114 ANNUAL REPORT. 
IX., 1878-9, one volume in cloth. Report of Michigan Pomological Society, 
1878, one volume in cloth. Transactions Iowa Horticultural Society, 1878,. 
one volume in cloth. 
Premium Lists. 
The list of premiums recommended by this society to be offered for fruits 
and flowers at the State Fair was duly forwarded to the secretary of the 
Agricultural Society. How far this list was adopted I have not observed, 
but as the list was printed in our last Transactions it is in convenient shape 
either for comparison or revision. The rules adopted for the judging of 
fruits were not, however, sent with the list of premiums and the Transac- 
tions were printed too late to allow of the rules being followed in making. 
awards the past year. 
Agricultural College. 
In years gone by it was not rare for this society to appoint a committee: 
on Agricultural College: and in the first years of my connection with the 
society, I made some effort to get committees appointed that would work. 
According to newspaper reports there seems to be work for such a com- 
mittee now, or for some one else. According to the same authority two 
things were made evident at the recent meeting of the Board of Regents. 
Ist. Their impatience at the practical indifference of the people to the: 
facilities supplied for instructions in the sciences related to agriculture; and 
(2d) skepticism regarding the amount of labor involved in maintaing an 
experimental farm, and the value of the results of such labor. 
Minnetonka Fruit Farm 
The report of the superintendent of the Minnetonka Fruit Farm was. 
submitted at the same meeting. I presume a copy might have been obtain- 
ed, but the report is understood to be brief, and probably does not contain 
much of deep interest to the society. In passing I would say that I visited 
said Farm once last season, and succeeded in finding one of the orchards,,. 
and am glad to be able to say that I was pleased with ifs appearance far 
beyond expectation. The society will doubtless be more interested in the 
fact that the superintendent has proposed to the Regents the planting of 
some 400 Russian varieties of fruit to be obtained from the Iowa. 
Agricultural College. 
State Commissioner of Agriculture. 
At a recent meeting of the State Forestry Association, it was proposed 
that forestry should be elevated into a department of the state government, 
to be presided over by a Commissioner of Forestry, whose duty it should 
be to prepare pamphlets for free distribution, to collect and disseminate 
informatian, answer letters, and do what is possible to promote the interest 
of forest tree planting. The matter is not mentioned here either to com- 
mend or discourage, but to suggest that possibly some plan might be 
devised whereby the interests now committed to the various state societies. 
and associations—agricultural, horticultural, forestry, dairy, poultry, cane, 
