FIRST ANNU.Ui BANQUET. 149 



dred years from now, or a thousand years from now, be in 

 comparison with what it is to-day ! It is left as a legacy to 

 the public for all time, it is a school of instruction, and I 

 believe that this work will go on and on with increasing vigor. 

 I believe that we have a Board of Trustees that will devote 

 their time, that will devote their energies, to carry out the 

 wishes, to carry out the trusts which Mr. Shaw so wisely 

 reposed in them. 



I have not time, Mr. Chairman, to speak of this matter in 

 its scientific relations to agriculture. It is well known to 

 every botanist here that we can now breed plants with as 

 much certainty of improvement as we can breed domestic 

 animals. The knowledge of the science of botany has given 

 to man the power to improve the varieties which God has 

 given us, and they have been improved. Even our fine 

 pippins had their origin in the crab-apple. Van Mons spent 

 a great many years in the improvement of pears and suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining hundreds of new varieties by cross- 

 fertilization. These gardens here are a school of instruc- 

 tion. They are an experiment school. We have had 

 lately given us at Washington six hundred thousand dollars 

 for the establishing of experiment stations in each State, 

 each State receiving but fifteen thousand dollars for that 

 purpose. What is that in comparison, gentlemen, to the 

 magnificent endowment of Henry Shaw ? 



There is one more point and I will close. As I have 

 traveled through this park with my farmer friends I have 

 frequently been questioned as to what is this tree or that 

 tree or the other tree. Other persons have visited these 

 grounds and have endeavored to describe certain trees tome 

 to ascertain what they are, and I have been sorry to see 

 that one very important part has been neglected, which I 

 hope in the near future will be changed; and that is the 

 labeling of every tree and every shrub, so that the humblest 

 farmer, the humblest citizen who visits those grounds, if 

 he sees anything which strikes his fancy which he wishes 

 to procure and take to his home to adorn it, may know just 



