REPORT OF MEETINGS. 555 



niornin£T light, and seem indeed to laugh and sing as they ripple and glide over their clean 

 bed of pebble and rock to tell the listening lake of your arrival. " Sweet fields beside this 

 swelling flood stand dressed in living green" to greet you. Wide streets, begirt with stately 

 maples; broad avenues, sentinelled with grand old elms, reach out their grateful shade to 

 cover you. Overtopping maple and elm, and statelier than either, the old pear trees erect 

 their venerable heads and seem to nod their morning salutation, as they wait tor their cen- 

 turial jubilee. It is well and wisely given to the accomplished Willets to speak for them, — 

 to relate how fur back in the last century they were transported from the soil of merrie 

 France and transplanted on this then wild river-side, — and how the same hands that drew 

 the virgin soil around their roots at the same time uplifted the advancing herald of civiliza- 

 tion and Christianity, the holy cross ; hovv the towering walnuts grew thick and close to 

 the water's edge on either side, and how, from root to topmost branch, and stretching from 

 tree to tree across on either bank, there interlaced in rank luxuriance and hung down iu 

 great festoons and bunches, and flourished and fruited iu their season, the product of that 

 " immortal vine" which maketh the " heart of man glad," and which gave to the river the 

 name it yet bears. Beneath these umbrageous shades the red man" paddled his light canoe"' 

 and wooed and won his dusky maid, and both alike, in the abandon of their wild nature 

 and the wild scene, reached forth their swarthy hands and plucked the dusky, musky fruit 

 and stained and dyed their dark skins and crimson lips with the purple blood of the clus- 

 tering grapes o'erhead. 



Canoe, walnut, wild vine, wild man and maid are gone ; but he who finds himself on the 

 river's brink in the twilight hour to-day, will see that Jack and Gill, and Sue and Bill, keep 

 up that old, old sparking still ! 



To-day, for miles along this river, on the islands iu the bay, and away to Pointe aux Peaux^ 

 on the lake, the eye is greeted and the senses charmed with the sight of oft recurring vine- 

 yards, rich in variety, perfect in cultivation, and marvellously abundant in production. 

 Verily has the valley of the River Raisin become the American Rhine; and when tlie rich 

 laden baskets are seen, and the merry voice of the grape-gatherer heard in our midst, this, 

 indeed, seems to be an enchanted land, — the Switzerland of the Xew World. 



If Sterling will uncork upon the subject of the growth and management of the vineyard,, 

 the acreage and jield of the fruit, the manufacture and handling of the wine, with one- 

 half the dexterity he unbottles the article itself, — and he can do both, — you will be full to 

 overflowing of " a feast of reason and a flow of soul." 



But neither pears nor grapes, however luscious, monopolize the land. Great nurseries of 

 the apple, cherry, peach, and plum are seen on every hand, and large orchards intervening 

 on every side, some hoary with years and of immense size, and yet vigorous, still drop their 

 ripe fruit into the lap of the fourth generation, who have sat under their branches and par- 

 taken of their bounty. I venture upon the assertion that there is more money capital to- 

 day invested on this shore in fruit and the products of fruit, than there is on the west shore,, 

 and that the life of the vine and tree and shrub with us, — owing to the vigor and heartiness 

 of our soil, — is far more permanent and enduring, while the climate, aspect, and all the 

 modifying influences of surrounding water, is not inferior here to any point in this parallel 

 of latitude, or any where in the region of the Great Lakes. To these varied enjoyments 

 you are bidden, and to a welcome as warm and cheery as it is given the heart of man to 

 tender. We greet you with a hospitality as wide and open-handed as the best of good will can 

 render it. 



The Agricultural Society and its manly ofilcers are here to repeat it. The ever generous 

 and warm-hearted people of Monroe will labor to make your stay with us pleasant and 

 profitable, and the constituted authorities of the city are happy in the honor of your pres- 

 ence. Monroe, second in years of the Michigan cities, receives you in her borders and ofl'ers 

 " the freedom of the place.' ' And the oldest mayor in existence, — having reached the wooden 

 wedding of executive life, — invokes upon your coming and parting all pleasure and enjoy- 

 ment. 



The mayor concliuled by introducing Governor Baglej, who made some 

 pleasant remarks about his attempts to make himself an agriculturist and po- 

 mologist during the past year. He spoke very frankly of the importance of 

 fruit culture as one of the resources of the State which should be promoted as 

 a leading interest, and amongst those engaged in it were to be found our best 

 citizens. 



The President of the convention responded to these addresses, and then Dr. 

 Edward Dorsch of Monroe submitted a paper entitled " Our friends, the Mole, 

 the Toad, the Spider, and the Owl," which was read by Prof. Boyd. 



On Wednesday morning a visit was made by a large party of fruit growers 



