Proceedings of the 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING 



OF THE 



Horticultural Society of Central Illinois. 



WEDNESDAY A. M., AUG. 3. • 



The Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Horticultural Society of 

 Central Illinois, convened in Liberty Hall, in the city of Elm wood. 



The President, Prof. T. J. Burrill, called the meeting to order, 

 and asked Rev. G. W. Minier to offer prayer. 



President Burrill — Mr. E. R. Brown will now offer a few 

 words of welcome to the Society. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



BY E. R. BROWN, ELMWOOD. 



When you stepped off the train this morning, at the brake- 

 man's announcement of "Ellumwood," doubtless you looked about 

 and wondered where this same '"EUumwood" might be. Well, the 

 brakeman was right; the town is here, or hereabouts, under the elms 

 and maples, and over behind the hedges — a village of a couple of 

 thousands, spread out very wide, and, consequently, very thin. Our 

 city is not as old as Damascus, but is well past sweet sixteen; and 

 the sinuous Kickapoo, on whose head-waters (head-dust at present) 

 it is located, is older, if we may believe the geologists, than the Nile 

 or the Euphrates. We have no feverish Wichita boom to show you; 

 no cataract or roaring waterfall. But Elmwood has a mountain of 

 her own, that rises toward the zenith, ninety feet above the level of 

 the Kickapoo — in a dry time. By and by we will take you up into 

 that mountain and show you, from its summit, a kingdom without a f 

 king; such a glorious lay-out of field and farm as any monarch on 

 earth might sell his kingship to buy. 

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