ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 93 



rendered valuable assistance in organizing the society which has become 

 the State Horticultural Society of to-day, and ever since he has remained 

 a steadfast friend and faithful worker in our ranks. 



My impression is that he acted as secretary of the preliminary meeting 

 of organization. He has since served the society as treasurer five years 

 and as first vice-president about eleven years and has always been found 

 promptly at the post of duty. He has always been an earnest advocate of 

 the planting of ornamental shade trees, and to-day the city of Rochester 

 owes much of the beauty of its streets, lawns and homestead surroundings 

 to the precepts and example of our worthy friend. At his home on Col- 

 lege Hill are growing forty varieties of the pine family and almost every 

 variety of native and foreign deciduous tree that is hardy enough to en- 

 dure this climate. The grounds have been well kept and the arrangement 

 shows skillful landscape gardening and successful tree planting. Many 

 of the most successful orchards of Southern Minnesota have been planted 

 with trees from his nursery. As an orchardist his work has been largely 

 experimental. His orchard contains over 50 varieties of Russian apples, a 

 still greater number of American and their seedlings, and something like 

 40 of, the Siberians and their hybrids, besides pears, plums and cherries, in 

 numerous varieties. In 1882, 103 varieties produced fruit. What the 

 final result of the experiments carried to completion would have been it 

 is impossible to tell. On August 21st, 1883, the great tornado that swept 

 over Rochester and its vicinity, leaving desolation, ruin and death in its 

 track, uprooted one half of the trees in this promising experimental or- 

 chard and left the remainder in a sorry plight. In a moment, as it were, 

 the treasures he had been years in collecting were almost annihilated and 

 the most thorough experimental work that had at that time been under- 

 taken in the state with all its hopes of success was lost or set back for 

 many years and the financial loss to him was one from which he has 

 never fully recovered. Our society has always found him at the front 

 whenever any aggressive work was to be done. We shall miss him in our 

 councils and we hope that he may be most abundantly prospered in his 

 new home, and the horticulturists of Colorado may appreciate his worth. 



J. S. HARRIS. 



E. H. S. Dartt:— Mr. Harris has stolen the thunder of the 

 obituary committee. 



J. S. Harris: — Mr. Sias has been a valuable member. He is 

 a man of sterling worth, and I would like to see resolutions 

 adopted by this society deploring his loss and expressing our 

 good wishes for his future. 



The Secretary then read a letter from A. W. Sias, Pueblo, 

 Colorado. 



Mr. President, and Members of the Horticultural Society: A residence of 

 thirty-one years in Minnesota, and a small portion of that time happily 

 and profitably spent in convention with you, dating back to your first 



