462 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



has many things to contend with, but he has met these obstacles so 

 far and met them successfully, and it devolves upon you to meet 

 them in the same way in the future, and, as I said before, we depend 

 upon the younger members to help us out. I have been with you 

 and worked with you whenever I have been able to be here and 

 hoped for your success when I have not been here. How many 

 more times I shall be with you is a very uncertain matter. I do 

 not look it, and I do not act it, but on the 13th day of last Sep- 

 tember I was seventy-five years old, which is nearly the limit of 

 a man's duration in this world. But nevertheless, I am a 

 horticulturist as long as I stay here, and I intend to continue to 

 work in the interests of horticulture as long as I live. I never in- 

 tend to be or become what you might call an old man. (Applause.) 



The Chairman : You are seventy-five years young, not old. I 

 am going to call on a young man. We sometimes hear from his 

 father, but not often, but now we want to hear from Mr. C. H. 

 Andrews. 



Mr. C. H. Andrews: I do not know that I can add anything 

 that would be of interest or information. I have enjoyed this meet- 

 ing very much, and I think I shall try to manage to attend the 

 meetings after this. The fruit display I thought was remarkably 

 fine, and the papers and discussion by the different speakers during 

 the various sessions were an inspiration to every one who was here, 

 and I think this meeting will be an uplift and a benefit to horti- 

 culture all along the line. 



The Qiairman : I am next going to call upon a gentleman 

 whom I know pretty well, Mr. W. S. Higbee, and I know he will 

 respond when I get after him ; he used to be one of my students. 



Mr. W. S. Higbee : Anybody who knows me knows I am not 

 a speaker. I am a good sponge, and I just sit here and drink it 

 all in. I was thinking while Mr, Moore was talking about the 

 younger element in the society that what induced me to enter the 

 ranks of the society about fifteen years ago was the fact that I 

 realized at the first meeting I attended — and I have attended nearly 

 every meeting since — that very few of the young people were in- 

 terested in horticulture. This afternoon when some of the mem- 

 bers were talking about being discouraged, and especially of what 

 discouragements were met by others outside of our own state, I 

 thought of the conversation that took place between a man who 

 has large interests in fruit ranches in California and myself two 

 years ago. This man stopped at my place — and I always make 

 it a rule when I find a man interested along the same line of work 

 I am interested in to pump him and get all the information I can — 

 and I asked him if he had met with any discouragements in raising 

 fruit in California. He smiled a little and said : "We have every- 

 thing to contend with in California, insects, diseases," and he enum- 

 erated quite a good many things. I said, "You don't know anything 

 about root-killing?" "Well, no," he replied, "but I have seen this 

 occur : After an orchard had been brought up to an age of bearing, 

 just coming into full bloom, I have seen it killed off by a cold 



