IN MEMORIAM, A. W. SIAS. 283 



of success, was lost or set back for many years, and the financial 

 loss to him was one from which he has never fully recovered. 



"Our society has always found him at the front whenever any 

 aggressive work was to be done. We shall miss him in our coun- 

 cils, and we hope that he may be most abundantly prospered in his 

 new home and the horticulturists of Colorado may appreciate his 

 worth." 



To this enviable record is added the following from his son, 

 Edgar D. Sias, of Pomona, Mo. : 



"In 1890 father moved to Pueblo, Colorado, and transferred there 

 a large quantity of his fruit and ornamental trees, which were 

 planted in Central and Fairmont parks of that city. The high alti- 

 tude of Colorado proving prejudicial to my sister's health, as she 

 had a heart affectoin, father decided to remove to Harbor View, Flo- 

 rida, the home of his sister, arriving there New Year's day, 1894. 

 Wherever he went he carried the gospel of horticulture, and through 

 his zeal as a promoter thereof the latent potentiality of 'southern 

 hospitality' was liberated, and on 'Apple Day,' October 4, 1905, 

 the thirty-ninth anniversay of the organization of the Minnesota 

 State Horticultural Society, at Rochester, Minn., — the birthplace 

 of the writer — the Southern Florida Horticultural Society was 

 launched upon the beautiful waters of Charlotte Harbor, at Punta 

 Gorda. At this meeting father exhibited the Diospyrus kaki (Ja- 

 panese persimmon, or apple of the gods) with which he had signal 

 success in grafting upon the native persimmon. 



"In 1903 he made a trip to the island of Cuba, and while there 

 but a short time, at his instigation, a call for a horticultural meet- 

 ing appeared in the 'Havana Post,' but owing to the funeral of one 

 of Cuba's greatest generals I think no organization was perfected 

 at that time. 



"Our Missouri home was christened 'Memorial Park,' and here 

 he had dedicated 'wooden monuments,' as he termed his fruit trees, 

 to prominent horticulturists of various states. As illustrative of 

 his abiding interest in the horticulture of the North Star State, one 

 of the last entries .in* his diary, made at St. Louis en route from 

 western New York to Missouri was, 'Took cars for Pomona, Mo., 

 about 2:10. Last day of the four-days' session of the Minnesota 

 State Horticultural Society.' " 



As noted by Mr. Harris, Mr. Sias was one of the original mem- 

 "bers of this society, and his death leaves Mr. Wyman Elliot as the 

 only surviving one of those who gathered at Rochester on that 

 eventful day, with the possible exception of Mr. C. L. Smith, now 

 of Spokane, Wash., of whose presence, however, at the meeting 



