202 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



atically and in good taste, and the department is being rounded out and devel- 

 oped into a consistent and symmetrical shape. 



There are some things that are needed, and that should be done as soon as 

 possible. One of these is the erection of some kind of fruit house for the pres- 

 ervation of fruit. This is one of things that the fruit-growers need instruc- 

 tion in, and this is the proper place to give it. Then the information obtained 

 would be in an available shape for the people at large. As a means of illustra- 

 tion and education it might be made worth many thousands of dollars to the 

 people of the State. 



A fund should also be set apart for the purchase every year of hardy, decidu- 

 ous, and evergreen trees and shrubs, until every species that will grow in our 

 climate can be found at the college. 



There are glorious possibilities in the future for the college, and the legisla- 

 ture should grasp the idea that liberality in regard to it will be the best economy 

 in the interest of the producing classes of our State. 



The afternoon was spent very pleasantly in the dining-room at the college, 

 and in the chapel, where a number of the members of the different commit- 

 tees indulged in speech-making, responding to toasts, etc. Happy addresses 

 were also made by President Abbot, and by General Lee, of the Mississippi 

 Agricultural College. The day will long be remembered by all as one of pleas- 

 ant memories. 



Mr. A. C. Glidden of Paw Paw, read the following short paper on 



MEMORIAL TREES. 



How universal the desire to perpetuate a memory. It manifests itself in 

 many forms, according to the ability or the eccentricity of the individual. 

 The pyramids lift their immense piles to its power. The simple cairn is 

 heaped where the warrior fell. Colleges, hospitals, and asylums, are endowed 

 to perpetuate a philanthropic memory. We sign our names in a friend's 

 album that our autograph at least may live after us. Every degree in the 

 scale of being is affected by this common desire. It is the immortality within 

 us striving to make itself audible. 



While so universal, how eminently proper then to so stimulate and direct it, 

 that the future may be benefited by our bequests. Every person who owns 

 more than the allotted six feet by two, can build his own monument. He can 

 place a tree or vine, or many trees and vines, that shall bespeak his thoughtful 

 care, when he, for whom they may never have yielded their fruit, lies beneath 

 them. 



We stand before the sculptured column at the grave of a friend. Syllables 

 carved upon the stone may rehearse his many virtues, but the thought of some 

 generous act performed will be more to us than marble, and will last when the 

 stone has crumbled into dust. So a tree planted by a friend is a monument — 

 and it is more — it is a living thought. Its fruit drops at our feet, a benison 

 from the hand of him who planted it. Could we forecast the future, and fol- 

 low the far-reaching effects from some immediate cause, how would our hands 

 be stayed when cutting away these monuments of a past age. We should see, 

 as an effect of denuding the land of its fruits and groves, fierce winds rushing 

 unobstructed over the fields, prostrating fences, buildings, and orchards. 

 Long periods of drought, succeeded by terrible tornadoes, accompanied by an 

 avalanche of rain, filling the water-courses, and tumbling toward the streams. 



