116 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



appropriate that a good measure of attention be given to the objects wliich our 

 society li:is in view — leading toward which, we believe that progress will make 

 toward a higher improvement. 



In Europe the civilizing in'ocesscs move slowly; in Asia more slowly still. 

 When one wants to find his ideal of energy and progressive movement, let him 

 seek it in young America, and especially in the Great West. 



But what is " West?" Michigan, a half century ago, was the great west, 

 and people who emigrated thither, were considered as going nearly to the end 

 of the world. Friends parted with those who sought the shores uf Michigan 

 as they would with the dying. It was a month's journey from New York to 

 Michigan — a distance that is now traversed in twelve hours. How ilifTerently 

 the landscape strikes us now from what it did then. IIow changed is the 

 occupation. The pioneer's iiope was in felling the trees. Ours is in planting 

 more trees. Then the work ^vas prosy enough. Now we all of us deliglit in 

 working at what is often termed tlie poetry of Agriculture. We love to 

 become absorbed in the occupation which adds beauty to the country. Wo 

 have grown from the dug-out to the beautiful dwelling. ***** 



The fact tliat you have a thriving local society here, indicates that you 

 appreciate your opportunities, and will indulge your love for improvements. 

 Interest in the embellishment of a county or town is not a losing investment. 

 I know of instances in my own acquaintance where the money value of the 

 improvements suggested by a study of horticulture have been very lariie. The 

 ornamenting of homes induces the best and most able buyers. But a better 

 view than this of the beautifying of our homes and our farms lies in the more 

 wholesome influence, better feeling, and higher morals, that grow out of it. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Agricultural College, was announced as the speaker 

 of the evening. His subject was 



EVOLUTIOK", 



and was illustrated by the appropriate use of the blackboard. The following 

 is a brief abstract of the address : 



Evolution is now accepted by all the masters in science. The biologist 

 accepts it as the physicist accepts the doctrine of gravitation. Any tlicDry 

 merits acceptance that harmonizes with the facts and phenomena with which 

 it deals and best explains those phenomena. Thus judged evolution, like the 

 theoiy of gravitation, the atomic theoiy, and tlie vibratory theory of light, 

 finds ample basis for a firm foothold. Not only docs this doctrine defy 

 criticism, win credence from those best fitted to judge, but it has revolutionized 

 science in many of its most important and most practical bearings. The cul- 

 tuied man then should know what; this theory is, why it gains acceptance, and 

 may well ask what relation it sustains to the Christian religion. 



Evolutionists hold that all life is born of pre-existcnt life, generally rising 

 from the more simple to the more complex, that God has created organisms, 

 not by a separate liat for each kind or species, but thrv)ugh ever acting laws. 

 Some hold that this development has been by leaj)S, otliers by slow, impercep- 

 tible modifications. Others, tiie Darwinists, explain in pait how these slow 

 modifications have arisen. Every organic structure has planted within its very 

 being a tendency to vary. The botanist and the horticulturist, no Ic.-s than 

 the stock breeder and tlie naturalist, observe this fact dailv. Tlius we iiave 

 the sports among organisms in the gaiden, the forest, as well as among liie 

 animate tribes that spoit in them. Tlie field of existence is crowded — over- 



