STATE HORTICULTURAI. SOCIETY. 23 



ety in ]t;irticular, I will not recount. This duty will be discharged 

 by others who have long known the personal worth and the efficient 

 work of these good men. 



Our great loss in their deaths has seriously iiu])ressed me, as it 

 undoubtedly has all of you, with the fact that it imposes upon us 

 who remain increased responsibilities in the prosecution of our chosen 

 art. This consideration has. in part, influenced me in the ^election 

 of a topic upon Avhich to address you to-day: 



THE PROBABLE FUTURE OF ILLINOIS HORTICULTURE. 



"Watchmen, what of the Night?" Horticulturists of Illinois, 

 what is the present status of horticulture, and what are its prospects 

 for the immediate or more remote future? We are here to-day to 

 examine and, if possible, give approximately correct answers to these 

 questions. 



Horticultural Societies are organized and conducted, not only to 

 study present modes and results, but to forecast the future and 

 achieve success; and the greater and more numerous the obstacles 

 the greater must be the intellectual effort and the physical energy 

 pressed into service in achieving success. In perhaps no State in the 

 Union, south of the great chain of lakes and east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, are the obstacles to successful horticulture greater or 

 more numerous than in the State represented by this Society. 



At our last annual meeting I enumerated some of the achieve- 

 ments of the Society during its life of a quarter of a century; and 

 certainly the results of such retrospection are matters upon which 

 we are justified in indulging mutual congratulations. Yet, as cer- 

 tainly as our achievements have been great, so certainly have they 

 been accomplished, in the main, so far as relates to the cultivation of 

 fruits, by persevering industry, almost unaided by scientific research. 

 It is a lamentable fact that those who are engaged in fruit growing 

 in the West have little time and less money to expend in that close 

 study and careful experimentation which are needed to insure pro- 

 gress. But it is a cheering sign of an appreciation of this difficulty. 

 that horticulturists in the West are now demanding the establish- 

 ment of experiment stations, at which all the conditions of soil, 

 climate and various modes of culture, with their effects upon both 

 tree and fruit, will be carefully studied and recorded by comjtetent 

 persons whose time and attention will not be diverted from their 

 special work. In our own State of Illinois we started out well in 

 this direction when our Industrial University was established. A 

 very large number of species and varieties of fruit trees and timber 

 trees were planted, but the attention of those who had these experi- 

 ments in charge was in a large measure drawn from this work into 

 other channels, and little ])ractical benefit has resulted. It is quite 

 evident that the comparative value to the State of thorough work in 



