162 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Agriculturists, with their twin companions, horticulturists, have an estab- 

 lished claim to being the oldest known workers. 



Tonight you have welcomed to your midst a branch of this great body. 

 Fruits have been brought by different members and placed upon the stands. 

 Prominent there, as everywhere, is the apple. Daily upon our tables and 

 hourly in the hands of the children, it seems to be the most important, 

 standing in the same rehition to all fruit that bread does to all food. The 

 word comes to us from the old Anglo-Saxon, its orthography from the Danes, 

 and to them it signified "all fruit," but in our later years, fruit without a 

 stone. Among the Greeks there were twenty-two varieties known, among 

 them the custard apple which was sold upon the street by mongers called 

 custard-mongers; and novr we have costermongers, the word remaining to 

 us, although this variety of apple is lost. 



The apple of Sodom, of which Chateaubriand and Josephus speak, travel- 

 ers tell us, still grows by the Dead sea, still fair to look upon but bitter to 

 the taste. 



From the Narrows to the Golden Gate, Michigan fruit is sought for. 

 Traveling in the south, Michigan apples are found upon the bill of fare. So 

 popular is this fruit that it has came to be one of the tricks of trade to give 

 this name to any thing of the species of apple. 



Tonight, in well-chosen words, you have given greeting to the fruit grow- 

 ers of western Michigan, and extended to them the hospitalities of your vil- 

 lage and your homes, which we accept as an earnest of your good will and 

 faith in the brotherhood — a brotherhood made honorable not only by lapse 

 of time, but as well by the character of the employment and its beneficent 

 influence upon those employed, thus being akin to the culture of flowers and 

 music in the family. 



If he be " a benefactor who causes two blades of grass to grow where but 

 one grew before," what shall be said of him who propagates, raises, and even 

 introduces new varieties of fruit, as well as studies to make the most of each 

 tree and plant? 



The consumption of good, ripe fruit is health-giving, and in some instances 

 life-giving, and in all cases reduces the doctor's bills. 



We come to you for another interchange of experiences, to give and to re- 

 ceive, together to hear the lessons of the past recited, to tell of our hopes 

 and plans, and to peer into the future, as far as we may, with a vision born 

 of the failure and success of the past. 



For the association I have great expectations ; for, if such be LaFleur, 

 what must the fruiting be? 



I hope neither at this meeting nor any other will a careless or designing 

 hand toss the apple of discord into your midst, but that all may remain, as 

 now, contented and harmonious; and I should be very glad if at some time 

 in the not distant future, Mr. McCormick, your position and mine might be 

 reversed, and that I might welcome to my own village of Paw Paw the fruit 

 growers of western Michigan. 



After another selection by the band, President Phillips read his annual 

 message, as follows : 



Ladies and Gentlemen — According to an established usage of this and 

 other societies, it becomes my duty at this our fifth annual meeting to 

 deliver au address. Just what the character of this address shall be is not 

 80 clearly defined. I will remark first, that we meet this evening under 



