HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 213 



QUESTION BOX. 



Q. Is it not advisable for this society to recommend a horti- 

 cultural to Superintendent Gregg, who would aid in that good 

 work in the farm institute? 



This question brought out a good deal of discussion as to the 

 opportunities for disseminating horticultural information at the 

 farmer's institute. The opinions expressed were in favor of an 

 increase of the time now devoted to this purpose. The good work 

 of the institute, and Superintendent Gregg's management of them, 

 received the highest endorsement. 



Mr. Somerville then spoke as follows: 



This work is not going to be accomplished by flowery speeches, 

 nor will it be accomplished in one or two years. A good man 

 sent out as a misionary can always find some leading man whom 

 he can get interested; let him go to that individual and 

 show him the necessity of planting trees around his house to beau- 

 tify his home and give protection for his stock. Let such a man 

 go out to do this work even if you have to furnish him with trees 

 at a low price to start him. If this is done you well see the in- 

 fluence of his work spreading out in all that neighborhood in a 

 short time. 



Out at Sleepy "Eye I have a son who is a lawyer. It was supposed 

 there could not be any evergreen trees grown in that neighborhood. 

 They had tried evergreens that they had bought from peddlers, 

 and they were perfectly disgusted and said there was no use in try- 

 ing to grow them. I told my son, I was going to take out some 

 trees and surround his lot. He said, they wouldn't grow. I said, 

 we would try them. So I took out about forty trees and set them 

 out. In a very few years those evergreens had made a fine lot of 

 trees, perhaps ten or fifteen feet high and are now all alive. The 

 result is that nearly everybody around there now wants trees. 

 There was hardly a tree growing in that community when I set 

 these out. There has to be a starting point and we must get some 

 man to make the first start. In my town, where I live, there was 

 hardly an evergreen to be seen until I started growing them, and 

 now it is difficult to find a farm that has no evergreens upon it. 



Mr. Gray. I move that the question of recommending a man to 

 attend to the horticultural interests of the state at the farmer's 

 institutes be refered to the executive committee of this society 

 with power to act. 



The motion was seconded and carried. 



Mr. Latham then announced that lunch was ready. 



