La Crosse Meeting. 19 



ths citizens for the kind words of greeting and the friendly inter- 

 est manifest, and hoped that the gathering would prove pleasant 

 and profitable to them, and to all. " The society is not made up 

 of orators and eloquent speakers, and if any expected to be enter- 

 tained in this direction they would be disappointed. Yisit our 

 members at home and you will find them toiling in the garden or 

 field to gain the necessaries of life. They are not favored of 

 fortune ; the luxuries they enjoy come in the line of their labor, 

 and are the product of the hand of toil. Nearly thirty years ago 

 a few men, not rich then, but hoping to secure the comforts of 

 life in this their new home, formed a society to find out how to 

 increase the comforts and happiness of their homes, and how to 

 make them more attractive and beautiful. Most of those engaged 

 in the work then are engaged in the same labor now, and those 

 who have left it for other fields are in sympathy with it still. 

 None of them, so far as is known, have made themselves rich, 

 but have added much to the happiness and comfort of their own 

 life and those of others. As we meet from year to year there is 

 much of pleasure in the social enjoyment, and we learn much from 

 each other's experience. At first we thought that the old fruits 

 and trees of our early homes would thrive here, but we soon were 

 convinced that this was a mistake. We made many mistakes, 

 many failures — some of them very disheartening and attended 

 with serious loss. In other things our labors were crowned with 

 success, and we have reason to be encouraged. We are learning 

 how to grow more and better fruit, how to increase the beauty 

 and attractiveness of our home life, and we shall labor on, hoping 

 that some lives may be made more bright and cheerful by our 

 work." 



In the absence of any definitely arranged programme for the 

 forenoon session, it was proposed to occupy the time in the dis- 

 cussion of practical questions relating to the season's work, and 

 President Smith called on the members for their opinion as to the 

 cause of the injury to the strawberry beds the past winter and 

 spring. He stated that in many places in his own beds all the 

 plants were killed outright, and the whole beds were more or less 

 injured. All varieties suffered about alike. Never had there 



