STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 281 



The crying want of the Mississippi valley is well endowed ex- 

 periment stations. With their aid we may be able to walk without 

 the leading strings which so far in our history have been furnished 

 us by the nurserymen of the eastern states. 



[Note. — Foster, in his worls: on the Mississippi Basin, compares it to the 

 Russian steppes, and says : "Starting from Lublin, in Poland, about latitude 

 51°, and going eastward to the river Lena, we traverse 130 degrees of longitude, 

 or more than one-th'rd of the earth's curvature, without meeting an elevation 

 that would precipitate the moisture of the southwest current," Over this an 

 ciently occupied interior plain fruits are grown. — J. L. B ] 



MARKET GARDENING AT LAKE MINNE TONKA. 



To the Members of the State Horticultural Society : 



When our Secretary assigned me the task of reporting on mark- 

 et gardening and small fruit at Lake Minnetonka, I think he did 

 not comprehend the extent of the work before me. 



I will try to give you a few outlines, but riot a detailed report. 

 You doubtless have seen the lake or a part of it, but can form 

 but a faint idea of the size and amount of traffic carried on there 

 in the short space of time the summer guests are with us. We 

 have a lake with 150 miles of coast, and according to the Minne- 

 apolis Tribune of Jan. 3d, 1884, we have over 11,600,000 expended 

 for the accommodation of tourists ; and you are well aware that 

 people come here to eat and regain their health. 



The season opens about the middle of June, and closes the last 

 of August or the first of September, which makes it bad for garden- 

 ers to supply all of their demands. I can no better tell you the 

 amount of demand, than to give you the figures of two items that 

 I furnished the Hotel St. Louis in one season : Green corn over 

 1100 dozen, and of peas, 70 bushels. We have to raise a general 

 assortment from green corn and peas, down to gumbo and garlic. 

 We have now six regular gardens around the lake ; one located on 

 the north shore below the Lafayette Hotel, one near Mound City, 

 three near Excelsior, and my own at Northome, near Hotel St. 

 Louis, besides quite a number of others that raise more or less of 

 vegetables to sell. Still a large amount is shipped from St. Paul 

 and Minneapolis. We ship more berries than are consumed here 

 at the lake. 



