270 ANNUAL REPORT. 



and give fruit, and none that are hardy enough to make a per- 

 manent tree, and only about twenty out of one hundred bid fair 

 to some day yield fruit — as yet only a few samples have been 

 had from any long keeper. The cross is made in the bloom, the 

 pollen of the iron-clad being infused into the bloom of the long 

 keeper, and the seeds from the long keeper, thus impregnated, 

 are planted, and the young trees that prove hardy and of fair 

 appearance are selected for fruiting. 



We have, by careful and repeated plantings, demonstrated to 

 a fact that the seedling will ripen its fruit at or near the time the 

 parent apple did from which the seeds were taken, no matter 

 what crossed with, nor how closely it partakes of the male par- 

 ent in tree and quality of fruit. In our many trials we have 

 solved the problem what to do and how to do it, and now, with 

 the State orchard set to our notion, we are fairly started on the 

 road to sure success — to make of Minnesota a great fruit-grow- 

 ing State. 



The State orchard was set six years ago last spring, with root 

 and crown grafts — no material difference in their growth — and 

 to each was set a stake to mark its location, and at this date have 

 had three crops of apples from it, and the seed of all planted, 

 the last crop being about seventy bushels of the very finest ap- 

 ples. So, taking the success of the past as a criterion for the 

 future, we may reasonably expect not far in the future to num- 

 ber our first-class varieties by hundreds, and in succession the 

 year round. And in conclusion I will just add that many seed- 

 lings on our own grounds bore this year (1884) for the first time, 

 and as seedlings do not always prove true to their first cro}), we 

 neither name nor send out until after the second fruiting; there- 

 fore but few varieties can be had before next fall, at which time 

 we hope to have a full supply of trees of all the best varieties. 



Excelsior, Minn., Dec. 20, 1884. 



PEEMIUMS AWARDED. , 



Mr. Elliot, from the committee on premiums, reported the fol- 

 lowing list of premiums awarded by the society at the present 

 meeting: 



The committee on the award of premiums on apples, new seed- 

 ling apples, and grapes, report the following, in their judgment, 

 after a careful inspection and examination of all the fruits on 

 exhibition, as being worthy of consideration: 



