STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 45 



may have some hard-earned profits to send to other States, and re- 

 ceive in return a meager supply of stale, uuwholsome fruit of their 

 surplus? Shall we plant in our cemeteries the sweetest flowers and 

 loveliest plants, making them to vie with the Vale of Cashmere — 

 "with its roses the sweetest that earth ever grew'' — making the 

 last resting place of our loved ones like the ancient Eden, " planted 

 with the trees of God," or shall we let them remain desolate, grown 

 o'er with briers and weeds, a fit resting place for those only who 

 have no faith or hope of Heaven? Shall every home in all this 

 State have its library, its music, its flowers, its pleasure grounds 

 and everything that is calculated to inspire men to lead virtuous 

 lives and perform noble deeds? These are among some of the many 

 questions that will come up before us from time to time, and it is 

 for us to solve them favorably and thus wield a mighty influence 

 in molding the character of our State. We have now entered upon 

 the 17th year of our existence. Born in a period when repeated 

 failures in fruit culture had caused hope to die out and raised up 

 an army of croakers, it is almost a wonder that it lived through 

 the years of babyhood; but survive it did, and down there at its 

 birthplace it began to exert an influence for good from the very 

 start, in causing orchards to be planted and home surroundings 

 improved, and that part of the State is now far advanced in fruit 

 growing and produces thousands of bushels of apples and tons of 

 grapes, and the farmers' homes begin to exhibit an air of comfort and 

 plenty. Then the noble hearted Minneapolis saw that Ave were deter- 

 mined to live and had faith in ourselves, beckoned us to come up 

 and share her princely hospitality; and we came and waxed 

 stronger, and one by one we have laid low the croakers and buried 

 them deep under piles of Duchess and Wealthy apples, and built 

 conservatories and laid out gardens over their graves, and there is 

 no hope of their resurrection in store for them. If there are any 

 of them left let them be warned quickly and repent and be con- 

 verted before they are hopelessly lost. Then, armed with Wealthy 

 apples and a lot of promising other varieties, we had the audacity 

 to make a raid upon our honorable legislature, and captured it, too. 

 Among the spoils of the victory are an annual volume of transact- 

 ions, an experimental farm on the shores of Lake Minnetonka, and 

 a little money to help us fortify for the great battle that is soon to 

 be fought, and where we shall come off more than conquerors, 

 having mastered the vicisitudes of climate and given our State a 

 list of hardy fruits to supply every want and satisfy every desire 

 the whole year around. This is no fancy sketch or idle dream, but 



