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Ontario government gives a substantial grant to the horticultural so- 

 cieties in the province. Each branch gets a substantial grant, paid 

 one-third on membership and two-thirds on their expenditures for 

 horticultural purposes. The organization is spreading very rapidly 

 and nearly every village and town throughout Ontario has its horticul- 

 tural association. They were doing such good work for the cities that 

 the Minister of Agriculture decided to extend the work to the farmers, 

 and now we have rural horticultural societies. The membership they 

 require is 25, each paying one dollar membership fee, and the Govern- 

 ment gives them dollar for dollar per member. If a rural society has 

 75 members, their membership income is $75 and the Government gives 

 them another $75, thus allowing them $150 to expend on their work. 



Connected with my branch we have several speqialists, one specialist 

 an expert lecturer in horticulture who goes about in the province de- 

 livering addresses to those horticultural associations and assisting them 

 to organize. I have had the honor and privilege of being connected 

 with one of your large organizations in the United States and was vice- 

 president of the American Civic Association for several years. I am 

 still on the board. They are doing similar work to ours. For a num- 

 ber of years we met in Washington ; last year in Boston. Their mem- 

 bership is much smaller than ours. They have a very small member- 

 ship but they are doing splendid work for the citizens of the United 

 States. 



Mr. Neilson is the apostle who has spread the gospel of nut grow- 

 ing. In season and out of season he has discussed the value of utiliz- 

 ing nut trees in the different parts of this province. 



I think that the work you are doing is of great value. We in our 

 horticultural societies have devoted our time largely to the growing of 

 flowers, but after all when you can encourage a citizenship in the 

 (growing of flowers, shrubs and trees around their homes, brightening, 

 the homes of our people, the work certainly is of great value. There 

 was a time when many of our boys were inclined to leave the farms, 

 but since the advent of the rural horticultural societies, when the boys 

 become interested in brightening the farm homes, it helps this situation 

 a great deal. 



We have a number of organizations along similar lines. We have 



