82 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
horticultural products. Making an exhibit to call attention to our wheat 
fields, our pine forests, our iron mines, our fertile farms, our fine dairy 
products and our wonderful cities, seems almost a work of supererogation. 
Who that reads the press of the day has not heard of these things that 
make the giant state of the great northwest so well known throughout 
the world; but of its facilities for horticultural pursuits little is known 
outside our own limits. 
The fruit grown here, however superb in quality and abundant in yield 
is marketed altogether within the state and is absolutely unknown be- 
yond its limits. Even many of our own citizens are altogether ignorant 
of our striking success in this direction. An intelligent resident of Hen- 
nepin county, an old citizen as well, remarked lately in regard to the 
amount asked for the horticultural exhibit, ‘‘What fruit are we growing 
here any way? We have nothing to exhibit—not ten bushels of apples 
raised in the state this year.”” While on that very day Minnesota apples, 
the Duchess, had overstocked the market and were selling at 50 cents 
per bushel. 
Those whose duties require their attendance on the fruit tables at our 
state fair have opportunity to note the continuous expressions of surprise 
and delight at the beautiful fruit on exhibition. ‘‘What! Grown in 
Minnesota! I didn’t know we could raise fruit here!” etc., etc.; until in 
weariness and despair at the never ceasing monotony of endless surprise, 
the attendants replied mutely by pointing to the sign ‘‘This Fruit is Grown 
in Minnesota.” A display in the field of horticulture as broadly covered 
by the work of our society would include many things which will proba- 
bly be classed in other exhibits. Sugar and sugar culture, apiculture, 
forestry, and possibly entomology, ornithology and pantry stores, will 
probably be found in classes by themselves. 
The exhibit in forestry, it is understood, will cover all of the natural 
forest growths of the state, including not only native trees, vines and 
shrubs, but also native flowering plants as well. 
Cutting out these various classes from our list reduces the horticultural 
exhibit to a display of fruits, vegetables and cultivated shrubs, vines and 
flowers. J. M. Samuels, the chief of the horticultural department at the 
Columbian Exposition, has written requesting that the subject of the 
horticultural exhibit on that occasion be Giscussed at this meeting. It is 
not my intention at this time to go much into detail, but rather to make 
a few suggestions intended to precede and draw outa discussion, in which 
it is hoped the best views of the members of our society will be presented. 
An exhibit of fruits may consist of fruits shown in glass cans, models of 
fruit in wax, or fruits exhibited fresh upon the tables during their various 
seasons and thereafter by preserving them in cold storage. The same plan 
will apply in the main to an exhibit of vegetables. 
An exhibit of cultivated shrubs, trees, vines and flowers would have to 
be made on a tract of ground set apart for our state, adjoining the horti- 
cultural building. 
In response to a request from the secretary of the the World’s Fair Com- 
mission of Minnesota, President Elliot and myself prepared a rough 
estimate of what might constitute an exhibit of fruits and vegetables, 
and the probable cost of the same. A brief summary of this estimate in 
which details are omitted is here presented. 
