136 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



significant fact, that the nurseryman, and even the market-gardener and 

 fruit-grower, tend more and more to get rid of the uncertainties of their 

 occupation by taking shelter under glass. They thus can absolutely con- 

 trol the conditions, at more expense, it may be, but with certainty. In 

 the case of the coarser and cheaper orchard fruits, we learn to control 

 conditions partially — by selection of hardy varieties, by shelter, by culti- 

 vation that insures vigor of growth and early ripening of wood and bud, 

 and the like. 



But my talk is longer than I fear your patience may be, and I must 

 conclude. I count ourselves fortunate in having taken part in the mate- 

 rial, intellectual and moral development that has attended the progress 

 of this Society during the twenty years just closed. I do not believe 

 that our labors and influence have made many millionaires ; but I do 

 believe that they have made thousands of rural homes more pleasant 

 places of abode, and stirred the diviner love of nature — of fruits and 

 flowers and trees — in many a heart. This Society has at least helped to 

 make our men and women and children more intelligent and refined, 

 happier and better, and so has done something towards attaining the great 

 end of human existence. 



I look about me upon faces that have grown care-worn and heads 

 that have grown gray in this their chosen life-work. I count them min- 

 isters of a gospel as universal as the race, and which has its apostles in 

 every land, from farthest Cathay to California — a gospel of good works,, 

 whose temple is arched by the broad dome of heaven and floored by the 

 fertile fields of earth — a gospel written in the perfumed violet beneath 

 our feet, and pointing heavenward in the forest towers of the Mariposa. 



" Each floral bell that swingeth 

 And tolls its perfume on the passing air," • 



calls worshipers to its shrine. From Greenland's icy mountains, where 

 the lettuce and radish tax the gardener's skill, to India's coral strand, 

 exuberant with the prodigal vegetable life of the tropics, our art has its 

 votaries. And if, as the Zendavesta says, "to be a saint a man must be 

 the father of orderly children, must plant useful trees, must destroy noxi- 

 ous animals, must convey water to the dry lands * * and work out 

 his salvation by pursuing all the labors of agriculture," then we are the 



saints. 



APPENDIX TO ABOVE REPORT. 



FIRST ORCHARD IN SCHUYLER. 



I see, in a horticultural meeting of your State, Mr. Flagg gives 

 statistics of the first orchards made in certain counties, a large number of 

 the counties not being reported. Having become a resident of the State 

 in 1824, and of Schuyler county in February, 1825, I can say I jjlanted 

 the first orchard in Schuyler, spring of 1826, and B. Chadsey the next — 

 both seedlings. I paid twenty-five cents per tree. Cornelius Vandeven- 

 ter planted the first in Brown county. Archibald Job planted the first 

 in Cass county, and I think Steven Osborn the first in McDonough 

 county. These three have gone to their final rest. 



