HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 3i7 



edgewise. Flowers in early summer; ripening in late autumn, the 

 large and indurated pod 5' to 10 long and 1| to 2 wide; the seeds 

 over y across. Several of these beautiful native trees still stand 

 in different parts of the city, and many on the banks of the Minne- 

 sota river close by. Nature provided this fine ornamental tree with 

 thick rough bark, preparatory to high pruning! And let me cau- 

 tion my friends in this connection, never to prune high unless your 

 plant is provided by nature with a rough bark, or a very thick one. 

 One of the most enthusiastic gardeners we found at Mankato for 

 his age, was A. P. Shigler; he has a large variety of plums and 

 and many other things. He is also quite a bee man. We noticed 

 a fine plant of Yucca in his yard also. 



August 25th Mr. Fuller and self visited the grounds and green- 

 house connected with the second Insane Asylum at Rochester 

 Here we saw an extensive collection of trees, flowers, and greenhouse 

 plants but what attracted my notice most was a large banana, carry- 

 ing full sized fruit, but as we ascertained this was not a Minnesota 

 seedling; we will reserve the description of it for our district re- 

 port. From here we pass on to the farm of John Adler, in Haver- 

 hill township, where we find some large fine Russian apples, and 

 hybrids. This township in our opinion (though backward now) 

 will ere long be noted for its fine fruits. It joins the corporation 

 of Rochester, hence handy to market. The townships of Haver- 

 hill, Viola and Quincy lie side by side on a high ridge of beautiful 

 land already sonewhat noted for what it has accomplished in the 

 line of choice fruit. 



We next bring up at the splendid farm of Wendel Vine, one of 

 your whole-souled intelligent farmers who never allows, a " white 

 man " to leave his place hungry, so we had to feed here. I think 

 there is but little in a name anyhow! for Mr. Vine had more apples 

 on his place than vines. He had an old wealthy tree hanging so 

 full and looking so robust that I was in hopes we should get a 

 word of praise for it, from our old stoical friend Fuller, who gazed 

 in astonishment upon it at the same time I did, but I suspect he 

 feared the heart might be ebony colored, but your stupid scribe 

 thought it would make a most excellent frontispiece to our next 

 annual repoit. We next bring up at the residence of Wm. Somer- 

 ville in the township of Viola. Mr. Somerville needs no introduc- 

 tion to the older members of this society, he has long been known 

 as one of the foremost pomologists of our state. Unfortunately 

 Mr. Somerville happened to be away from home at the time of our 

 call, so we took but a hasty look over the orchard and left for 

 Rochester. But we saw enough (at least I did) to satisfy us that 

 Mr. Somerville was making apple culture pay. His awards on 

 apples at the state fair and southern Minnesota fairs was about 

 $150, last fall. 



NATIVE PLUMS. 



Your committee place no native fruit ahead of this except the 

 native apple. We found a new variety in Fillmore county that I 

 am inclined to believe to be a hybrid, it is so distinct from the 



