HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 455 



X/ake, who compared the conditiou of things forty years ago with 

 that of the present; and Mrs. Helen H. Charlton, of Brodhead, 

 with a paper on the '* Power of an Idea." 



Friday, the conventions continued their sessions during the 

 forenoon. G. P. Peifer told the farmers what he saw in Califor- 

 nia at the time of the meeting of the American Horticultural 

 Society last year, and J. M, Smith mapped out a system of horti- 

 culture for the farmer. Before the horticultural society the 

 causes of the failure of orchards were pointed out by J. C. Plumb, 

 which was followed by a general discussion of blight, sun scald, 

 insects and methods of heading them off, root killing, protection 

 by mulching and otherwise, time for pruning, etc. At noon the 

 convention adjourned. 



Thus closed the most interesting, profitable and largely at- 

 tended meeting of farmers ever held in the Northwest. The 

 proceedings of the convention have been very fully reported and 

 will make a volume of 1,0U0 pages of practical, interesting agri- 

 cultural and horticultural literature — containing the experi- 

 ences, observations and ideas of the most successful men of the 

 day. The state has made ample provision for its publication 

 and distribution. Thirteen thousand copies of the joint report 

 will be published for general distribution among farmers, and 

 some 3,000 copies of the transactions of each association will be 

 bound separately in cloth for the use of its members. This is 

 the shortest course in agriculture and the harvest festival of the 

 year. These annual gatherings are exerting a mighty influence 

 for good, in brightening up the ideas and uniting the farmers in 

 a brotherlv union that will be cemented closer as time rolls on. 



ADDEESS OF A. W. SIAS. 



Delivered Before The Southern Minnesota Horticul- 

 tural Meeting Held at Eochester, 

 Jan. 1 AND 2, 1889. 



Gentlemen of the Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society, and 



Friends of Sorticulture: 



As this is the first day of the new year 1889, I sincerely wish 

 you a happy and prosperous year. We are informed that the 

 very first work that was planned for man by the Maker of the 



