80 STATE po:mological society. 



REPLY TO AVELCOME BY H. DALE ADAMS. 



Ill behalf of the society I am requested to rei)re.~eut ou this occasion and its 

 friends here assembled to take part in the deliberations of this, one of our 

 quarterly meetings of the year, I assure yon we tliankfully accept the very 

 generous offer so freely tendered us, and I trust, sir, when we return to our 

 homes and families, we shall carry with us an appreciation of the friendships 

 and hospitalities that have been extended to us on this occasion, and, sir, be 

 ever able to bear in our memory a grateful remembrance of your village aud 

 people. 



But, sir, in accepting and expressing our many thanks for this distinguished 

 manifestation of your regard to us, allow me to be plain with you and assure 

 5'ou that that is not all we expect by any means. 



Our })eople and the whole State, sir, have long looked to the pomologists that 

 line the shore of the noble lake whose waters wash the western limits of your 

 village, for that light and guidance in pomological science that have produced 

 the gratifying results so manifest' here. In short, sir, we expect the whole 

 story of your experience and success, and, more still, we expect a little aid 

 financially (pardon me, etc.) We expect every man and every woman wlio is 

 not already a member of our society, will come forward sometime during the 

 progress of this meeting and add their names to our membership list. 



Again I thank you for the tender of the hospitalities and welcome of your 

 village and peoi)lc. 



Following these papers, a short discussion ensued on the subject of a new 

 diploma for the Societ}', Mr. Thompson advocating that the diploma was a 

 proper means of perpetuating the name of the society, and Avheh one is procured 

 it should be of such a character as to be appreciated and appropriate to frame 

 and hang in a parlor or library. Ho believed in keeping the value of the di- 

 ploma high, by awarding it only to strictly worthy things, where it will take the 

 place of a twenty dollar premium. The habit of awarding a diploma to every 

 little article lowers its value and makes it of little importance. 



The next paper was given at this juncture on — 



WHAT IS THE USE OF A STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY? 



BY J. P. THOMPSON. 



Gentlemen : — There tnust always be embarrassment in talking of only a part 

 of a subject when you mean the whole of it. Michigan Pomology is only a 

 part of Michigan Horticulture. The first is the name under which we fly our 

 flag, but the latter is the thing itself, — the great interest which brings us 

 together, which covers and embraces the entire State. At Chicago they gave 

 a medal to the Michigan Horticultural Society, supposing of course, that this 

 great State must include the whole range of rural felicities. At the Centen- 

 nial constant effort was needed to keep our Society's name from being ignored, 

 for the managers there thought it queer that we should limit ourselves to a sub- 

 ordinate branch of Horticulture, when it was constantly being reported that 

 our soil and climate was adapted, not merely to a branch, though a vigorous 

 one, but to the entire tree, — root, trunk, branch, leaf, flower, and fruit. I 

 hope we shall gradually consent to a change, that our name may tell its own 



