112 STATE POMOLOGTCAL SOCIETY. 



teries, and no doubt we ought to thank those monks for what 

 they have done for us. The few good gardens were made by 

 the monks in the yards of their monasteries, and if they had 

 not done that I don't know whether the world would have been 

 devoid of fruit now entirely or not, but certainly we would have 

 been starting with developing the wild fruit rather than devel- 

 oping such beautiful specimens as we have here now. But the 

 fact that it was left to the monks to do what little of agriculture 

 there was, to retain what little of learning there was, is a most 

 significant feature of the times. The kings themselves had 

 learned nothing. Why, Charlemagne boasted that he was greater 

 than all kings because he could write his own name, and he 

 employed a man to read to him, but he scarcely got to the point 

 of reading himself, though he could sign his name, and it is said 

 he could read afterwards, and he was a great king over all the 

 land of Germany and France of today, and Italy. But the high- 

 est type of civilization is when all the people are studying, study- 

 ing to do something, studying to do the work which comes to 

 them either because they have deliberately sought it or because 

 something has forced them into it, so they may do it in the high- 

 est possible and best way. I do not know that there is anything 

 better that I could say in the few minutes I have to talk to you 

 than to say how heartily my life is in the work of endeavoring 

 to have people do all that they have to do in the best possible 

 way. Now we cannot ourselves do everything in the best pos- 

 sible wav of ourselves, because we have not time. If it is your 

 business to raise apples and my business to raise horses and hogs, 

 I have about all I can do to attend to the horses and hogs and 

 you to attend to the apples. You can do some experimenting, 

 I can do some, all of us can do a little along our own lines and 

 we can give the benefit of our experiments to others. There 

 are experiment stations established by the nation, giving us the 

 benefit of their experiments, but all of these are of no value 

 unless they are made available. My experiment will help no 

 one else, the experiment station will help no one else, the experi- 

 ments of all of you will help no one else, unless we come together 

 in such associations as these and others and there trade our 

 products — thus the knowledge of one becomes the knowledge of 

 all and every one is possessed of the whole sum of human knowl- 

 edge on any particular subject. A man now lives through in 



