MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 367 



peculiar pleasure, as this is your first assembliug iu a Southern 

 city. Let me indulge the hope that you have not only brought 

 hither your persons and the superb results of your skill, but 

 that you have come among us bringing your hearts likewise. 

 [Great applause.] 



When the late unhappy strife Avas ended, the first act of 

 reconstruction was passed by Nature. Our brother-blood was 

 still boiling in hostile veins ; the clenched hand was still unre- 

 laxed, and the passions of war were still rife, when from a 

 thousand skies and hillsides, and athwart a thousand plains, 

 came the generous sunlight, the gentle rain, and the tempering 

 winds, filling up the gaping rifle-pits, battering down the sharp 

 escarpments of frowning forts, blotting out with waving grain 

 the fierce scar of shot and shell, crowning battlements with 

 fragrant flowers, and weaving a beautiful carpet of green over 

 the scenes and sites of wars worst devastations. [Applause.] 

 May it be your happy fortune and high privilege, gentlemen, — 

 you who labor with Nature in so many pleasant and profitable 

 fields, — to lend her a helping hand and a willing heart in this, 

 the noblest field of all ! [Loud and continued applause.] 



COL. wilder's reply. 



Col. Wilder then stepped forward and spoke as follows : 

 "Mr. Mayor. — In behalf of the American Pomological 

 Society, and in my own behalf, I tender to you my grateful 

 acknowledgments for your gracious welcome and most eloquent 

 words in which you have addressed us. I am happy to be here 

 — we are happy to be here — in the capital of the Old Domin- 

 ion, a State so distinguished for the production of illustrious 

 men, — of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Harrison, 

 and Tyler, — all of whom have filled the highest station in the 

 gift of the people ; John Marshall, Patrick Henry, and Henry 

 Clay, names that will ever constitute a galaxy of talent to fill 

 the brightest page in the annals of American history. We 

 come from different and widely distant sections of our country. 

 I come from the cold and sterile soil of New England, where 



