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ANNUAL MEETING SOUTHERN MINNESOTA HORT. SOCY.--This very
wide-awake auxiliary of the state society will hold its annual meeting
in Austin, January 19th and 20th next. The program of the meeting is not
yet at hand, but you may be sure that it will be an interesting and
practical one. If the reader is living anywhere within convenient range
of Austin by all means attend this meeting and get inspiration and help
for the work of another season.

YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.--This refers to members of the society
who have paid their annual fee for 1916 and are wondering why they have
not yet received the membership ticket. There is always a little
unavoidable delay in sending out these tickets after the annual meeting.
First the tickets must be printed, and then the society folder that goes
out with them must be prepared, and the material making up this folder
comes from quite a number of sources, and it takes more or less time to
get all of these matters together and in shape. You need not be
solicitous in regard to membership fees remitted, as the chance of loss
in transmission is approximately nothing; hardly half a dozen instances
of the kind have come up in the twenty-five years of service of the
secretary.

PASSING OF MICHAEL BENDEL, SR.--This old member of our society
and resident of Madison has just been called away, December 23rd, at the
age of seventy-nine years. While not an attendant at our meetings he was
a most loyal member of the society, and especially conspicuous in the
western part of the state, where he lived, as a successful experimenter
in orcharding, in which work he had a large experience. His portrait and
a brief sketch of his life appear in the 1914 volume of our report, on
page 150. Mr. Bendel was for many years president of the Lac qui Parle
County Agricultural Society, was always greatly interested in everything
to improve the interests of his community, and especially those
pertaining to farm life. He has left an enviable record.

FARMERS AND HOME MAKERS WEEK.--University Farm, midway between
Minneapolis and St. Paul, have prepared a royal program for all
interested in agricultural work and life, including the needs of the
household, filling all of next week, from January 3rd to 8th, inclusive.
Seventy-nine professors and instructors by count are on the program for
the week, and it is so arranged that those attending pass from one
lecture room to another, from hour to hour, selecting the subje