16 AirJTUAL RIPORT 



fords an unceasing stream of sweet fragrance and gratifies the re- 

 fined taste for delicious fruits. There is no human science that is 

 more ample in its range or more attractive in its multiplied allure- 

 ments. It unfolds to our view wide worlds of living beauty, 



SMALL FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 



Its pursuit engages a large percentage of the population and 

 much treasure and our State has assumed an exalted position in the 

 Union for the standard of excellence of its products. Our strawberry 

 and other small fruits stand unexcelled. Our vegetables receive the 

 highest praise wherever they go, and our flowers, "bright gems of 

 nature," send out their fragrance alike from the costly conserva- 

 tories, bay-windows and well-kept gardens of our wealthy citizens, 

 and the shop windows of artisans, the laboring man's cottage and 

 humble yard, telling the stranger and tourist that Minnesotians 

 are a refined people, and reminding all that the mission of our pro- 

 fession is a two-fold one, to please the senses and satisfy the mind. 

 A panorama of the past would show that unparalled progress has 

 been made within the little more than a quarter of a century of 

 our existence as a State, and it would show that much of this pro- 

 gress is the fruit of the patient toil, study and perseverance of the 

 members of our State Horticultural Society. A beneficent Provi- 

 dence has given us a healthy climate and a virgin soil, but it has 

 left it to horticulture to dig, delve and find the surest road to suc- 

 cess amidst the greatest difficulties and make its culture an industry 

 that shall add to the wealth and happiness of mankind. 



THE GOOD WORK OF THE SOCIETY. 



Since the organization of this society in 1866, we have learned 

 much, but we have not learned all that is worth knowmg. The 

 field we have attempted to occupy is great, the laborers few, and 

 the obstacles mighty, and until the field is all occupied and every 

 tiller of the soil is enlisted with us and the mountanis of difficulty 

 are removed and the valleys of failure are filled; until an abund- 

 ance of the best fruits of the season find a place upon our farmers' 

 tables the year round, and they are produced so plentifully and 

 cheap that the poorest of our laboring population can afford them 

 as a leading article of food; until every home in our land has its 

 flowers and lawns and pleasure grounds, there will be a necessity 

 that we meet in conventions and reunions for the mutual exchange 

 of ideas, and to tell over our well learned and dearly bought les- 

 sons of experience. 



