240 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



GENERAL FRUITS. 



EEPORT ON GENERAL FRUITS, FIRST CONGRESSIONAL 



DISTRICT. 



M. "W. COOK, ROCHESTER. 



Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: 



It is said that one-half of the world does not know how the other half 

 lives, Dut for various reasons the most would like to know. Some, that 

 they might have a broader field for carrying out their low, sensual, devil- 

 ish purposes; others, with a feeling of selfish jealousy and pride, hoping to 

 learn that no others were more prosperous or blest than they, and with 

 the continual uprising in their hearts of the spirit which the make-be- 

 lieve religious man had, who always offered the blessing at the table, ask- 

 ing the same thing: "Oh Lord, bless me and my wife, my son John and his 

 wife, us four and no more. Amen." Others with true missionary spirit 

 even leave home and friends, take their lives in their hands, cross the 

 mighty ocean and penetrate the dark places of the earth, if necessary, to 

 carry life and joy to those who are in need. 



It is this spirit of good-will and desire to benefit others that has lead 

 you to ask for reports from different parts of the country as to the 

 amount of fruit grown, knowing that no country home is what it should 

 be without a bountiful supply, grown by themselves. 



It is no longer a q«uestion whether large and small fruits can be success- 

 fully grown in this state to well supply home markets or- even for ship- 

 ment. In fact, the time has already come when some of us who are grow- 

 ing small fruits as a specialty, with our thirty to fifty acres already in full 

 bearing, question whether, possibly, we are not overdoing the market. 



The results of the past few years' experiments ought to encourage the 

 heretofore faithless owners of land to set both large and small fruits, suffi- 

 cient to supply themselves with an abundance. There is no reason 

 why this should not be done. There seems to be a growing interest in 

 the matter. The fact that our local markets are well supplied with home 

 grown fruits in their seasons gives encouragement to others to plant. 



It is estimated that over five thousand bushels of apples were grown in 

 and about Rochester this season. Three thousand five hundred bushels 

 by R. C. Keel, the next largest amount by the Hon. Wm. Somerville, 

 whose specialty is Russian varieties, the balance by different ones, mainly 

 farmers. 



The small fruit crop amounting to over seventy thousand boxes, was 

 not all we hoped for in yield, but considering prices obtained was very sat- 

 isfactory. Owing to the incessant rains in the spring, strawberries bore a 

 light crop, the blossoms being injured by hot sun and showers, and the fruit 

 failing to mature. 



