STATE IIUKTICLLTI RAL SOCIETY. 71 



IN MEMORY OF DR. E. S. HULL. 



Mr. James E, Starr read the following eulogy on the life and 

 services of Dr. E. S. Hull : 



" Death ! great proprietor of all ! 'tis thine 

 To tread out empires, and to quench the stars ; 

 The Sun himself by thy permission shines ; 



And one day thou shalt pluck him from his sphere. 

 * * * * * * * 



Insatiate Archer ! could not one suffice ? 



Thy shaft Hew thrice ; and thrice my peace was slain." 



Dr. Edwin S. Hull, 



Born in Connecticut, May, 1816 ; 



Died .-vt his Residence near Alton, Nov. 8, 1875. 



Having, while a youth, attained the education afforded by the schools 

 of New England at that time, he was apprenticed to the watch-making 

 business, pursuing only the more intricate and delicate branches of that 

 art. After arriving at his majority, feeling no desire to continue in that 

 trade, his aptness with tools led him to study dentistry with his father, 

 who was at that time practicing at Lowell, Mass. A few years of close 

 application made him a proficient, and upon his father's retiring from 

 business the son continued its practice. In consequence of feeble health, 

 he was compelled to relinquish his business in Lowell, and seek a more 

 genial clime. He therefore removed to Charleston, S. C; when in the 

 full tide of success, his all was destroyed by the great fire, and he then 

 returned to Lowell, and resumed the practice of his profession there. 

 Admonished by failing health after a few years, his tastes and inclinations 

 led him to the pursuit of horticulture. His first step in that direction 

 was the purchase of a small place near Woonsacket, Rhode Island, in 

 1841. Here, and in this pursuit, he found congenial employment; but 

 the climate, soil, and general character of the country hampered him ; 

 he longed for a wider field, and in 1844 he came West, seeking for a new 

 home, a land of greater fertility, of wider resources, better adapted to 

 carry out what was to be his life's work ; and found it at the place which 

 afterward became famous as the Hull Farm, near Alton, Illinois. 



Let it be remembered that he was embarking in what, at that time, 

 was comparatively a new enterprise, without experience here, and with 

 but a brief experience East; with no one to whom he could go for counsel, 

 with no horticultural society from which to gather ripened experience. 



As a consequence, large orchards were at once planted, embracing 

 many varieties of fruits at that time almost unknown in the West. 

 Apples, pears, plums, cherries and peaches, all were started in the full 

 hope of success. Fortunate for the future of horticulture was this. 



