STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 131 



So, perhaps, they dreamed, before the arctic cold and tropic heat 

 and desert drouth of an uncertain climate made them sadder and wiser 

 men. If it turned out a paradise in which the borer thrived and the cur- 

 culio increased as time advanced, it was not the first time that the dreams 

 of youth have been rudely broken by experience. 



EDSON HARKNESS. 



Among these ardent horticulturists of a third of a century ago, one 

 of the most conspicuous, by his zeal in horticulture, and especially in pro- 

 moting horticultural associations, was Edson Harkness. I know little of 

 his history and never saw him ; and therefore speak of him under disad- 

 vantages. He came to the State about 1835, from Maryland. About 

 1840 he established a nursery at Trivoli, in the western part of Peoria 

 county, where he remained until as late as 1S55, about which time he re- 

 moved to California, where he died about the year 1S65. Our brother 

 Bourland, writing of him about 1865, said he "did much to disseminate 

 good fruits and correct ideas," until he went to California, "where upon 

 a rocky hill-side, sloping toward the Pacific, our good old friend now 

 works and prays, and is doing for California what he did in days gone 

 by for Peoria county. He is always successful, but never makes money." 

 In looking through his correspondence in the early volumes of The 

 Prairie Farmer, I find he was an early experimenter with and propagator 

 of the Osage Orange as a hedge plant, and an enthusiastic supporter of 

 Industrial Education. But his special merit, as I consider him now, was 

 his early and successful effort to gather the nurserymen and fruit-growers 

 of the State into a convention. He broached the subject in 1845, '^^^'^ 

 without success. He tried again in 1846, and receiving a favorable re- 

 sponse from C. R. Overman and Samuel Edwards, he called a convention 

 at Peoria, October isth. 



THE FIRST STATE HORTICULTURAL MEETING. 



This meeting, held thirty years ago, is, so far as I know, the first 

 meeting of horticulturists held in our State, and among the first, if not 

 the first, in the Western States. It would be almost proper to claim it as 

 the birth-place of this organization. Edson Harkness was its leading 

 spirit, Samuel H. Davis was its Chairman, and John A. McCoy, of Peoria, 

 its Secretary. The other persons named as present were Smith Fr3'e, of 

 Peoria, of the State Agricultural Society ; Stephen Dewey, of Lewiston, 

 Fulton county ; A. P. Bartlett, of Peoria, merchant ; Charles Ballance, of 

 Peoria, lawyer; Isaac Overman, C. R. Overman and N. Overman, of 

 Canton, Fulton county ; Dr. R. Rouse, of Peoria, physician ; David 

 Bohen, W. H. Ellis, L. Holland, John Porter. Of these fifteen persons 

 perhaps half were professional, several being citizens of Peoria who 

 desired to testify to their interest in the ilndertaking in this way. Mr. 

 Harkness exhibited forty varieties of apples, besides quinces, grapes and 

 pears. The (Jvermans, Mr. Dewey, and Elijah Capps, all of Fulton, and 

 Mr. Lineback, of Peoria, also made exhibitions. A committee of five 

 was appointed to report a constitution and by-laws to the next annual 



