Winter Meeting. 183 



We have reached a time in the history of horticulture when some 

 of the great underlying problems must be attacked, problems which 

 may need more than a man's lifetime to solve — when the continuity 

 afforded by a State institution is needed to insure their completeness. 

 We have reached an era when patience, skill and preseverance are, 

 more than ever, a part of the investigator's capital ; when considerate 

 patience is expected of the fruit grower. The day of superficial ex- 

 periment and hasty result is past; the period of slow, but sound, 

 fruition has arrived. 



I would enter a plea, then, for a fuller consideration of the sub- 

 stantial needs of horticultural science as it stands today. Give its 

 devotees opportunity — free untrammelled opportunity — to investigate 

 fundamental questions, expressing no impatience though five or 

 fifteen years instead of five months are required to solve a problem. 

 They need more than opportunity ; they need more than financial 

 support. They need your counsel, your loyal support and your en- 

 couragement. The promise of all these is amply vouchsafed by your 

 presence and your interest, which have made possible the erection of 

 this building. 



CO-OPERATION BETWEEN FRUIT GROWERS AND EXPERIMENTERS. 



To bring forth the fullest fruition, this must be of the close and 

 personal kind. Co-operation of the best type is possible when sympa- 

 thetic relation between farmer and scientist are developed and sus- 

 tained. The experiment stations of this countr}^ sprang into exist- 

 ence, mushroom-like, on the passage of the Hatch act. The responsi- 

 bilit}' of speedily justifying their existence pressed heavily upon man}' 

 of them at first, and perhaps the obligation v^rss driven home by their 

 farmer constituents with the result that here and there undigested 

 bulletins were ofit'ered to an expectant and subsequently disappointed 

 public. Fortunately, the experiment station is approaching a basis 

 of action at once stable and satisfactory. There is, in the main, no 

 longer the feverish desire on the part of the experimenter to rush 

 into print, nor impatience on the part of the beneficiar}'- for the re- 

 sults of loosely conducted experiments. Both fruit grower and in- 

 vestigator alike realize that he who deals with the soil, plants and 

 animals works in a realm fraught with exceeding great difificulties, be- 

 cause he is studying living things. Life forces are in constant muta- 

 tion, and the problems connected with the phenomena of life are 

 vastly more intricate and difficult than those of the abstract sciences. 

 For this reason, more skill and patience are required. Let us realize 

 this. Let us live up to our knowledge. 



