ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 75 
may be more hardy, and safely endure many degrees lower temperature 
than another of the same species, but no amount of nursing or moving 
about will ever change a tender plant or animal into a hardy one. But 
by introducing new elements, as in cross-fertilization, we multiply the 
causes for wide variation through the different hereditary characteristics 
of both parents. Then by selection and propagation of such cross-bred 
varieties as are worth preservation, we are often able to secure those 
adapted to widely different conditions, as seen among allof our long-culti- 
vated and widely disseminated plants. Why the seeds from a plant should 
yield both tender and hardy varieties, can only be accounted for upon the 
hypothesis that each possesses transmitted hereditary characteristics, but 
of the nature of the laws that contro] this transmission, we know little or 
nothing. 
‘““However well informed a person may be in regard to the structure 
and habits of plants, and extended his experience, and perfect the con- 
trivances for propagation, he must likewise possess skill and patience, and 
exercise great care and watchfulness in every operation, if he will become 
a successful cultivator and propagator of plants in general. A person may 
know just how an operation should be performed, and still lack the neces- 
sary skill for its execution.” 
The efforts of these pioneer fruit growers will be a leaven that will stir 
the souls of the future generations of tillers of the soil to grander, nobler 
endeavor, because we believe them to have been honest, sincere, earnest 
and true to the cause they espoused and so nobly defended; they spoke the 
truth and lied not, and theseed they have planted will ripen into a gener- 
ous fruitage. 
Vice-President Wedge: We will devote the remaining 15 
minutes of this morning’s session to forestry. 
Mr. Barrett: This paper is in response to the request of our 
president and the friends of forestry throughout the state. 
Mr. Barret there read the following resolutions drawn up by 
the committee appointed on ‘‘The Forest Reserve.” 
RESOLUTIONS ON THE FORESTRY RESERVE. 
‘‘We maintain that our public woodland in the northern part of our 
state should not be monopolized for personal gain to the injury of the peo- 
ple at large, but should be reserved for the continuance of our lumber and 
agricultural industries, for protection against the polar winds, and for a 
great reservoir to feed our rivers and lakes, which are now fast drying up. 
We therefore respectfully urge the essential claims of the proposed forest 
reserve known as the Minnesota National Park, with the necessary modi- 
fications of its boundaries, and under these provisions: 
1. That, besides the land agent’s service, a board of forest reserve com- 
missioners, who are posted in scientific forestry, should be appointed by 
the national government to inspect the public woodlands in Minnesota, 
their land configuration, water bearing strata and capacity for dense for- 
estation to conserve evaporation, and locate a public timber reservation 
in compact form, or in large, separate compact tracts at and around the 
water sources, mainly of the Red, Mississippi and St. Louis rivers; to 
which should beadded all poor lands of publicdomain which are officially 
