250 STATE HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY. 



be so conducted as to mar and debauch the soul of him who conducts, 

 beyond the recognition of decent manhood. It elevates or debases; it 

 expands and blesses, or it contracts and hardens; it touches his every 

 treasure and trust. He may make it tributary to all the good purposes of 

 his life. He may make it more significant than himself, and he remain 

 only an appendage thereto. The sacredness of business, and it certainly 

 has that quality, is in the scrupulous use of the means and opportunities 

 afforded for higher ends. Its real and relative value is in proportion to 

 the amount and kind of these means and opportunities. Hence, too much 

 emphasis can not be put upon the importance of finding this reasonable 

 amount of success before engaging in it. 



One may say, "figures won't lie," and figure out apparently a trust- 

 worthy foundation for a business. These figures can not tell the whole 

 truth, and mistakes, jjurposely or otherwise, are his, a most delusive foun- 

 dation. Reasons may seem unanswerable, and yet go wide of the mark 

 and far from the truth. It has been said that one fact is worth a thou- 

 sand reasons. Let us look at some of the facts that environ this subject, 

 pro and con. Ugly facts are better than mere fictions, if we are led to 

 fortify against the one and to build not on the other. The first and most 

 important topic I wish to name, is suggested by the last clause of the 

 subject you have given me, " in Michigan." 



The first and greatest fact is lake Michigan, a good strong "pro," but 

 for which our subject would be without a location or name in Michigan. 

 It is as venerable as the everlasting hills and will endure while the rivers 

 run to the sea. Twenty-four years ago I made her acquaintance upon a 

 quiet sabbath afternoon. A dear friend was at my side; a dark-haired 

 boy of four summers, with whose cradle lullabys were mingled the songs 

 of war time, which some of you must well remember, stood a step nearer 

 the bold blufP. The scene was entrancing. The glorious sky seemed to 

 have laid an offering of all her hues, in great fields or belts, in wondrously 

 beautiful, changing contrast to each other, upon her swelling bosom. The 

 waves seemed to kneel upon the shore, and their gentle murmur seemed 

 an ascending hymn of praise, when the child, with involuntary utterance, 

 broke the silence and voiced our feelings in the chorus of the song, Michi- 

 gan, my Michigan! 



So we who are here this afternoon may well express our tribute of 

 appreciation and sense of possession in the same words. For our glorious 

 lake Michigan is the mother of the peach-belt. Her heart is too large and 

 warm to be frozen in winter, and then it is that she sends, by every pass- 

 ing breeze, to the lands that embrace her, the warm kisses of her love, and 

 in the mellow autumn time the high jjlaces of our state blush with .the 

 gold and the crimson of the peach. But not always. Don't reckon too 

 surely, for opposed to this greatest " pro " is a very damaging " con." No 

 less a fact than that the east or easterly wind, or a still atmosphere in a 

 dangerous cold time, may prevent " our Michigan " from keeping the 

 the temperature high enough to save the buds, even in the best locations. 



And right here, over and against this " con," is the fact that in these 

 best locations not more than from three to five entire failures have occurred 

 in twenty-four years. It is another fact, under the subject of location, 

 that during this time three of the worst failures have not been so much 

 due to extreme cold as to a premature development of the buds. In 

 February, 1879, the buds were as large as well-cured Canada peas. This 

 was true of northern and western slopes and clay land, the very best loca- 



