274 State' Horticultural Society. 



The Address of Welcome lo the City, Hon. H. M. Beardsley, Presi- 

 dent City Councih 



Mr. Beardsley compared the growth of the Society to the growth 

 of flower and fruit of the apple tree. The drudgery and work of life 

 bring about the traits of character which last through time and eternity. 

 The city also is like a tree in growth and history and its wonderful de- 

 velopment. Much of what was once called the great American desert 

 has vanished and become a land of plenty and of marvelous fertility. 

 Kansas City stands as the first city in this district. It is first as a market 

 for agricultural implements and second in live stock. We welcome an 

 organization such as the State Horticultural Society that brings to us 

 a thought that leads men up and makes them better. 



Welcoming words from the Missouri Valley Horticultural Society 

 were made by Geo. W. Holsinger, ex-president of the same. 



FROM PRACTICAL FRUIT GROWER. 



The first meeting of the session was held Thursday evening, and 

 after an invocation, was opened by an address of welcome by H. M. 

 Beardsley, president of the city council of Kansas City, in which he 

 spoke interestingly of the great development of the west, especially of 

 the great territory of which Kansas City is the center, and of the great 

 strides in this direction made by the city itself. Mr. Beardsley is a gen- 

 tleman of a pleasing personality and of a ready and felicitous speech. He 

 impresses one also as a man of energy and public spirit, having the in- 

 terests of his important position very much at heart, and we feel sure that 

 if his ambition to succeed to the head of the city's government is realized, 

 its interest will be in good hands. G. W. Holsinger, ex-president of the 

 Missouri Valley Horticultural Society, also spoke a few words of wel- 

 come, in the course of which he took occasion to give Mayor Neff a few 

 raps for his prejudice against the Ben Davis apple, as expressed in his 

 address of welcome at the meeting of the American Pomological Society, 

 held in Kansas City last September. Mr. Holsinger intimated very 

 strongly that this dislike of the Ben Davis was only assumed, and that 

 if the facts were known, it would be found that "his honor" made a 

 specialty in his menu of Ben Davis pies ! 



To these addresses President Whitten replied in his usual felicitous 

 manner. Fruit growers, he said, were familiar with the growth and 

 progress of the metropolis of Western Missouri as they were with that 

 of the. great territory tributary to it, and they shared in the pride of its 



