PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Fourth Annual Meeting 



OF THE 



MISSISSIPPI VALLHY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The fourth annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Horticultural 

 Society was held in the city of New Orleans, February 21, 22, 23 

 and 24, 1883. 



This meeting was held under circumstances of peculiar interest, 

 the Society being, at the time, the guest of the Gulf States Fruit 

 Growers' Association. The leading railroads of the South and West 

 coDtributed much to the interest of the occasion by oifering very 

 liberal rates to delegates who wished to attend the meeting. The 

 Illinois Central railroad company set the good example by offering 

 very low rates from Chicago and other points on their lines, which, 

 good example, was followed by no less than eighteen other com- 

 panies, whose lines lead in the direction of New Orleans. 



But for the unprecedented floods, extending over the North and 

 West, which rendered railroad travel not only very precarious, but in 

 many instances absolutely impossible, there would have been many 

 more to have enjoyed this pleasant and very profitable meeting in 

 the Crescent City of the South. 



Many are the disappointments expressed by hundreds of fruit 

 growers of the North and West at not being permitted, in conse- 



