No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 537 



every way, and a true friend to State College, and what a loss to 

 the College is his death ! His father, as has been said was one of 

 the earliest trustees of the College, and the son followed his father. 

 He was much interested in the orchard established there, and took 

 great pride in its development. But he has gone. We cannot bring 

 him back. The only thing we can do is to endeavor to go where he 

 is, and see him in another and happier world. 



MR. JOEL A. HERR: I presume there is not one present who has 

 had as long an acquaintance with Gabriel Hiester as myself. When 

 1 first came on the State Board of Agriculture in 1879, Mr. Hiester 

 was quite a young man, but even then interested in fruit culture. 

 Naturally this formed an opening wedge of the friendship between 

 us and 1 always regarded him as a man of authority along these 

 lines. I have visited him at his home and traveled with him to 

 Farmers' Institutes. We have had him in my own home Countv of 

 Clinton at Farmers' Institutes. He was one of the most sensible, 

 high-minded, and yet affable and agreeable men 1 have ever known. 

 He could not be approached with anything that was not entirely 

 correct and proper. I doubt whether his word was ever questioned.. 

 Everything he said, "went" and his neighbors all over tlie county 

 looked up to him as a leader among men — which he certainly was. 

 We don't appreciate what we have lost. Who is there in Pennsyl- 

 vania to take his place? We have other good fruit men — men who- 

 make extravagant statements. You never heard Hiester make an ex- 

 travagant statement. Whatever he said was plain, straight fact. 

 He seemed to my mind, to possess all the elements of a great man, 

 and the greatest pity is that he could not have lived — that he died 

 in the prime of his manhood. He could have been of immense use 

 to the Horticulture of this State, and I join in regret for his depar- 

 ture. 



DR. HARVEY: Let me add, that while I did not know Mr. Hiester 

 as well as some of you, I met him at some of our meetings and was 

 very favorably impressed with him. He seemed to me to be a man 

 to whom could truthfully be applied the words of Shakespeare: 



"His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him, that all 

 Nature might stand up and say 'This is a man.' " T have often heard 

 a man say — a most eloquent preacher from Texas — "Oh, I like a 

 manV And that is all there is to this world, if we have a man's head 

 and a man's character. We know, furthermore, that God has His 

 own, and we will know them wherever they are. I came across a 

 few lines the other day, which impressed me very strongly: 



"He who believing strongly lays his hand 



Unto the work that waits for him to do. 

 Though men should cavil, measures prove untrue 



Friends write their trusted promises on sand 

 And failure mock him with its threatening hand. 



Still, in the end, he fearless shall pursue 

 Till crack of doom, will find a power which few 



Or none with cause less righteous may command. 

 For conquest is not built on the defeat, 



Of any man whose aim is human good, 

 Who fights for justice hath already won. 



Before no show of loss shall he retreat. 

 However crossed, maligned, misunderstood 



He knows l>Wt triumph, in the work, well done." 



