Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 Part 94

The President: Mr. Wedge will have a word for us at this time. He has a suggestion to make.

Mr. Wedge: Ladies and gentlemen, fellow members: Once a year our society has been in the habit of bestowing the highest honor within its gift upon some of the members that have honored the society for so many years with their services and have made themselves in that way so valuable to the public that we feel that they deserve the highest recognition which we are able to give them as a society. It becomes my great pleasure at this time, standing in the place of my friend, Mr. Underwood, who is absent, to propose the following names to you which have been recommended by the executive board for this honor. There are five of them, the names are: John Bisbee, of Madelia; Charles Haralson, our superintendent at Excelsior; Mr. F. W. Kimball, of Waltham; Mr. John R.

c.u.mmins, of Minneapolis, and Mr. S. H. Drum, of Owatonna.

Mr. Bisbee has undertaken and is carrying on one of the largest experiments in seedling apples in the Northwest. He seems to be a very quiet member among us, but he is one of the working members who are doing the things that the society most needs.

I do not need to tell you anything about the work of Charles Haralson, the superintendent of our fruit-breeding farm at Zumbra Heights. His work has approved itself to us all so much that I think he really deserves the statement that was made by one of our older members that he has outdone Burbank. He certainly has for this part of the country.

Mr. F. W. Kimball, a very dear personal friend of mine, has been carrying on experiments in orcharding for the past twenty-five years about, in the neighborhood of Austin, Minnesota, and has now removed to Waltham. His experiments there in top-working have been among the most useful and among the largest that have been undertaken in any part of the state. He perhaps deserve the same reputation in our state that our friend, Mr. Philips, has in Wisconsin. I do not want to say this to disparage anybody else, but he has certainly made a very large and very valuable addition to our knowledge of the value of top-working.

Mr. John R. c.u.mmins, of Minneapolis, whom we have with us this morning, is one who has been a very persistent experimenter in all lines. I remember particularly going to his place some ten or fifteen years ago and going over the remarkable collection of ornamental trees and plants that he was growing, many of which I did not think it was possible to grow at Albert Lea, and there he was succeeding with them and developing them at a point 100 miles north of us. We certainly owe him a deal of credit for his perseverance and his enterprise. We are glad that he is with us today.

Mr. S. H. Drum, of Owatonna, is one who has also been one of our most faithful members, whose experiments have been in fruits, and he has brought great encouragement to us in the southern part of Minnesota. He has now moved to Owatonna and, not being content with the best, he has started out with a new plantation with two kinds of fruit, and I think he is topping the market with the very best.

Mr. President, I move that these names be added to the list of honorary life members of the Minnesota Horticultural Society.

There are several seconds to the motion.

The President: A very fitting tribute, I am sure. Are there any remarks?

The name of Mr. c.u.mmins calls my attention to the fact that about twelve years ago he presented this society with the gavel that I hold in my hand. This gavel is made of black walnut grown by Mr. c.u.mmins on his own place. I do not suppose that he made the gavel himself, but it is made of material raised on his own farm, and when this gavel comes down good and hard I want you to think of Mr. c.u.mmins. Are you ready for the question, that those gentlemen suggested be made honorary life members?

Motion is carried unanimously.

The President: I am now going to call on the young men from the University Farm who are contestants for the Gideon Memorial Fund. (See index.)

Contestants thereupon read their essays.

The President: I will now ask the judges to retire and decide which of these young men is ent.i.tled to this prize money. For the benefit of some of the newer members who may not understand the situation I will say that some years ago a number of the members of this society believed that we should commemorate the good work done by Peter M. Gideon. A sum of money was raised to be known as the Gideon Memorial Fund. It was decided that that money be placed at interest and that the interest derived therefrom be offered as prizes to young men attending our agricultural school or college. They were to deliver addresses at the meetings of the Minnesota Horticultural Society, and the young men preparing the best papers and making the best talks would be awarded this prize money, the accrued interest from this fund. So we have annually three young men from the agricultural college that present papers or make addresses on subjects that are of importance to this society. This is a memorial for Peter M. Gideon, who has done such splendid work for the fruit raisers of the Northwest.

While we are waiting for the report of the judges I will ask Mr. Ludlow to come forward and tell us about a letter that he received from Peter M. Gideon, November 2, 1885, and which was accompanied by Mr. Gideon's last catalog.

Judges announce their decision. (Applause.)

_Premiums Awarded to Gideon Memorial Contestants_:

1. The Plum Curculio--Edward A. Nelson.

2. Standardizing the Potato--A. W. Aamodt.

3. Marketing Fruit at Mankato--P. L. Keene.

The President: I am now going to call on some of the delegates to this meeting. Mr. George H. Whiting, representing the South Dakota Horticultural Society, we will ask him to come forward and say a word.

Mr. Whiting: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I do not know why Mr.

Cashman should ask me to come forward. I have not very much to say and could have said it back there just as well. Perhaps you will wish I had stayed back there.

I will say it is a pleasure to me to be with the Minnesota horticulturists again. I have met with you quite a number of years but not in the capacity of delegate. I did not expect to be a delegate this time, thought I would leave the place for some younger man, but there seemed to be no other present, and so I had to accept. I rather felt as though I was not competent or did not care to take the responsibility of making a report. I am getting old and a little tired, and I do not like to do so much of that kind of work as I used to. However, I presume I will have to do the best I can and let it go at that.

I will say you have a wonderful society here. It is a wonder to me sometimes how you keep up the interest, how to keep up so much interest in this work. There is no other state in the Union that has such a good, live society. I attended a great many of the state societies last year.

I had the pleasure of attending the Missouri State Society. I can say that you discount them and then some. An old state like Missouri and a fruit state, you might say, it is supposed to be in the fruit belt, and still you fellows up north here have all the vim and the snap and determination to do things that those fellows do not do at all. It is more in the man, I think sometimes, than it is in the location.

