SECOND BANQUET TO GARDENERS. 73 
I see there is a commission down there now from this city, 
and if you wished to exemplify the practical operation of 
eating apples I should be very glad to present myself asa 
terrible example of the effect of eating them. You have, 
then, a bountiful soil; you have all ranges of climate (1 
have noticed that within the last few days), in fact, you have 
everything that can assist you, and it seems to me that you 
may well expect the Henry Shaw Gardens to become what 
they fairly promise to become, that is, the greatest botan- 
ical gardens in the United States. 
In conclusion, the Chairman said: We have with us 
this evening gentlemen who know how to grow apples 
and who know how to market apples; who know how 
to grow seeds and who know how to market seeds; who 
know how to grow roses, and how to market them; and so 
of the various other floral and agricultural products. But 
the hour is growing late, and I do not feel that it would be 
a pleasure to those gentlemen, and possibly not to all of you, 
since some of you have to go a considerable distance before 
reaching home, if I were to call on other speakers this eve- 
ning. I have received in connection with the invitations for 
this dinner numerous appreciative letters, responses from 
prominent men all over the country, a number of whom had 
expected to be with us and have wired me even to-day that 
at the last moment they found they could not come:— the 
chief of the Forestry Bureau of the Department of Agri- 
culture, the Horticultural Chief of the World’s Fair in 
Chicago, the Secretary of our State Horticultural Society, 
the Secretary of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 
who has been so highly spoken of this evening, and other 
gentlemen equally distinguished, whom we all wished to 
meet here avd whom we hope to meet some time. These 
letters would interest you, if there were time to present 
them properly ; but I feel that we have detained you longer 
than we should this evening, and so I thank you for coming 
and once more bid you welcome to the Missouri Botanical 
Garden and to these banquets which Mr. Shaw has provided. 
