238 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



OWATONNA STATION. 



E. H. S. DARTT, OWATONUA. 



Santa Barbara, Cal., Jan. 15th, 1893, 



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

 Gentlemen, I hail you this time from wonderland — a land made doubly 

 attractive to me by contrast. In passing through Montana, Washington, 

 Oregon and California I have noticed that a very large proportion of the 

 land is unsuited to cultivation. And as scarcity creates demand, the good 

 land is very high-priced, sometimes running up to $300, $500 and even $1,000 

 per acre for choice locations with water rights in southern California. 

 High-priced land means high-priced production, and herein we under- 

 stand why it costs much more to live in California than in Minnesota. 



These beauty spots of creation are often reached by traversing some of 

 the most God-forsaken regions on earth. Let us imagine the utter deso- 

 lation of some of the mountains and the stifling heat and dust of the des- 

 ert in summer— then enter one of these beautiful valheys and speed down 

 amid ever increasing attractions until we meet the cooling and refreshing 

 sea breeze, and finally enter some haven of rest, like Santa Barbara. We 

 may liken the trip to a passage through purgatory to reach heaven. 

 Here our joys should be complete, and probably will be, if our stock of gold is 

 abundant and we dispense it freely, for the rich are way up, with a disposi- 

 tion to stay, whilst the poor are way down, with seemingly no power to rise. 



Riverside is the prettiest town I ever saw. The orange tree, bending 

 down under its load of golden fruit and evergreen foliage, is the prettiest 

 tree I ever saw, and Riverside is among the orange groves. Its streets are 

 lined for miles and miles with artistically trained cypress hedges, and its 

 street trees of magnolia, fan palm, pepper tree and others of rare beauty, 

 interspersed with century plants and flowering shrubs, make up a picture 

 that fills us with pleasurable amazement beyond description. 



Bewitching California! She has gold, but no coal; she dazzles our eyes 

 with her show of wealth and refinement, and she fascinates us with her 

 delightful climate, her luscious fruits, and ever-blooming flowers; yet, 

 through this glitter and glare we think we see that in those elements 

 which go to make up happy, intelligent, prosperous and populous com- 

 munities, the solid foundation of great states, she is not in advance of some 

 of her less pretentious neighbors. 



The most equable and delightful climate is found on the sea coast in 

 southern California, interior sections suffering more from oppressive heat 

 and dust, and sometimes from destructive frosts. 



Persons of substantial wealth should visit California as they would at- 

 tend a show. To such persons the show is worth the admission fee, and 

 they may safely tarry to their hearts' content. But the poor should 

 understand that people seldom make money by attending shows, and, 

 further, that it is impossible to enter into the full appreciation and per- 

 fect enjoyment of the beauties of creation on an empty stomach. 



The work on the Owatonna tree station for the past year has been but 

 a repetition of other years, consisting of the planting of choice seeds and 

 the gathering in of promising varieties grown by others, and grafting all 

 promising new seedling apples, and testing as many as possible in orchard. 



