MINNESOTA SUMMER MEETING, 1895. 235 
to be a horticulturist and asked me what was the best thing 
todo. I gave hima ‘Minnesota Horticulturist” and told him 
the best thing he could do was to subscribe for the magazine. 
He said he would do it. 
Mr. Wyman Elliot, in responding to the toast, ‘‘Let us Re- 
turn to the Soil,” spoke somewhat as foilow:” There are 
many ways of treating this subject. One way is to return to 
the soil an equivalent for what we get out of it. But perhaps 
the thought of the thought of the secretary was that there 
should be more people from the cities returning to the rural 
districts. And this is a grave question at the present time. 
He who hears the complaints and woes of today must think 
that the city is not the most fitting place for the poor. I have 
thought that if we could organize or colonize some of these 
people on small areas of land, with some one to instruct them 
in what to do, their lot might be made much better than what 
itis now. We have in Minneapolis over 7,000 laborers who are 
seeking employment today. The most have families, and 
many have known what it is to want for bread the past winter. 
It is a question that comes to us who are connected with city 
affairs, for these come every day begging for work, and we 
can't do much. Our hands are tied. Isaid to one big man, 
‘The best place for you is in the country.’ He said he had 
been there, but could find nothing todo. So the problem is 
unsolved. Yet we believe that more should return to the soil, 
and that a way should be provided. I venture to say that no 
one here who has been cultivating the soil has gone without a 
a meal of victuals the past winter. I think perhaps it is within 
the province of this society to start some kind of a movement 
for getting the people from the congested quarters of our cities 
nearer to Mother Earth, and suggest that between now and 
our next winter meeting we see if something cannot be done 
in this direction.” 
Mr. J, S. Harris was then called on from the topic, ‘‘The 
Coming Apple for Minnesota—Will She Come and When?” 
He said: ‘‘We don’t know much about the early history of 
Minnesota. When Colonel Stevens or I or some one else 
discovered it, it was occupied by a great trust of savage tribes 
who were engaged in raising buffalo or hair from the heads of 
the white settlers. When Colonel Stevens or I discovered it 
about fifty years ago we thought it was like the land of 
Palestine. Those who first came were fruit lovers, and they 
brought with them the apple and other fruits from their East- 
