MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 373 



THE SOCIAL FEATURES OF HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES 



BY GEORGE W. HOPKINS, SPRINGFIELD. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of Missouri Valley Horticultural 

 Society : 



I suppose the above subject has been assigned to me because of my 

 proclivities for lingering long at the dinner table, which event I consider 

 one of the chief social features of horticultural meetings. I want to as- 

 sure my old friends Holsinger, Goodman, Fisher and Espenlaub, with 

 whom I have had some hard contests on many occasions in the past, that 

 my appetite, if any different, has increased since emigrating to South 

 Missouri. If there be any doubts about the matter, please communicate 

 with the ladies of the Greene County Horticultural Society. 



The first horticultural society of which we have any knowledge was 

 found in the garden of Eden. It was originally composed of only two 

 members — Adam and Eve. Everything which heart could wish was 

 placed before them. They had only to reach out and pluck the most lus- 

 cious of fruit and gaze upon the most beautiful flowers. The social feat- 

 ures of this society, up to a certain period, have never been equaled But 

 by and by a third member was taken into the society in the person of 

 his Satanic majesty, and then commenced dissension which ended in final 

 dissolution. 



Had it not been for the introduction of this new member, the human 

 race to-day, without any exertion of their own, might be feasting on 

 ambrosia and nectar sweet. What a happy time the members of that 

 society must have had. Fruit in all its perfection ; no borers, codling 

 moth, curculio or gouger was ever known to infest that garden. They 

 had no conception of the warfare which thousands of years afterwards 

 would be waged by the race against the myriads of insect enemies. After 

 the breaking up of this society, thousands of years intervened before the 

 formation of another. Indeed, we might say it is only within the pres- 

 ent century that horticulture has made any material advancement, Man 

 was content to take whatever nature provided for him in the fields and 

 forest. 



