424 BOAED OF AGEICULTUKE. 



more attention than any otber object save the birthplace of the Savior— . 

 becaiise it identifies the site of Solomon's temple. From contact with 

 such things in my travels I have learned to revere them. I never look 

 upon this grand stnicture in which we have our home to-day— with our 

 name over the door, but I thinlj: of the hundreds of carloads of broken 

 stone the size of an egg which with cement form one grand stone thirty 

 feet beneath us on which this architectural beauty stands. Who of 

 100,000 visitors thinks of it! No one of thought and knowledge of the 

 past is willing to say we shall endure as we are— Nation and State. A 

 chronological chart from Adam to Christ shows how nations are blotted 

 out; the next 4,000 years may wipe out the present flags of this earth. 

 Every stone of this building may lind a place in the walls and fortifica- 

 tions forced upon our descendants, but rest assured the humble founda- 

 tion Avill never be removed. It will show the future archaeologist the 

 possibilities of the superstructure. 



Had there been an unbroken succession for ten years of winters as 

 destructive to orchards as that of 1SG3 and 1864, no sane man would have 

 embarrassed his soil with a fruit tree save as a curiosity, and the un- 

 earthing of Mr. Beecher's letter would alone afford us a glimpse of a 

 paradise long since lost to us. Pardon a personal allusion to him. I knew 

 him during my boyhood and on to his demise. The inspiration derived by 

 growing up at his feet has afforded me greater pleasure than aught else 

 during life. It led to association with Fuller and Hovey, Thomas, Meehan, 

 Barry, Warder, Elliott, Kirtland, Hull and a host of others outside of our 

 State and into the sanctums of the Ragans, Aldridges and Sigamsons. 



Note what Mr. Beecher says about our roses! Of all that number I 

 know full well that he introduced the majority. He entered every door- 

 yard in this town. He dug up and transplanted or threw away; he gave 

 new varieties; he drew all of us after him to the short counter on which 

 our first displays were made. He enlarged our store of knowledge and 

 excited our powers of observation. He taught us of stamen and pistils 

 and their functions, and that the tints of flowers and the blushes of fruits 

 were the reflex of smiles of the great Creator. Mr. Beecher was, more- 

 over, eminently practical. Witness his high estimate of our privileges 

 as a fruit growing State and country. .Behold with what prophetic wis- 

 dom he saw our possibilities over a stormy sea which then required 

 thirty days fortunate sailing to cross. Fruit for ourselves! Fruit for the 

 world! And he lived to see his words fulfilled. Our esteemed brother, 

 Joe A. Burton, will be pleased to read what he says of seedlings— and 

 paradoxical as it may seem, is creating pedigreed seedlings to replace- 

 yea, to exceed valuable varieties named by Beecher that are now lost. 



CALVIN FLETCHER. 



