WELCOME. 81 



PKCX/EEDINGkS. 



Opening Session, January 18, 1910, 2:30 p.m. 



Meeting called to order by President C. H. Green, of Fre- 

 mont. 



Invocation by Keverend J. ^V. Jones, of Lincoln. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 

 CHANCELLOR SAMUEL AVERY, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the State Horticul- 

 tural Society: 

 I can assure you that it is a great pleasure to nie to appear 

 here and say just a few words of welcome at this the opening 

 of your sessions. I think I am getting old because memory 

 occasionally runs back to pioneer times. I remember when 

 I jirst saw the state of Nebraska. Crossing on the old steam- 

 boat — the Vice-president — in the year of '76, we entered upon 

 a land practically treeless, and I constantly found something 

 that impressed my memory. ^lost of all Avas the fruitless 

 country, because at that time the railroad had not incorpo- 

 rated the plan of cold storage^ when the plains were almost 

 divested of any fruit. I remember, friends, some pioneers 

 and some agents that took cooked carrots and burnt sorghum 

 and called it fruit, but it was just as palatable as burnt bran. 

 There was only one man that held up his head and looked for- 

 ward to the future with any hope of our ever bettering this 

 condition, that man was a professor who made that good fruit, 

 I allude to my old friend, Mr. E. F. Stephens, of Crete. Now, 

 from the beginning of my acquaintance with this eminent 

 member of your Society my personal relations all these years 

 with horticulturists of the state have been most pleasing, and 

 I remember a number of vears later, as a student of the state 

 of Nebraska, we as students welcomed his fruits, not only 

 for the treats they contained, but for the exhibits of fruit; 



