44: AKNUAL REPORT. 



was appointed, that was, that he was a man who woukl work faith- 

 fully and thoroughly, leaving no stone unturned to accomplish 

 whatever he put his hand to and whatever trust he accepted. Let 

 that be my testimony, then, on your records to the services of Mr. 

 Gould; and as I have said before, to Prof. Porter, our chief of instal- 

 lation, are we chiefly indebted for the very attractive character of 

 that show. 



I wish here to emphasize the advantage that Minnesota gained in 

 the display of her grapes at New Orleans. You already know that 

 we took nearly all the premiums on single plates of varieties of 

 grapes grown east of the Rocky Mountains. We did not get those 

 premiums by mere chance or good fortune; but we had heavy com- 

 petition; we had the Delaware from Ohio the place where it origi- 

 nated, and we beat Ohio with her own grajDC on her own ground; 

 and we had many others of the most favored varieties of other States 

 in competition with the Minnesota grapes, and although we had 

 held them nearly five months after they were ripe before they were 

 shown up'for competition — that is to the middle of January — they 

 were in fair condition, so that the committee did not hesitate to 

 declare that upon the point of condition alone they were entitled to 

 the premiums, and by comparison with the others, they were so far 

 superior that they had a walk-away with the premiums. I think as 

 it is stated in the report that we have eight first premiums on single 

 plates and four silver medals on collections. I think our fruit dis- 

 play there has done a great deal to encourage people to emigrate to 

 Minnesota. We do not claim that all the fruits that were shown 

 there could be grown here profitably, but we presented them as 

 evidences of the necessity and possibilities of fruit culture, and I 

 think that all intelligent horticulturists that saw that fruit display 

 were ready to agree with us, that in a climate where such fruits of 

 such quality and beauty can be produced with the final success that 

 we all hope for in the growing of apples, is something that is worth 

 fighting for. I think any horticulturist, after seeing that display, 

 other things being favorable, would be willing to take his chances 

 in a country where it was possible to raise such fruit. This in view 

 of the fact that apple raising as a business, compared with other 

 products of the soil, might be some years at the foot and to come as 

 the result of further experiments. 



I make these remarks, gentleman, to indicate that horticulture 

 and the Minnesota Horticultural Society received their full share of 



