544 HOUSTON COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



but little profit from this branch of our business. They are 

 allowed a free range of the place at most seasons of the year, 

 and frequently do some damage to the fruit and vegetable 

 crops. I keep from fifty to eighty of the earliest hatched 

 pullets over Winter, as such are the best Winter layers, selling 

 the extra eggs until time for setting in the Spring. After from 

 one to two hundred chickens are hatched out, I reduce the flock 

 to about twenty of the best, selling the remainder. The male 

 chicks I send to market as soon as they are fit for broiling. 



THE GREENnOUSE. 



I have a greenhouse for the propagation of flowers and 

 ornamental plants for market. In past years it has paid 

 very well, but owing to the increase of my other business I 

 shall merely use it hereafter to keep and furnish plants and 

 flowers for my own use, and for the starting of early tomato 

 and other vegetable plants, propagating for sale only sufficient 

 bedding plants to pay running expenses. 



THE MUSEUM AND CABINET. 



V 



This institution is not designed as a direct source of reve- 

 nue, but for my own pleasure and benefit in pursuing the study 

 of natural science and for the entertainment of visitors and 

 friends. It now contains a very good collection of insects, 

 injurious and otherwise, two hundred specimens of stuffed and 

 preserved birds, native to this State, and twenty specimens of 

 the smaller wild animals found here. We are now engaged in 

 making a collection of the woods and woody plants found in 

 this State, and shall add departments of grains, grasses, min- 

 erals, etc. The money expense, aside from building and cases, 

 has not been very great, as we are our own collectors and 

 taxidermists. 



THE ORCHARD. 



This branch of my business has not been as profitable as 

 I could have wished The field was an untried one, and I 

 expected failures and disappointments. The soil was new and 



