ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 97 
them out. They were not altogether disappointed. Mr. C. R. Hoag had 
a nursery at Kasson, and despite the protests of some rather ultra advo- 
cates of home protection, he was admitted. There were eight exhibitors 
in all, who presented 26 varieties. Mr. Hoag captured the first premium 
with seven varieties. It was required that the minimum quantity of any 
variety competing should be one quart, and that the berries should be 
turned over to the society. As strawberries were then selling ab thirty 
cents a quart, it will be seen that there was a very liberal drawback to 
help out on the extremely modest premium list. The ladies decorated the 
hall and furnished the refreshments, and the show proved a great success. 
Even the twin cities were represented in the visitors, Gov. Marshall and 
Hon. John P. Owens, then editor of the Minnesotian, having been present 
from St. Paul, and Hon. Cyrus Aldrich, then postmaster, from Minne- 
apolis. 
The net sum of $38.00 was realized, which was invested in plowing the 
Faribault park and setting a number of trees, of which five evergreens 
are now living monuments of what is claimed to have been the first 
strawberry show ever held in Minnesota. 
I have been thus minute in detailing the history of the Faribault Fruit 
Growers’ Club for the reason that the organization had an influential 
bearing upon the early career of the State Horticultural Society. Mr. J. 
W. Harkness was one of its most useful and active members. He was 
endowed with those qualities which eminently fit one for pioneer work. 
He had unconquerable perseverance and an enthusiasm that led him 
to make little account of obstacles that stood in the way of carrying out 
his ideas. In his prophetic vision he beheld Minnesota coming to the 
front in the future as a great fruit growing state, and he consecrated his 
life to the accomplishment of that result. He was present at the first 
organization of the State Fruit Growers’ Association in Rochester in 
1866, and attended the second meeting held during the state fair at the 
same place the following year. Neither the president or secretary were 
present, and Vice-President Chas. Hoag, of Minneapolis, presided, with 
Mr. Harkness as secretary pro tem. He conceived that Faribault, with 
its active body of organized fruit growers, would furnish a very favorable 
location for the development of the youthful society, and he planned to 
have it selected as the next place of meeting. Whether the Twin Cities 
had not then developed so strongly the propensity with which they are 
now accredited by some of their country brethren, of ‘‘going for every- 
thing in sight,” or whether, more probably, the infant was so small as: 
not to have attracted their attention, it is not essential now to discuss; 
suffice it to say, that Mr. Harkness succeeded, and carried with it the 
election of the writer as president. A more unlooked-for honor is not 
often bestowed. for I confess that I was scarcely aware of the existence of 
such an organization. I had no practical experience in fruit growing in 
the state, although I had considerable enthusiasm, which probably 
counted for more with my supporters than experience, as with more of the 
latter qualification I might not have had near as much of the former. It 
was a sufficiently clear case of the office seeking the man and not the man 
the office, to have satisfied any advocate of the most advanced ideas of 
civil service reform. 
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