberry. 

 I lost some of the plants through carelessness of shipping, but the 

 past season they have made a big growth and ripened up the canes, so 

 if there is any show for raising this fruit here I think I stand a good 

 chance of having blackberries to eat and to sell. 



Wild plums grow here as fine as any that can be produced anywhere 

 and in large quantities, fully up to the Rollingstone or any other 

 native plum of the north. We have some seedling apples that have 

 the appearance of being valuable. I am trying to induce the owners 

 of these trees to let our experimental stations have some of the scions, 

 but they appear to be afraid that someone will make some money out 

 of it. I think they can be reached if the right man will undertake 

 it. 



If your society has any of the horticultural reports to spare I would 

 like five or six to distribute here. I would be willing to pay my share 

 of the tax to put one of these reports in the hands of every farmer in 

 the entire State. 



Yours respectfully, 



C. H. Pond. 



LETTER FROM MR. HARRIS. 



La Crescent, Minn., Dec. 21, 1S8T. 



Mr. President and Members of the Olmsted County Horticultural Society: 



In looking up statistics on the horticulture of Minnesota, I find that 

 your society was organized some fifteen years since and continues to 

 maintain an active existence; that it is the only living horticultural 

 society in Southern Minnesota proper, and that it is the oldest living 

 county organization of the kind in the State. We have altogether 



