COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 131 



COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 



MINNESOTA HORTICULTURAL EXHIBIT AT THE COLUMBIAN 



EXPOSITION. 



A. W. LATHAM, SUFT., EXCELSIOR. 



Mr. President and members of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society: 



At the last annual meeting you passed a resolution requesting the 

 Minnesota Board of Managers of the Columbian Exposition to appropri- 

 ate $15,000 for a horticultural exhibit from this state, and recommending 

 the appointment of your humble servant as superintendent of the exhibit. 

 The resolutions were promptly transmitted to the board, and the execu- 

 tive committee of this society met with them soon after, when the subject 

 of the exhibit was considered. 



The importance of getting to work at once in preparation for the 

 exhibit was recognized by all parties, but, unfortunately, the commission 

 at this time had not collected the money which they must necessarily 

 have to go forward, and it was not until late in the summer that a suffi- 

 cient amount of the pledges had been received to secure the commission 

 in taking active steps in the matter. 



Early in August the commission finally made an appropriation of 

 $5,000 as the full sum which was to be used for the purpose of the horti- 

 cultural exhibit, including fruits and vegetables; and the appointment 

 was tendered to me as superintendent of the exhibit. The amount 

 received was much less than the smallest sum which had been considered 

 by the executive committee absolutely necessary to make a creditable 

 show. But the board of commissioners, in considering all the various 

 interests of the state that were clamoring for recognition, decided that 

 this was all that could be spared for this purpose. 



It was, of course, a disappointment to our committee, and we were 

 compelled to curtail very considerably the outline plans that had been 

 prepared. It had been the intention to put up in glass jars a full line of 

 all the small fruits in their season, and, finally, the grapes and apples, so 

 that a full show of the various fruits grown in Minnesota could be upon 

 the tables in this form during the entire exposition. Of course, nothing 

 had been done in the way of small fruits, and at the date of the appro- 

 priation it was too late — scarcely time being left to make the necessary 

 preparation for putting up the fall fruits and secur4ng those needed to 

 place in cold storage, to be used at the opening of the exposition. 



