ADDRESS OP WELCOME. 41 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



Prof. F. M. Hunter, School of Agriculture. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the State Horticultural Society: 



A few years ago, in one of the great music halls of the great city of 

 London, a historic pageant was going on. At this pageant the characters 

 of history from the earliest day down to modern times were represented 

 by human figures clad in the costumes of the time. During the progress 

 of this pageant a couple of maiden ladies were wandering down the aisle 

 of the great hall, catalog in hand, and stopping in front of a great figure 

 clad in Roman armor, one of them, looking up at it, said, "Ha, ha, you 

 must be Appyas Claudius." A stifled voice from within came in reply, 

 "No, madam; you are mistaken, I am not 'appy as Claudius,' I am un'appy 

 as 'ell." Perhaps this expresses somewhat my feelings this afternoon 

 in appearing before you, for I am at least as 'appy as Claudius to have 

 the privilege of addressing this body of scientific fruit-growers. 



In bidding you welcome I take it I represent not only the School of 

 Agriculture but the University itself as well, and therefore my welcome 

 will be, in the first place, the welcome of a servant to a master, the wel- 

 come of a steward to the lord, because you people, a body of scientific 

 farmers, a part of the tax-paying citizens of Nebraska, know that this in- 

 stitution is yours, your School of Agriculture, your buildings, your grounds, 

 your University. It is your sons and daughters w^ho come here and make 

 this institution their institution. I therefore give you the welcome of a 

 custodian of the institution, and I hope that in coming back to this, your 

 property, you may be as one who has returned from a journey into a far 

 country to claim again his talent loaned the servant. You have been out 

 about your business in your fruit orchards, and coming here in contact 

 with this institution, I hope you will not find that we hate wasted the 

 talents, or that we have wrapped them up in a napkin. I trust we will 

 not be weighed in the balance and be found wanting. 



In the second place, I bring you the welcome of a comrade as well as 

 the welcome of a servant. I bring you the welcome of a comrade be- 

 cause you people are engaged in this same work. The University of Ne- 

 braska is interested in the same things you are. We hold as one of our 

 great principles, with the development of Nebraska's greatest resources, 

 the development of citizenship. You are interested in this same thing. 

 You are interested in the development of Nebraska's greatest resources, 

 her agriculture and horticulture, and you are scientifically going about 

 that business. You are interested more than anybody else in Nebraska's 

 vital question, the development of the right kind of high-minded citizen- 

 ship, the kind of citizenship that this country needs now more than at 

 any time in its history. So I say I bring to you the welcome of a com- 

 rade, of one who has the same type of ideals that you have as a body of 

 men who are working towards the same thing. 



In bringing you this welcome it is well to consider just for a moment 

 or two the problems that are now before us. 



There is a problem that confronts us right now — the principle of in- 

 tensive farming. You have heard it preached and have preached it your- 



