ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 109 
This calamity caused him to turn his attention to the Siberians and crabs, 
and he never afterwards expressed very strong faith in apples. 
In the spring of 1852, John Shaw, from the state of Maine, established a 
settlement at Minnesota City, in Winona county, and caused to be planted 
a nail keg full of apple seeds that his neighbors of the eastern home had 
saved for him. Those trees were distributed among the farmers of that 
county. A great many of them survived for more than thirty years, and 
formed the starting point of a number of orchards that at one time had 
great promise. Trees from Rochester, N. Y., were sold and planted in 
that county quite extensively a year or two later. 
In the spring of 1853, Samuel McPhail, one of the earliest settlers of 
Houston county, planted a few trees and started a nursery at Caledonia. 
The same year or the year following a few trees were planted at Browns- 
ville,‘and occasionally a tree of these early plantings escaped death in 
the memorable winter of 1356-7, and yielded fruit for many years. About 
1#54, a nursery was started at La Crescent, but never amounted to very 
iauch owing to the fact that the proprietors were non-residents, and. 
in the course of four or five years the project was abandoned and the 
trees left to the tender mercies of mice and rabbits. About this same 
time, 1854, Peter M. Gideon began the planting of trees quite exten- 
sively at Excelsior, in Hennepin county, meeting with heavy losses; also 
at the same time planting a bushel of apple seeds, a peck of peach pits, 
etc. If we remember right, but one of the seedling apple trees survived 
long enough to produce any fruit and that of very inferior quality. The 
seeds of that lot had been saved from fruit grown in more southern 
latitudes, and the failure led him to try seeds produced in the state of 
Maine, trying both apple and crab. The result of this experiment was 
more satisfactory, as it resulted in the origin of the famous Wealthy, 
which stands next in value to the Oldenburg for severe climates. About 
this same date, Jacob Klein, Wm. H. Dunbar, of Houston county, and 
others started seedling nurseries and planted trees, that afterwards de- 
veloped into promising orchards that endured and fruited for many 
years, but to-day there is not a vestige of this promise left except one 
tree, the Catherine of Jacob Klein, grown from an ungrafted variety in 
Canada. Between 1855 and 1860 numerous agents, representing Roches- 
ter, N. Y., Rockford, Ill., and other points, began to find their way 
across the father of waters and considerable quantities of trees were 
sold and planted in the older settled portions of the state. Unfor- 
tunately the selections made were largely Baldwins, Greenings, Rambos, 
and such popular varieties, and but few of the trees survived long 
enough to show that they were true to name; but at this early date, 
1860, we hear of some crab apples and pears having fruited. 
The first purely horticultural meeting of which we can find any record, 
was held in the capitol at St. Paul, not far from the first of February, 
1860, under the auspices of the Agricultural and Mechanical Club of the 
legislature, with the president, our Col. John H. Stevens in the chair. 
Were the legislature of the present day composed of such men, both agri- 
culture and horticulture would be far in advance of what it now is, and 
we should not be found trembling in our boots every time they are in ses- 
sion, lest there shall be a majority of imbeciles there who would wrest 
from us the little pittance we now receive from the state to help carry on 
