144 ANNUAL REPORT 



Mr. Barrett. The Transcendent. A gentleman by the name of 

 Matthews who keeps a hotel, on the east shore of Big Stone Lake, 

 about eight miles from Ortonville, has quite a variety of trees in 

 bearing condition, prominent among which is the Transcendent. 

 The Transcendent trees were loaded with apples, and the orchard 

 promised a fine crop, at the time I visited him. A Mr. Boman, of 

 Big Stone County, about four miles north of Mr. Matthews, had a 

 very fine orchard, among those native seedlings, and, had it not 

 been for hail-storms that broke his trees down, he would have a 

 very successful orchard to-day. He set out new trees and they 

 are a success. In my orchard the Transcendents take the lead. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EVERGREEN TREES. 



By C. F. Miller, of Faribault 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



The subject of evergreens is a subject that should interest the 

 people of the Northwest much more than it seems to interest them ; 

 and it is a subject that should not wear out till every farm in Min- 

 nesota has at least one thousand evergreen trees planted and grow- 

 ing upon it. They protect us from the howling blasts of winter. 

 While the driving snows are chasing across the dreary plains out- 

 side, within their sheltering influences all is quiet, calm and com- 

 fortable. A row of these pines running east and west, will save 

 our apple trees from destruction in a great majority of cases, if the 

 fruit trees are planted a little way to the north of them. Several 

 rows (the more the better) growing to the north and to the south 

 of our farm buildings, and a good large grove of them thickly set 

 on the west, northwest and southwest, with a large lawn around 

 and in front of the farm house, tastefully set with handsome ever- 

 greens, will give us such a comfortable, beautiful home, as but very 

 few comparatively enjoy here is the cold Northwest. Such a home 

 no one knows how to appreciate better than the happy owner. 



The evergreen tree will thrive on almost every kind of soil, from 

 the sandy barren plain, the rocky hillside, to the moist low lands 

 of the valleys, and therefore any rough or unsightly parts of our 

 lands can be planted with them, and make those portions the most 

 sightly of any. Our country school houses should be thoroughly 

 protected with the evergreen belts. 



And our roads where the drifting snows are apt to obstruct 

 travel, could be made, by only a little row of them, in a few years, 

 the best part of it all. 



If men would go to work and protect themselves as above indi- 

 cated, fewer people would find themselves stranded two thousand 

 miles or more away from home, whither they have fled in quest 

 of — climate. 



Climate is a great desideratum which thousands are after, and 



