470 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTUrtAL SOCIETY. 



at the end of it when it is new to make it crack, and like a whip 

 we want to round out and complete this meeting by putting a 

 cracker at the end of it, and I am going to call upon our good 

 friend here, Mr. Philips, of West Salem, Wisconsin, whom 

 we have had with us for a good many years, and hope he will 

 continue to be with us for many years more. 



Mr. A. J. Philips (Wis.) : I am going up on the platform 

 because it is an inspiration to staad up here. Mr. Elliot made 

 me think of home. He said he would like to be young again 

 so he could do this work over again. Talking about seedling 

 apples at home the other day I said if I had known thirty years 

 ago what I know today things would have been dififerent. 

 My wife was busy sewing, and she said, "O, yes, you would do 

 just as many fool things as you have done. I don't want to 

 go back and live forty years over with you again." (Laughter.) 



I have not said much at this meeting, but I have felt a good 

 deal like the young man told his mother. She said to him, 

 "When you popped the question, what did you say?" He said 

 "I didn't say much, but I kept up a turr'ble thinkin'." I have 

 been doing a lot of thinking at this meeting. I stopped over 

 Sunday with Mr. Yahnke, our dear old friend Yahnke. No 

 better man lives today, and when I left Monday morning, and 

 he turned over in bed and bid me good-bye, he said, "O, I wish 

 I could go with you, but you tell them I wish them success." I 

 could see the tears starting from his eyes, and I was thinking 

 on the way up here that it would not be long before some of 

 the rest of us would be staying at home and wishing w^e could 

 go. It made me feel rather sad. 



I just want to say a word upon the point that Prof. Emerson 

 brought up. I have been asked, just as he has, time and time 

 again, what makes this society so successful, and why it has 

 such good meetings. I always go home feeling better for 

 having been here, and just last week I studied the thing out. 

 They had sense enough — I don't know whether they had that 

 end in view or not — but they put their meetings the next week 

 after Thanksgiving, and if there is any time in the year when 

 a man or woman feels good it is just after Thanksgiving week : 

 and after a good Thanksgiving dinner they come up here, and 

 they feel good all the time, and that is- what makes the meetings 

 so successful. I was thinking it over the other day, and I 

 thought I had so much to be thankful for that I concluded to 

 go to church on Thanksgiving day. I don't remember what the 

 text was, but I do remember the Thanksgiving hymn they sang 

 at the close, and I thought it was so appropriate that 1 read it 

 over a few times and I am going to try to repeat it here. (The 

 President: Why don't you sing it?) I have been attending 

 these meetings for thirty years and have never before been 



