Summer Meeting. 25 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



President WhitteiT then introduced Hon. Samuel Daniels, mayor 

 of Versailles, who delivered the address of welcome on behalf of the 

 city. Mayor Daniels spoke in part as follows : 



Mr. President, 'Members of the State Horticultural Society, Ladies 

 and Gentlemen — I am sure that I voice the sentiments of every citizen 

 of Versailles when I say that I welcome you to our midst on this occa- 

 sion. We recognize that you are engaged in a great work ; that you 

 have come together to consider and reason upon those important 

 questions pertaining to the great work of horticulture, and are glad to 

 have you with us. We are "glad to have the privilege of meeting you 

 face to face and hearing from }Ou the discussions of these great ques- 

 tions that are of the utmost importance to our people. I am glad that 

 you came from the various parts of this great State of ours. I am glad 

 to know that all parts and sections of the State are represented, and I 

 am glad to know that you are here in the interests of horticulture. It 

 is a subject that interests every citizen of Versailles and Morgan county, 

 and we are glad to hear you discuss these questions and of this opportu- 

 nity of meeting you and getting acquainted with you to the end that 

 we may all become interested and more alive to the work of horticulture. 



I can't say that I am an horticulturist in any great sense, but I be- 

 lieve in this great work. I believe in the work of this organization. I 

 am told that it was organized forty-seven years ago, just before the 

 Civil War. And so imbued with the importance of this work were the 

 original members of the organization that it continued to meet every 

 year during the trying and troublous timies of that great internecine 

 struggle. And that it has continued to meet every year down to the 

 present time. I believe that there is only one of the charter members 

 now taking part in the work of the Society, Hon. Norman J. Colman, 

 a name known, not only in Missouri, but throughout this whole great 

 countly. Gov. Colman's able and effective work, his painstaking care and 

 research, has made his name a household word throughout the width 

 and breadth of this great land, and even throughout the countries of the 

 world. 



And you, who are worthy successors of the men who inaugurated 

 this great work, have kept pace with the progress of the times along 



these lines. You, who are twenty or thirty years old in this work, can 

 realize the strides that have been made and the progress that has been 



