Annual Meeting at St. Jose])li. 231 



seems that something might be done, and I believe that the late 

 Dr. J. A. Warder began the work rightly in his work on ''Amer- 

 ican Pomology." Can this be imjDroved upon, or will it be fol- 

 lowed out ? 



Horticultural progress is shown by the live horticultural 

 societies all over our states, and needs to be shown more and more. 

 Progress will be seen when we have thousands in our state societies 

 and one hundred county societies scattered all over each state. 

 Horticultural progress means feeding our jilants with different 

 foods and noting the result. (Jan we ever feed our trees and vines 

 with as much knowledge as we do our hogs and cattle ? If so. we 

 can see different results in our orchards and gardens. Have our 

 orchards been starved ? Are they weak ? Have they been frozen ? 

 Are they poor ? We could have answered these questions if the 

 trees had been hogs or cattle. Why cannot we answer them now ? 

 Horticultural progress, here is some of the work for us to do. One 

 year ago last August, I was up through Michigan, Illinois, Ohio 

 and New York. Their orchards looked then just as many of the 

 trees in the orchards look now in the west. What caused it ? Are 

 we everywhere to never know these things except by experience ? 

 My belief is that it was the same cause that injured them then 

 that has hurt ours now. Had a careful record been kept of the 

 weather, crops, condition, treatment, &c., of them then, it would 

 have been a warning to us before this. 



Shall we ever reach this point, that certain causes produce cer- 

 tain results ? Can this be brought down to our knowledge ? Can 

 it be reduced to a practical matter ? It can and will be, and then 

 we will not go on the haphazard plan of planting and cultivating 

 without knowing what we are doing. In new fruits we are making 

 fapid progress, and still here is one of the broadest fields for work, 

 and if as great advance is made in the next twenty-five years, we 

 shall expect to see Just the fruits we want. 



One more matter and I am through; and that is, that we must 

 teach our children and let others know the same, that there is as 

 broad field for study and brain work in the horticultural world as 

 in any other field. That horticulture does not mean only digging 

 and plowing, but it means study, and reading, and experimenting, 

 and working. Here is one of the best fields' for horticultural 

 progress ; give people to understand that it is a great work, an 

 honorable work. That there is plenty of room for study and inves- 

 tigation, and that it presents one of the best fields for a young man 

 to enter. We will thus build up the idea of horticulture and give 



