STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 423 



Sidnej' Corp, of \^^abasha county, has the Yellow Auis in bear- 

 ing, and speaks well of it. We can market many of the Russian 

 apples before the middle of August; this enabled me the past sea- 

 sou to put up enough previous to the great gale of August 21»t, to 

 take the sweepstakes premium at our fair. A. W. SIAS. 



COL. BOBEBTSON'S ESSAY OF 1867. 



[The Minnesota Horticultural Report of 1873 being nearly out of print, the 

 essay of Col. Robertson referred to in previous pages is herewith republished in 

 compliance with numerous requests from members of the society.] 



CLIMATOLOGY IN ITS RELATIONS TO FRUIT GROWING. 



An essay read at a special meeting of tlie Minnesota Fruit Growers Association, St. Paul, 

 January, 10, 1857, by Col. D. A. llobertson, of St. Paul. 



The object of the Miuaesota Fruit Growers' Associatioa is to 

 promote in Minnesota the profitable cultivation of valuable fruits, 

 varieties of which have already become naturalized to the more 

 southern latitudes of our country. 



The importance of this enterprise is made apparent by the fact 

 that more fruit is consumed by the American people than by the 

 inhabitants of any other temperate climate. The consumption 

 and demand increase faster than the supply. The popular taste is 

 rapidly improving. The fondness for fruit growing is becoming a 

 characteristic of our people, who are not content to make a perma- 

 nent home where the choice fruits of the North cannot be grown. 



The attempts, hitherto made in our state to raise apples, pears 

 and plums have, we must acknowledge, resulted in almost univer- 

 sal failure. Few trees of these fruits have survived the third year 

 after planting — probably not more than one in three hundred — 

 perhaps not more than one in five hundred. Mr. Stewart's suc- 

 cess in raising seedling apple trees may be taken as an average, 

 one tree in ten thousand of his seedlings survived to maturity. 



It is not surprising, therefore, that an opinion generally prevails, 

 that Minnesota is too far north for the successful cultivation of 

 apples, pears, cherries and improved varieties of plums. 