It used to be said that Minnesota was not a fruit state, you could not grow apples in Minnesota. Well, I believe Mr. Gideon said that if he could not grow apples in Minnesota he would not live there, something to that effect, and he did not intend to leave the state either. Now, you all know what success he made, and you that follow have a great deal to be thankful for the work he did, and you are hoping--and I presume you will be successful--to obtain an apple that is even better than the Wealthy.

I am glad that you take so much interest in this matter of new seedlings. It will surely develop something some day, there is no question about it. Of course, you cannot tell when, and you cannot tell who will be the lucky man to get the thousand dollars, but undoubtedly there is more at stake than the thousand dollars; that is a very small item.

I think I will not take up your time. It is getting on, and I have not thought of making any talk, have nothing prepared and nothing in my head. I thank you for your attention. (Applause.)

The President: I am going to call on our good friend, Professor Hansen, secretary of the South Dakota Horticultural Society, who has done so much for us.

Mr. Wedge: Mr. Hansen is not here. I just want to say a word that might interest some of the younger members of the society in regard to our friend who has just left the floor, Mr. Whiting, of Yankton. He is the original Dakota nurseryman, who went out in the days of the pioneers before I think there was any such thing as South Dakota, and he has stayed on the job ever since. That is not so wonderful, for others, lots of people, have stayed on the job, but he has made money out of the business and got rich. I think he deserves some very special praise.

(Applause.)

The President: Is Professor Waldron in the room? Here he comes. He is the leading light of North Dakota and a gentleman who has been with us before. (Applause.)

Mr. Waldron: These people will think North Dakota is a dark place if this is a leading light. What is the occasion of this?

The President: Tell us your troubles.

Mr. Waldron: When we had a good wheat crop we did not have any troubles.

We forget our other troubles whenever we can get something like 100 million bushels of wheat. Our horticultural troubles have been quite numerous. We had a frost every year, including July. We started in on the ninth day of June with a frost that killed everything in sight except a few cottonwood trees and things like that, but all of our tomatoes, which were in blossom by the way at that time because we had a favorable spring, and plums and apples went the same way. I think a few of the late blooming plums managed to survive. The frost in July did not hurt very much but the frost in August certainly finished us.

Mr. Latham: The reporter is taking all that.

Mr. Waldron: Our reputation is so good, we can own up to calamity once in a while. Of course, if our reputation was not better than others we would have to keep it dark, but inasmuch as nature favors us so continuously we can own up when we get b.u.mped. The August frost put our corn out of business, so we are around with long fingers trying to steal seed corn.

However, a great many of the people of the state are looking forward to the matter of planting trees as never before, and our farmers and citizens are taking more interest in general tree planting and beautifying the homes than in previous years. I had this term a large cla.s.s of students in landscape gardening. They will go out to the places where they live and encourage the planting of trees and landscape gardening there. In this matter of general ornamentation the frosts or other calamities have not discouraged us. I think there were more trees grown and more ornamental work done this year than in any two previous years because the men have the money and are willing to spend it. I was out on a farm last week where a man insisted on buying a thousand evergreen trees. The nurseryman tried to sell him only five hundred, but he would not have it that way. He wanted a thousand. He said he had the money and was going to pay for them; so he planted the thousand trees.

We do not recommend such rashness on the part of our farmers, but it shows when a farmer insists on having a thousand trees he is taking the beautifying of his grounds seriously. This is perhaps an extreme case, but we have others working along the same line.

I certainly enjoy the privilege of being with you people here again as I have for the last quarter of a century, twenty-five years ago, when I was made an honorary member of this society, and I do not know of any prouder moment in my whole career than when you saw fit to honor me in that manner. I certainly would never forgive myself for the balance of the year if I failed to attend these meetings. (Applause.)

Mr. Philips: Waldron is too modest. He has not told the best thing he ever did in North Dakota, so I shall. I visited him a good many years ago, and he had some interesting boys there, especially the oldest one, and I told him that if he was going to keep ahead of that boy he would have to hustle, and now that boy at nineteen has the ability to go to one of the southern states as a professor. So he didn't tell us the greatest thing he ever did. Maybe some of the credit is due to his wife; that is the way it is at my house. (Applause.)

Mr. Waldron: I am so far behind that boy I am sort of jealous. I do not mention it.

The President: The secretary of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society is with us, Professor Cranefield. Is he in the room?

Mr. Cranefield: Mr. Graves, of Sturgeon Bay, is the duly accredited delegate to the society and probably you want to hear from him.

The President: We heard from him two or three days ago, and we will hear from him again, but just now we want you to give us a few words. This is Professor Cranefield, who has contributed on previous occasions to the success of our meetings. (Applause.) (See index.)

The President: I will now call on Professor Mackintosh, who is going to read a paper at this time.

Mr. Mackintosh: Yesterday I had to start the ball rolling as a subst.i.tute for a man from Was.h.i.+ngton, and with the a.s.sistance of Miss Bull we kept most of you here until after 12 o'clock. Today I am put ahead of the program, so you won't hear me tomorrow afternoon. The subject is, "Bringing the Producer and Consumer Together."

Mr. Mackintosh reads paper. (Applause.)

The President: I regret very much that time will not permit us to discuss this very able paper. Secretary Latham has just called my attention to the fact that there has been but very few tickets bought for the banquet this evening. You understand it takes time to prepare food, and he has to announce just how many people would be present, and I sincerely hope that those of you who intend to attend the banquet (and I trust that will be every one present) will get your tickets immediately. It is the very best part of our program. Please get your tickets so that Secretary Latham may know how to prepare for you.

At this time recess was taken until 1:30 o'clock p.m.