96 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to treat you so generously and liberally as to disarm criticism, it is the 

 Californians. There are many things we should imitate. 



But when we go to a meeting like the one in New York, we meet people 

 who come right from the farm and orchard. They make their living by 

 the fruits, and are in the business to get a living by what they produce 

 from the ground, not by buying or selling the ground itself. They have 

 commenced by small beginnings, and have come to be, in some cases, 

 large fruitgrowers ; and yet western New York represents the great mass 

 of small fruitgrowers. I know of scarcely a meeting where there seemed 

 to be greater enthusiasm than at that meeting in New York. People 

 manifested, by their interest and questions, that they were there to learn 

 more about their business, and that they believed they had as good a 

 business as there was in the country. 



Another feature that was particularly gratifying was the presence of a 

 large number of old men — men whose memories reached back fifty or 

 sixty years, who have been in the business all those years; and a still 

 more gratifying thing, in connection with this, was the large number of 

 young men who were there, and the way in which that society is under- 

 taking to encourage the attendance of the young men. A great many of 

 the fruit farms of western New York are represented by the third gener- 

 ation, and some of the principal men are able to give their sons college 

 educations and travel, and the sons have improved it. It is gratifying 

 to know that these sons, who have education, ample means, and the 

 observations gained by travel, are following in the footprints of their 

 fathers. 



There were sixty or seventy of the boys from the body of agricultural 

 students at Cornell university, who were brought down there to attend 

 that meeting. Attention was called to the fact, and Prof. Roberts invited 

 the members to meet these young men at the hotel and hold a reception. 

 His idea was that these young men might have a chance to meet the 

 president and secretary and other oflQcers of the society, and the visitors, 

 and to impress upon the young men the importance of attending the 

 meetings regularly, that they might get the advantage of the practical 

 discussions. It was my pleasure to return with these young men to 

 Cornell, and the next day, after reaching there I happened to be in the 

 mechanical department, with one of the professors, who was formerly 

 here in Michigan. I said to him that it was a very gratifying thing to 

 me, to see those students down there enjoying and endeavoring to get 

 the advantage of the meeting, and then I reminded him of an experience 

 I had in California. I don't wish to criticise too much, in that direction, 

 and yet there is a valuable fact in connection with it. I visited the Agri- 

 cultural college at Berkeley, in California, and while there I was looking 

 for the agricultural department. Not seeing any one about, of whom 

 I could inquire, I went to the literary building, where there were fifteen 

 or twenty young people, and I said, " I would like to know where I can 



find Prof. ," and one of them replied, " I think you will find 



him over at the *cow college'; and before I got to that department, as 

 many as three persons, in speaking, referred to it as the 'cow college'." 

 What is the effect of that? There is an agricultural college connected 

 with the university, but the fact is that there were something like a 



