174 MISSOURI STATE IIORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



Society from all parts of the State, There were over five hundred pres- 

 ent at nian}^ of the meetings, and it was one of the most enthusiastic and 

 profitable meetings ever held by the Society, 



DECEMBER 5TII, 7.30 l\ M, 



Society met and was called to order by the President, J, C, Evans, 

 and the session was opened with prayer by Rev. Joseph King, of Nevada. 



The Nevada Glee Club was present and fijrnished much delightful 

 music for the evening. The first was a quartette, which enlivened the 

 evening's work. The members are Messrs. Deck and Boyd Graves, Mrs. 

 M, F. Hill, Miss Sarah and Miss Maud Graves. 



President Evans presented Hon. E. E. Kimball, who delivered the 

 following address of welcome, in a most pleasing manner, amidst 

 laughter and applause. 



♦ 

 MR. KIMBALL'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. President and Members of the State Horticidtiiral Society: 



I have been charged with the pleasant and agreeable duty of ex- 

 tending to this honorable body, a cordial welcome to our little city. We 

 feel greatly honored that you have come here, on the invitation of our 

 local society, to hold your thirty-first annual meeting. I may say, 

 without seeming to boast, that Nevada has gained something of a repu- 

 tation for its thrift, enterprise and push. But I take greater satisfaction 

 in the feeling I have, that she adds to these qualities the crowning one 

 of open-hearted hospitality. I need not remind you that you are in the 

 midst of a people industrious, intelligent and progressive; a people in 

 full sympathy with every earnest effort made to widen the field of human 

 knowledge; a people anxious to encourage, to the fi.illest extent, the 

 spirit of scientific inquiry, which so characterizes the age in which we 

 live. 



I know nothing of the earlier history of your society. I cannot 

 even conjecture what questions were discussed at your first meeting , 



