36 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PEEST. WILLITS' ADDRESS OF WELCOME, 



He said: "It goes without saying that the Agricultural College is ready- 

 to welcome any and all who are interested in subjects investigated here. I 

 am glad to say that the people of the state take more and more interest in 

 the advance of horticultural knowledge. When I came and looked over 

 affairs here, I asked for an appropriation to fully equip three departments, 

 the veterinary, animal industries having become so important; the mechan- 

 ical, because the law required attention to this as much as it does to agri- 

 culture, and military tactics, this being also obligatory by law and the 

 conditions of the grant of lands. I supposed that all was then complete, 

 but soon found that the horticultural department was very much crippled, 

 having neither laboratory nor lecture room — nothing but a small office in a 

 basement. I saw the important relation horticulture bears to the welfare 

 of Michigan, and soon came near losing Prof. Bailey because of an offer 

 made him to become botanist at the Wisconsin college. I talked matters 

 over with him, and found that $5,000 were necessary for a laboratory and 

 $1,000 more for equipment; and I promised Mr. Bailey that if he would stay 

 I would use my best endeavors with the legislature to secure them. I did 

 so, and secured both sums, and in the effort was amazed to see the sharp- 

 ness and shrewdness of the horticidturists, who did much to help in the mat- 

 ter. So we got the laboratory and it is the best in the United States. We 

 are now in shape to do good work for you, and mean to aid you in testing 

 eeeds and plants, studying diseases, insects, etc. The other departments are 

 ably tilled and are continuing the excellent work they have so long engaged 

 in ; but these newer features were necessary to the completion and rounding 

 out of the whole. We have here men who are eminent as scientists and 

 instructors, who are known as such from the begining to the end of the 

 land, and they are men who are qualified to go ahead and keep the college 

 in the van, for it is everywhere recognized as the best school of its kind in 

 the country. 



"I am very hopeful of the experiments of Profs. Beal and Kedzie upon 

 the sandy plains of northern Michigan. We shall be able within ten years, 

 to demonstrate their value. 



"But while we are advancing, other states are doing likewise, and the 

 national department of agriculture is coming to our aid by uniting in a 

 common purpose, a co-ordination of effort, all the colleges and experiment 

 stations. The appropriations for this department, year beginning July 1, 

 aggregate $1,066,000, including $10,000 for investigating yellows, $100,000 

 for seeds, bulbs, plants, etc., besides $600,000 for experiment stations. 

 The idea is that the department is to be the head of all these institutions 

 and efforts; and so vast a power must soon accomplish something of great 

 moment." 



To this, Mr. Edwy C. Eeid made brief response, expressing the appre- 

 ciation and good will of the horticulturists of the state, both of the 

 Agricultural college and its president and faculty. 



Prof. A. J. Cook read a paper, here subjoined in full, upon 



