28 American llorticultura/ Society. 



leys of Californiii and OroLton. We ran .show you nif re than a hundred 

 varieties of apples from England, some of which are said to come from trees 

 older than the American nation itself. We can show you many varieties 

 from the far-oil" plains of Central Russia, which have traveled some 7,(K)() 

 miles to reach this exhibition, and we can show you apples, in limited 

 amount but of inviting appearance, grown on the table lands of Mexico, 

 8,000 feet above the sea — possibly from the old gardens of the Aztec kings. 



You will be able in this exhibition to study certain interesting problems 

 in pomology under more favoring circumstiinces than have heretofore been 

 otiered for such study. You can compare the same varieties of apples as 

 grown in the humid Northern climate of Old England and in the dry valleys 

 of extreme Southern California; as grown in the contrasting climates of 

 Wisconsin and Arkansas: or those grown on the lean hillsides of Verniont 

 or Maine with the products of fertile Kansas and Nebraska — not long since 

 known to our geographers as the "Great American Desert." You may also 

 note the effect of 5,000 or G,000 feet of elevation and of rainless summers, 

 where water is supplied only by irrigation, as shown in the beautiful tables 

 of the Colorado exhibit. You may contrast the apples from California or- 

 chards, where severe freezing is unknown, with those from trees which 

 have to endure forty below zero in Wisconsin or the Province of Quebec. 

 You may study English ai)ples as grown in England and in all parts of the 

 American continent. You may study Russian apples as produced in the 

 interior of Russia and in the interior of America. In fact, the suggestive- 

 ness and educational value of this great show of the world's fruits which we 

 have brought together from so many countries is almost wi.thout limit. It 

 might have been made more complete if more people had believetl in its 

 success, or appreciated its importance and had co-operated for its success. 

 As it is, we may take some pride in what we have done, and we may rest in 

 the calm assurance that we have given an essential service to horticulture as 

 a science and as a great commorcial pursuit. 



Our eilbrts in organizing this exhibition have not been confined mainly to 

 securing a great range of varieties of fruits, but have been even greater to 

 secure a varied and opulent show of plants and trees from many countries. 

 In this, too, we have succeeded in a gratifying measure, but not equal to our 

 wish. I fear that in this respect some of you may have expected impo.ssible 

 things. If you had ex])ected that we could transplant large trees and plants, 

 even from the gardens of New Orleans, and have them present all the lux- 

 uriance and beauty in their new locations which they had when standing in 

 the places where they had grown for years, then you expect things which no 

 man has ever yet accomplished. .Vnd nuich less has it been i)ossible to 

 bring the great palms of South Florida, Jamaica, and Mexico here, or their 

 wonderful cacti, or agaves, or their beautiful tree ferns, or their curious or- 

 chids, or any other of the great catalogue of their tropical beauties, and to 

 preserve the luxuriant verdure and bloom of their native conditions. If 

 any body has expected this, it was a foolish expectation, doomed to disap- 

 pointment. 



