STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 317 



HORTICULTUEAL EXHIBIT AT IS^EW ORLEANS 

 EXPOSITION. 



REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT, F. G. GOULD. 



Excelsior, Minn., May, 1885. 



We began to make collections of fruits in the month of June, 

 1884. The small fruits, including strawberries, raspberries, 

 blackberries, gooseberries, highbush cranberries, black cherries, 

 and blueberrries were preserved in solutions, in white jars. 

 Plums, tomatoes, some of the early apples, and a collection of 

 eight or ten varieties of grapes were exhibited in these jars ; 

 there were over one hundred jars, the sizes running from one 

 pint to one gallon. 



I started for New Orleans with this fruit on the evening of the 

 nineteenth of November; arrived at Chicago on the evening of the 

 twenty-second. I decided to try to hold my car there until the bal- 

 ance of the train came up, as the car was jerked and thumped by 

 switching in with mixed way freight cars. We started from Chicago 

 on the twenty-ninth and arrived at Cairo, where we had our car 

 iced, on the thirtieth, and arrived at New Orleans on the second of 

 December. The fruit remained in the car until the twelfth day of 

 January. We kept ice in the car most of the time after its arrival 

 at NewOrleans until the fourth of January, after which the fruit 

 was subject to the prevailing temperature of that exceedingly 

 variable climate. 



On the thirteenth of January the structure upon which our fruit 

 was to be exhibited in the Government and States Building was so 

 nearly completed that we began setting u-p the fruit; nearly a 

 week was consumed in its preparation and arrangement. On 

 the fourteenth day of January we took samples of our grapes to 

 Horticultural Hall, as this was the place where the competitive 

 exhibition of fruits was to be made. Our grapes had ripened and 

 were cut from the vines three and some of them three and a 

 half months previous to this date. Great care had been exer- 

 cised in handling, wrapping, packing, and repacking the grapes, 

 both before and after their arrival at New Orleans. We made 

 fifteen entries for prizes in the name of the Minnesota State Hor- 

 ticultural Society. The following awards were made on our 

 grapes. 



