200 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



- Mu. Hadkinson: Mr. Marshall and I were talking with the 

 Chancellor this morning, and he will be pleased to see anybody 

 from the society. This is the proper time to do this. 



The President appointed E. M. Pollard, J. H. Hadkinson and 

 J. A. Yager as this committee. 



The President: ' We will now hear from Ex-Governor 

 R. W. Furnas, who will speak on '"Reminiscences of Early Hor- 

 ticulture in Nebraska." 



REMINISCENCES OF EARLY HORTICULTURE 



IN NEBRASKA. 



BY R. W. FURNAS. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Nebraska 

 Horticultural Society: It affords me a great deal of pleasure in- 

 deed to meet with an organization of which I am proud to say I 

 helped organize. I have been honored with an invitation to take 

 the subject "Reminicences of Early Horticulture in Nebraska." 

 I fear if I get launched into this, I will not know when to stop, 

 so I will try to take as little of your time as possible. I really 

 felt though that I would not be able to fill my engagement this 

 morning, but when I learned that Mr. Masters was here at- 

 tending the meeting, I came to see him and to shake his hand. 



He and I started at almost the same time in Nebraska. 

 There is a great fascination about early work in a new, untried 

 region of country. I think Mr. Masters came here about as I 

 did, from on older region of country, where everything was 

 pretty well established and sure. Going into a new country 

 then was something that very few persons ever thought of. I 

 came here in 1855, from an old and well settled portion of Ohio. 

 A young man in Ohio at that time was simply known as a son of 

 his parents as long as they lived. But when I came west to 

 the new country, I found that a young man counted as a whole 

 man here. We came here with big ideas of Horticulture. All 

 this country west of the Missouri River was then known as the 

 Great American Desert. It was quite an undertaking for a 

 young man to start into this new country. We did'nt know 



