Trees, Fruits and Flowers

—OF—

MINNESOTA

1916

EMBRACING THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE

MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

FROM DECEMBER 1, 1915, TO DECEMBER 1, 1916, INCLUDING THE TWELVE NUMBERS OF "THE MINNESOTA HORTICULTURIST" FOR 1916.

EDITED BY THE SECRETARY,

A. W. LATHAM,

Office and Library, 207 Kasota Block,

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

VOL. XLIV.

MINNEAPOLIS
HARRISON & SMITH CO., PRINTERS
1916

THE MINNESOTA HORTICULTURIST

Vol. 44    JANUARY, 1916    No. 1

President's Greeting, Annual Meeting, 1915.

THOS. E. CASHMAN, PRESIDENT.

This is the forty-ninth annual meeting of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. Nearly half a century has elapsed since that little band of pioneers met in Rochester and organized that they might work out a problem that had proven too difficult for any of them to handle single handed and alone. Those men were all anxious to raise at least sufficient fruit for themselves and families. They had tried and failed. They were not willing to give up. They knew they could accomplish more by interchanging ideas, and, furthermore, if they were able to learn anything by experience they wanted to pass it on to their neighbors.

Those men built better than they knew. The foundation was properly laid, and the structure, while not finished, is an imposing one. A great many people believe that this structure has been completed, that we have reached our possibilities in fruit raising. This is only half true. We are still building on this splendid foundation erected by those few enthusiasts.

None of those men are left to enjoy the benefits of their labor. The present generation and the generations to come are and will be the beneficiaries, and I believe as a tribute to their memory and the good that they have done that we should fittingly celebrate our fiftieth anniversary. At this time I can not suggest how this should be done; I simply make this suggestion in hopes that it may be worked out.

I was in hopes that a home for this society might have been erected this year or at least made ready for the 1916 meeting. This would surely have been an occasion worthy of the anniversary which we hope to celebrate.

The building committee appointed by the last meeting went before the legislature and tried with all the eloquence at their command to make the members of the legislature see the necessity of appropriating sufficient money to build a permanent home for this organization. The members saw the force of our argument, but we could not convince a majority of the appropriation committee that they should deviate from their plan of retrenchment which seemed to permeate their every act.

We were disappointed but not disheartened. We were promised better success in the 1917 session. So we are living in hopes, and I firmly believe that if our efforts are renewed at that time that this and the auxiliary societies may have an opportunity of meeting and transacting business in a home that, while it will belong to the state, will be for the use of these organizations, and that we may be able to take up our abode in it not later than the winter meeting of 1917.

Secretary Latham has prepared an excellent program for you. Many friends of this society are with us again, full of enthusiasm and vigor, and I know that we will have one of the most successful meetings ever enjoyed by this organization.

Owing to the fullness of the program, I should consider it an imposition on my part if I should attempt to make an extended address at this time and will hasten to call on the gentlemen who are to contribute to the success of this meeting.

New varieties of strawberries originated at the Minnesota State Fruit-Breeding Farm.

Annual Meeting, 1915, Minnesota State Horticultural Society.

A. W. LATHAM, SECRETARY.

Did you attend the 1915 meeting of this association, held in the West Hotel, Minneapolis, four days, December 7-10 inclusive? Of course as a member of the society you will get in cold print the substance of the papers and discussions that were presented at this meeting, but you will fail altogether in getting the wonderful inspiration that comes from contact with hundreds of persons deeply interested in the various phases of horticultural problems that are constantly passing in review during the succeeding sessions of the meeting. With such a varied program there is hardly any problem connected with horticulture that is not directly or indirectly touched upon at our annual gathering, and the present meeting was no exception to this. In all there were sixty-nine persons on the program, and with the exception of Prof. Whitten, whom we expected with us from the Missouri State University, and whom sickness kept at home, and one other number, every person on the program was on hand to perform the part assigned to him. Isn't this really a wonderful thing where so many are concerned, emphasizing as it does the large interest felt in the work of the society?

The meeting was held in the same room in the West Hotel which was used for the banquet two years ago. It seats comfortably 250, and was approximately filled at all of the sessions of the meeting. At the first session there were in attendance about 200 when the meeting opened at ten o'clock Tuesday morning. Later in the morning the seats were practically all filled. Making allowance for the change in the personnel of those in attendance at the various meetings, it is easily within the limit to say that between 400 and 500 were in attendance at these meetings.

Immediately adjoining the audience room on the same floor, and opening out of the spacious balcony, were the various rooms occupied by the fruit exhibit and the vegetable exhibit. The plant exhibit was in two alcoves on this balcony, and the cut flowers were displayed along either side of the balcony, making altogether a wonderful showing of nature's floral products. The accommodations for this meeting were almost ideal, and judging from the expressions of the members we have never been more happily situated than on this occasion. I have endeavored to draw a plan of the arrangements at this meeting and submit it to you, not for criticism, but to assist you in understanding the situation.

We were greatly disappointed that Prof. Whitten was detained at home by illness, but others from abroad took up the time so that there was