62 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



others of the sessions, and the thanks they expressed in their final reso- 

 lutions were very far from being the mere formalities such resolutions 

 sometimes are. , 



ADDRESS BY GOV. JOHN T. RICH. 



The chair presented the Hon. John T. Rich, governor of Michigan, who 

 for a half hour or more interested the audience in a review of some of the 

 sources of the state's good fame. He could not discuss horticulture, he 

 said, because all present were experts in the art, while his experience as a 

 farmer had been in altogether different lines. This is a region not better 

 in soil than many others in Michigan, but in it has been developed the 

 business of fruitgrowing, and its inhabitants ar3 much the better off in 

 conEequence. 



Horticulture is of great advantage to a community because it affords a 

 great variety of employment in the industries dependent upon it, as well 

 as in production of the fruit itself; and it does not so extensively, as does 

 general agriculture, enter into competition with itself. 



I have hoped to see the time when this country produced all the 

 sugar necessary for its own consumption, whether from beets, sorghum, or 

 the sugarcane. It ought to be done. I still believe it will be done. 



Mr. Rich proceeded to speak of the broad and generous policy which 

 was adopted by the founders of the state, a policy the subsequent enact- 

 ment of which has made the state government and institutions second to 

 none in the Union. He mentioned the great university, the normal school, 

 the Agricultural college, the mining school, and the system of common 

 schools, and said the state not only made generous donations of lands to 

 the support of the educational institutions, but a share of the specific taxes 

 as well, so that a round million each year is turned into the fund of the 

 common schools, a sum equal to two thirds of the entire state tax. This 

 aid to the schools can not be diverted from them, for the fund is not in the 

 form of commercial loans, but is held by the state, which puts the princi- 

 pal back into the pockets of the people, who well can afford to pay interest 

 to such an object as this. Besides this, the state cares for the insane and 

 educates the deaf, dumb, and blind. The former must be done for simply 

 the sake of humanity, while the latter is a good investment for the state, 

 because it makes these poor unfortunates self-supporting instead of 

 dependent upon the state as otherwise they would be. Then, there is the 

 industrial school. This was at first called a reform school, and was but 

 lijtle different from a jail. Now all traces of the prison are removed from 

 it, the name changed, and the boys treated as worthy of confidence, as 

 being worth saving. Although they are originally sent for some offense or 



