SUMMER MEETING AT BROOKFIELD. 85 



We meet you, dear friends, in this rich, fertile, beautiful portion of 

 our grand State, with joyful and glad hearts, because we are all proud 

 of the resources of the State. We meet here as co-workers in the 

 cause, each able and willing to help his neighbor with his advice, his ex- 

 perience, his success, his failures; for if there is one class of people 

 willing to assist one another, you will find that class the horticulturist. 

 We meet you therefore as friends and not as strangers, and in this beau- 

 tiful city and on this rich, beautiful prairie land, among a live, pushing- 

 people, we feel at once at home and among friends. 



OUR REPORT 



Has just been issued, as I know you will be glad to hear after so long 

 waiting. The delay has been caused by the State Printers not being- 

 able to do the immense amount of work which the Legislature has im- 

 posed upon them since last January. There is no reason, however, 

 why we should wait six months for the printing to be done when we 

 have everything ready. At the close of our winter meeting we are 

 always ready to begin the printing on our report. The manuscript has 

 been ready and waiting since the tenth day of December, and in no 

 way did it seem possible to induce our State Printers to do the work 

 before, notwithstanding we had so many promises to do so long before 

 the time, and every month since. I hope we will be able to do our 

 work sooner and better this year, and that I may not have the contin- 

 ually harassing time of the printer on one side, and all of us in such 

 need of the work. 



The report itself I believe you will like as well as any we have 

 issued; and it does seem to be filled with sound doctrine, good advice, 

 pleasant essays and valuable reports. It is read by very many people 

 nearly entire, and is one of the few reports which combine pleasure 

 and profit to such an extent as to call the attention of not only fruit- 

 growers and gardeners, but of many of our reading public. One writes 

 me of our last report, that "It is as interesting and instructive as any 

 book I ever read." A young man who read the galley-proof of this 

 last said that he was converted to fruit-growing, and I had to give him 

 one of each year's reports, so that as soon as he possibly could he was 

 going to get out of this worry and trouble of city life and go to the 

 country, where he would at least be free from these pestering business 

 troubles. For all the delay, therefore, dear friends, we hope that you 

 will be glad and feel repaid in waiting for the coming report. It has 

 but just reached us, and the first copies are on the table now. It will 

 be only a few days before you will receive yours at home in numbers 

 sufficient to supply the members of our local societies. 



