JOURNAL OF ANNUAL MEETING, I906. 487 



that is to see the young men and women in these meetings, which 

 shows the result of our agricultural school training by Prof. Green. 



There are many young men here who are growing fruit and 

 flowers, and they do not do it all with their muscle, but they do a 

 great share of it with their brain, and I am glad to see it. I am 

 glad to be with you and hope to take part in the discussions. (Ap- 

 plause.) 



The President : Now, we will have the privilege of hearing from 

 a friend whom we are always glad to see at our meeting, whose face 

 we have missed for the past few years, but who is this year a dele- 

 gate from the Iowa State Society, Mr. Eugene Secor. 



Mr. Eugene Secor: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I 

 have been delegated to present the greetings of the State Horticul- 

 tural Society of Iowa to this sister society. Our society is not so 

 strong as yours in numbers. We are a trifle older and perhaps a little 

 too conservative. We have not had quite so many trials, perhaps, 

 to spur us on to do our very best, but the state society of Iowa 

 bids her sister society Godspeed in the transforming the prairies 

 of this northwest into an Eden of beauty and fruitfulness. We are 

 always glad to come up here because we get inspiration from this 

 young giant of the north. It does us good to come into contact 

 with a giant, because it develops our horticultural muscles, and we 

 go back with the ability and determination to do a little better than 

 .we ever did before. 



I might give you a little something that would be of interest 

 to some of you, a little bit of history. I was reading only a few days 

 ago- in the "American Forest'^ a short biographical sketch of Ed- 

 ward Y. Tees, of Indiana, one of the veteran horticulturists and 

 nurserymen of that state, now seventy-five years old. This report 

 states that Mr. Tees was the first man of this country who ever 

 planted seeds from the catalpa speciosa. This he did in 1844. It 

 also "States that from that planting there were shipped to Iowa, to 

 Mr. Seward Foster, of Muscatine, one thousand trees of the catalpa 

 speciosa, and from that planting Mr. Foster became an enthusiastic 

 advocate of the catalpa in Iowa. Forty-four years later, when we 

 dedicated our new capitol in 1884, Mr. Foster furnished the lumber 

 which went into the panel work of one of the rooms, the room 

 which our horticultural society now occupies in the new capitol. 

 The panel work in that room was furnished from Iowa grown catalpa 

 lumber. We extend you a hearty invitation to come down and meet 

 with us and see how we do business in Iowa. (Applause.) 



Mr. Seth Kenney : Are there not two kinds of catalpa ? I got 

 seed from Mr. Foster a great many years ago, and I have a tree 

 now in my yard that is twenty-five feet high. They have killed back 

 some, but I understand there is another variety besides the one men- 

 tioned that is somewhat more hardy. 



Mr. Secor : I presume Minnesota is a little out of the proper 

 latitude, and I imagine they will freeze back a little for some years 

 after planting. I live on the very backbone of Iowa on top of 



