6 Mississiiqn Vullcy llurtiruUaral Society. 



nnwnc systems of the most powerful nations of the earth. And all of these 

 Y;ist changes liave been mostly wrought during the life-time, and by the 

 energy of a single generation of men. It is safe to say that so great a work 

 has never before been done by man. We have in but little more than a quar- 

 ter of a century converted a boundless wilderness into fruitful fields, spanned 

 it witli fifty thousand miles of railway, and made ourselves masters of the 

 world's markets for food and clothing. 



But while this wonderful development of the agriculture and commerce 

 of our great valley has swept forward, there has been a minor culture more 

 slowly build ng itself up, which has not affected the interests of the other 

 nations so deeply, but which has been intimately related to the welfare and 

 prosjierity of our own people, and this indispensable thing is Hurticulture. 

 Horticulture embraces all of those finer products and conditions which, 

 being essential to the best development of men and women, makes a grand 

 agriculture, a fruitful commerce, and a noble civilization possible. A gener- 

 ous horticulture goes hand in hand with an enlightened agriculture, and 

 neither can become great and permanent without the other. As, then, the 

 produce of the garden, the fruits of the orchard, the beautiful growths of the 

 florist, and the grateful shade and shelter of forests, are all indispensable ta 

 the growth of the men who grow the crops that feed and clothe the world, 

 we find that the whole great world is, after all, vitally concerned with the suc- 

 cess or failure of our Mississippi valley horticulture. 



It is then, with great pleasure, that I greet you, fellow-members of this- 

 young Society, so young in years, but so great in purposes and in hopes! that 

 I greet you assembled in such goodly numbers in this great and beautiful 

 city of the South, to confer together regarding all those methods by which 

 we may help to perfect our varied work. I am glad, ladies and gentlemen,, 

 that we have mot here in this Southern metropolis, so near to the mouth of 

 the mighty river which waters and drains the greatest valley of the world ;. 

 so near to the shore of the great Gulf, whose breezes warm and fertilize all 

 the vast area of our gardens and fields. I am glad that we of the North have 

 come down to meet and shake hands with you of the S >uth, as fellow-mem- 

 bers of a noble fraternity, as brotherly citizens of a glorious nation ! We 

 come together to-day from widely-separated sections, from more than 

 half of the States of this great republic — but representing one grand com- 

 munity of feeling and purpose — to work out some of the problems which 

 affect the i)crpetuity of civilized society, and the progress of humanity to- 

 ward millennial ideals. We come peacefully and joyfully together from a 

 thousand busy communities, Avhere the plowshares and pruning hooks —you 

 remember well from what stern implements they were beaten — are indus- 

 triously wielded, and all the many arts of life are carried on in glorious- 

 peace I God be praised that this is so, and that the firm purpose of our 

 hearts is that this shall remain so forever : 



" For humanity swueps onward ! " 



