230 ANNUAL REPOET. 



strength and talent. One of the most efficient means for solving 

 some of the difficult problems is by experimental stations, main- 

 tained under the fostering care of horticultural societies. A few- 

 men in your county are raising some varieties of fruit, and are 

 perhaps raising it successfully and profitably, but the majority 

 are not. Thus far there are but two or three varieties of apples 

 that are doing reasonably well with the masses of the people, 

 and they supply only a small part of the season during which 

 apples are wanted. To secure varieties to cover the remainder 

 of the season, large sums of money have been paid out to nur- 

 serymen and tree venders for trees, and the result has been only 

 disappointment and vexation, and you have had to do without 

 the anticipated fruits or purchase them from some more favored 

 locality. Now if I believed that the climate and soil of Minne- 

 sota would forever prohibit the raising of apples and similar 

 fruits in quality of the very best and in quantity adequate to 

 the wants of all our people, as much as I admire it for every- 

 thing else, I would get out of it as quick as possible and cast 

 my lot with some other people. 



Gentlemen, we have the Duchess and some good descendants of 

 the Siberian species that are hardy, and from them^ were there 

 no other alternative left, it is possible to secure the rest. But 

 we have other means at command, and should avail ourselves of 

 them promj)tly. A.s early as 1866 I made the statement upon 

 the State fair grounds in this city that I believed it lay in our 

 power to make this one of the best fruit or apple producing 

 states in the Union, and I have repeated that statement every 

 year since, and I shall never cease doing so while my life lasts or 

 until I see the promise fulfilled. I believe in the statement, and 

 because I believe, I have given the subject study and the work 

 of the best years of my life. I have not accomplished much. 

 In such work few men can, single-handed and alone, but I do 

 hope that I have planted where others shall reap. 



I have somewhere read that he who originates a new and 

 valuable fruit suited to general cultivation is as much a bene- 

 factor of mankind as he who discovers a new principle in sci- 

 ence which adds to the comfort and happiness of our race. The 

 names of the men who invented the steam engine, the telegraph, 

 the reaper, the sewing machine, and other modern appliances 

 will not l)e held in more sacred remembrance than will those 

 who finally originate and disseminate hardy varieties of fruits 

 that will j)rove perfectly adapted to this State. It is to modern 



