TRANSACTIONS OF ALTON HURTICL LTLllAL SOCIKTY. o 1 1 



sometimes order and receive the choicest fruits, and they would lie upoa 

 our stands day after day. Millionaires would pass them and refuse to pay 

 the price. Ship the same article to Chicago, and they are sold at once. 



Adjourned for dinner. 



At the dinner table, C. W. Mi Rri Ki.ur, uf St. Louis, read the 

 following : 



J/y Friends, and Members of the Alton Horticultural Society: 



Remembering with great pleasure the many pleasant occasions when it was my 

 privilege to meet with you, allow me to say that I am most happy to be with you to-day, 

 and to congratulate you on the fact that you still flourish, and are, like a band of broth- 

 ers, earnestly and unselfishly working for mutual improvement and advantage in the 

 dissemination of horticultural experiences and knowledge. 



But, in the language of the famous Texas Judge, " If this court knows herself, and 

 she thinks she does,"' your continued existence and prosperity are due as much, if not 

 more, to the social features of your meetings as to your perfect organization, and the 

 systematic and practical arrangement of the discussions and papers. And in regard to 

 the first proposition, namely, the social features, the ladies of this association are to be 

 credited with a very large share of the general success; for they not only cheer you with 

 their presence and smiles, and furnish the spice of your conversations with a very little 

 cayenne or vinegar, but upon them most devolves the duty and the labor of providing 

 for this wants of the inner-man, otherwise called stomach — certainly not a small matter 

 when such a crowd of stalwart and hungi-y men as are here present to-day surround the 

 social board, and especially if this crowd is augmented by pilgrims and strangers from 

 over the water. But these strangers, I am happy to say, well know of the generous 

 hospitality and the welcome awaiting them at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Snedeker, 

 or of " any other man" of this association. 



I venture to say that outside of Boston, and perhaps also of Philadelphia, no other 

 society can be found that has met as regularly, has labored as hard and as successfully, 

 and accomplished as much, as the Alton Horticultural Society. 



And as for the charge we hear occasionally of a Mutual Admiration Society, pure 

 and simple, it needs only a reference to the frequent mental sparrings indulged in, and 

 of the battle of the giants sure to follow, if any untenable proposition or false teaching 

 is ever indulged in by any member. The fact that you do glory in your stability, age 

 and success, should not be charged to you as a fault and a crime as long as you do not 

 rest on your laurels, but are rgiising your standard still higher, and are aiming for still 

 greater attainments. 



The fruits and vegetables which you produce and send to market are well known 

 to be fresh, well assorted, superior and choice in quality, and of full measure ; and 

 while their excellence is due, in a measure, to the favorable locations and natural fertility 

 and adaptation of your lands, much is to be credited to your superior skill as cultivators 

 and fair dealers. 



And my prayer to-day is, that, as a Society, your boughs may be like those of the 

 goodly cedar, and that their fruits may be plenty and pleasant to the ta.ste, and that you 

 may still bring forth much fruit in your old age. 



President Snedeker and James E. Starr responded to the above 

 in a pleasant way. 



The Committee on Orchard Fruits reported on the following api)les, 

 presented by I. Snedeker : 



Smith's Cider — Good orcliard and market. Yellow Bellflcnver — 

 Fine family, tardy bearer, k'aiole' i Janet — Late winter, desirable. 



