PROCEEDINGS. 27 



The PREsroENT : Our response by Rev. C. S. Harrison is next 

 on the program, but he is sick this morning. However, it is with 

 great pleasure I am able to call upon a gentleman who is a son 

 of one of our charter members, one of the best known men in 

 the state, ex-Governor Saunders, Charles L. Saunders, who 

 will give the response. 



RESPONSE. 



Mr. Charles L. Saunders: 3Ir. President, Members of the 

 State Horticultural Society, Gentlemen from Aurora, and Ladies 

 and Gentlemen: 



I am sorry the substitute for Mr. Harrison cannot address 

 you in the brilliant language that the gentleman before me has 

 done. I can only say that I wish I might be able to express 

 myself as I feel the society desires to thank the citizens of Aurora 

 for this entertainment. This is a beautiful place to meet in, and 

 I know that we shall derive a great deal of good from our meet- 

 ing in this part of the state. It is particularly pleasing to me, 

 for I have been a resident of Nebraska all my life, and one of my 

 earliest recollections is that this part of the state was on the 

 prairie, and no one ever dreamed that it would be the garden it is 

 today, or that we would be out here talking about horticulture. 



I desire to say in behalf of the society, that it is an institution 

 for the people; that it has an appropriation of $2,500, $1,000 of 

 which shall go as premiums for the exhibit of fruit and flow- 

 ers. That it brings together the representative workers in 

 the field of agriculture, and that it has its stated meetings, 

 one of which must be held in Lincoln, at the capital, in January 

 of each year, where we are put in touch with the scientific 

 developments of the University, and at these meetings all of 

 the results from the hard work occur, and the experiments of 

 the horticulturists are brought before the people. It is at these 

 meetings that the discussions bring out the results of labor. 

 Having known twenty years ago what we know today through 

 these experiments, Nebraska would be far in advance of what 

 it is today in its horticulture and its agriculture. And I believe 

 that there is nothing that tends more to the development of our 

 state than the horticultural societies of the state. We have 

 divided the state into districts and receive reports, from the 



