188 ANNUAL REPORT. 



information in the newspapers; I don't believe that more than 

 one out of four of our farmers take an agricultural newspaper, 

 and many of those who do read them, do not stop to consider 

 what they read, marking the particular points and filing the 

 paper away for future reference. 



At the meeting of the Hennepin County Horticultural Society 

 last Saturday, a committee was appointed to confer with a like 

 committee of the State Horticultural Society, to ask the legis- 

 lature to provide for an entomologist and mycroscopist. We 

 need a man to examine these fungus growths and one who can 

 tell us whether it was a bug that hurt those grapes. I don't sup- 

 pose what information he would obtain in his researches would 

 cost to exceed $5,000. I presume the State can make the neces- 

 sary provisions for obtaining the desired information at a cost 

 not exceeding $1,000. We have a State university and we have 

 a Geologist. It seems to me the State might provide that in 

 making the surveys throughout the State, there should be some- 

 thing done to get a practical entomologist. I hope that some 

 steps may be taken to secure some action at the hands of the 

 present legislature. I leave the subject with you. 



President Smith then called upon Mr. J. E. Northrup, of Min- 

 neapolis, to read a paper which he had prepared upon the sub- 

 ject of "Seeds." 



The following is the paper of Mr. Northrup. 



SEEDS. 

 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Society: 



The subject of seeds is an all important one, and of more than 

 passing interest to us all. The whole human family enjoys the 

 benefits arising in varied forms from the seed, which sown to- 

 day to-morrow affords us food, supplies us with clothing, and 

 delights our senses. 



The subject, then, if of interest to us, is especially important 

 when considered in the presence of an assemblage which has for 

 its (jobject the gathering and disseminating of knowledge con- 

 cerning the vegetable kingdom. 



Were I to approach the subject from your grounds, I should 

 feel extreme diffidence in giving expression to any ideas I might 

 entertain to men whose lives have been passed in the study of 

 the growth and habits of plant life, and from the anxious plant- 

 ing of the seed to its full fruition. 



