88 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



ure of meeting you again and at a time when our society- 

 shall by its increased membership and more perfect organ- 

 ization be enabled to extend a more fitting hospitality, but 

 in the meantime Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen, 

 we bid you God speed in our ennobling efforts. 



Pres. J. M. Smith — We have, in response to this address 

 of welcome to which we have listened, called upon our 

 friend Mr. B. F. Adams, one of our old and respected mem- 

 bers, to reply. 



Mr. B. F. Adams — Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, in 

 reply to the kind words of welcome which you have just 

 heard, I would say that in behalf of the members of the State 

 Horticultural Society, it is my privilege to express to you 

 our heartfelt thanks. We have come here from various sec- 

 tions of the state to greet each other in our annual meeting, 

 and we invite the citizens of Waukesha and the members 

 of the Waukesha Horticultural Society to unite with us in 

 making each day's sessions replete with interest. 



More than forty years ago I visited this locality, which 

 then, if I remember right, bore the name of Prairieville, 

 Since that time a generation has come and gone. The 

 wilderness west of Lake Michigan has been changed into 

 fruitful fields, and the little town then existing has grown 

 to be a place of several thousand inhabitants, noted for its 

 public institutions, its wells of health-giving waters, and 

 above all for its intelligent, enterprising and thrifty popula- 

 tion. We are glad to meet you here. The mission of our 

 society is not only to cultivate and advance the science of 

 pomology, but to create and stimulate a taste among our 

 population for general and progressive horticulturg. For 

 this object we labor. We now have reached a period of 

 growth and prosperity which demands more cultivated tastes 

 and a greater number of homes throughout the state indi- 

 cative of culture and refinement. To secure these objects 

 we maintain the state organization; broad in its scope, earn- 

 est in its work of gathering information and imparting 

 instruction upon all matters relating to horticulture in its 

 broadest sense, the cultivation of fruits especially adapted 

 to Wisconsin and the northwest, the cultivation of the vege- 



