FORECASTING THE FUTURE OF THE MINN. STATE HORT. SOCIETY. 447 



his work will remain. Great successes are yet to fall from the 

 deft fingers of Hansen and Haralson. Perhaps the latter can 

 secure a strawberry which will excel his No. 3. If so he will be 

 nature's miracle worker. 



Among flowers you have the Brands who stand among the 

 world's greatest propagators of the peony. And they, with their 

 careful work, saving but one out of a thousand, are sure to give 

 in the future, as they have in the past, astonishing forms of loveli- 

 ness. 



Among the iris your Wm. Fryer, of Mantorville, now takes 

 the lead, and he has only begun his work. Others will fall into 

 line, for there is no flower that blooms more susceptible of im- 

 provement than the iris. Some of our recent importations from 

 Holland and England, in their dazzling beauty, defy description. 



There are three species of the wild olive which have a future. 

 Our buffalo berry, the Siberian sand thorn and a kindred fruit 

 from Japan. This last is an enormous bearer. I have picked a 

 gallon from a single bush in Massachusetts, where they are much 

 prized for jellies. Hansen will find some way to blend them so 

 we will have a fine winter currant. What improvements have 

 been made in your native plums, and you may yet surpass the 

 Wealthy and Patten's Greening. The apple needs a cool climate. 

 You cannot raise them in the low grounds of California or in the 

 Gulf states. The farther north you go or the higher up in the 

 mountains, the finer they are. Your newly developed system of 

 top-grafting adds prolificness and hardiness so you can move the 

 apple belt hundreds of miles north. 



You succeed well with evergreens, and soon you will have 

 adequate protection for your homes. 



There is no land or clime better adapted to fruits and flowers 

 than yours. There must have been a strain of poetry in the 

 Indian who called it Minnesota, land of the sky-tinted waters. 

 Yours is by far the most beautiful state in the Union. The moun- 

 tain states surpass you in sublimity, but yours is peerless in 

 beauty. 



The glory of her June, embellished by nature and art, her 

 rich soil and congenial climate place her at the front. Where are 

 mornings ushered in with such beauty? Was ever land adorned 

 with such resplendent sunsets ? When the weary day departs for 

 her repose what escorts she has ! The curtains of the evening are 

 painted with molten gems. The mantles of the sun are hung 

 there. She parts the folds and passes on escorted by a pageantry 

 no earthly monarch ever dreamed of. 



And what peaceful nights when heaven's arch is kalsomined 

 with blue and sprinkled with stars, and the sweet silence is elo- 

 quent with unuttered praise ! 



Look over your land where the lakes are sown broadcast, and 

 they flash and sparkle like diamonds on the bosom of mother 



