2 J//N.s/.s.v/y>^>»/ Valley Horticultural Society. 



qiionce of the floods, to attend a meeting of so much importance, 

 and especially in a latitude of such peculiar interest to those accus- 

 tomed to the rigors of a northern climate. As it was, and in spite 

 of the swollen and dangerous condition of the Ohio, the Mississippi 

 and other northern streams, some two hundred or more fruit grow- 

 ers, many of them accompanied by their wives and children, repre- 

 senting twenty-one States and the Dominion of Ontario, found their 

 way to this, the first important meeting of the kind ever held so far 

 in the direction of the noon-day sun. Nor was this meeting ex- 

 clusively monopolized by the people of the North. The South and 

 South-west, with many from New Orleans and the immediate vicin- 

 ity, met us on friendly terms in this meeting of mutual interest. 



The Society assembled in Grunewald Hall, one of the most beau- 

 tiful and commodious assembly rooms in the country, which had 

 been provided and handsomely decorated and adorned for the occa- 

 sion by the Gulf States Fruit Growers' Association. . Many rare and 

 beautiful semi-tropical plants had been used in the decorations of 

 the hall, which gave to the surroundings an agreeable and pleasant 

 appearance, especially to those of us so recently transported from 

 the icy regions of the North. In connection with the hall were 

 committee rooms and consultation parlors; also, a large corridor 

 fitted uj) with suitable exhibition tables, all of which were, for the 

 time being, placed at the service of the Society. A very creditable 

 display of fruit was placed on exhibition by members from various 

 sections of our common country. 



The agricultural press of the country was largely represented at 

 the meeting, prominent among which the Secretary recognized the 

 following : 



Gilbert M. Tucker, of the Country Gentleman, Albany, New 

 York ; S. M. Tracy, Rural New Yorker, New York ; John Hyde. 

 Prairie Farmer, Chicago, 111.; C. D. Colman, Colman's Rural World, 

 St. Louis; Mrs. H. M. Lewis, Western Farmer, Madison Wis.; W. 

 H. Ragan, Midland Monthly, Indianapolis, Ind.; E. H. Williams, 

 Indiana Farmer, Indianapolis ; D. W. Beadle, Canadian Horticul- 

 turist, St. Catherine's, Ont.; O. C. Gibbs, Chicago Tribune; A. W. 

 Campbell, Wheeling Intelligencer, W. Va.; F. P. Baker, Topeka Com- 

 monwealth, Topeka, Kan.; S. 11. Nowlin, Rural Southwest, Little 



