88 MINNESOTA STATEHORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Rusk and my friend Smith inaugurated that work, and I feel 

 proud, although I was not born in Wisconsin, I was brought up 

 there from boyhood, I feel proud of that state and what it has 

 done to favor this institute worK. There is no one thing of 

 more importance to the farmer, and of so much benefit, as that 

 very self same institute work, which was inaugurated by Hoard, 

 Rusk and Smith at Menominie. 



J. S. Harris: I never like to take sides against Col. Stevens, 

 because we are old Mexican veterans, but Wisconsin got its 

 ideas from Minnesota, because Minnesota had started this work 

 long before there ever was such a thing as institutes in Wis- 

 consin. 



Pres. Elliot: — I wish to introduce to you, fellow members, 

 the vice-president of the Wisconsin State Horticultural So- 

 ciety, Mr. M. A. Thayer. 



Mr. Thayer then addressed the society as follows: 

 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I am not here to talk, 

 but I am deeply interested in the farmer institute work, and 

 especially the horticultural part of it. I have been doing some 

 work in that line myself, and I find our people in Wisconsin 

 very much interested in horticulture. We had very large 

 meetings day before yesterday at Lake Mills; we had a room 

 as large as this and it was crowded to the utmost, and on all 

 horticultural topics that came up the people were very deeply 

 interested. Now I came here yesterday for the purpose of 

 getting some information on the subject that you have just had 

 before you. We realize the necessity of getting this horticul- 

 tural information before the people, also the best way in which 

 we ma}' place our literature before the farmers of the country. 

 In my work in that direction I have prepared a map which I 

 entitled "The Farmer's Quarter Acre." I first lay out my 

 garden four rods wide and one hundred and ten feet long, with 

 the first row for plums and Transcendant crab apples of thir- 

 teen trees; the next row I lay out in blackberries; the next in 

 black raspberries; the next in red raspberries; the next in 

 currants, and so on until I complete the garden and have a suc- 

 cession of fruit throughout the season. We recommend what 

 different varieties of fruit should be planted and make the in- 

 struction as clear as we can, and after that comes the discus- 

 sion. 



It seems to me that the great need of our horticulturists and 

 farmers in Wisconsin, and I presume it is so in Minnesota, is 



