406 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
was denied his father, David, the building of the beautiful temple, I pray you 
take heed then, that you build, as good master builders, wisely. 
As citizens of the commonwealth of Minnesota, we have much to look 
back upon during the year with thankfulness, in that our lot has been cast 
in pleasant places. As favored sons and daughters of a favored state, may 
we prove our worthiness by every good work our busy minds and hands 
find to do. A trust, my friends,*is placed upon us as a society by the state 
of Minnesota, that so far as lies within us we will give out to the public the 
most reliable information that we can obtain, bearing upon all lines of ad- 
vancement in the field of horticulture; from the question of soil and site to 
marketing and consumption, from Alpha to Omega of the horticultural 
text book. 
As instructors to the public, I trust we shall never prove recreant to 
that trust. Although we may often err, as in the nature of things we are 
sure to do, let even our errors be honest ones, and let us manfully acknowl- 
edge them when clearly shown to be such. 
Let no one present with us through this meeting consider himself a stran- 
ger tous. As we are all here to learn, do not be delicate or diffident about 
asking questions on any horticultural or kindred topic you may wish infor- 
mation about. If we do not know it all, at least we will help you willingly, 
freely to the extent of our ability, and this, I think, as I look over our as- 
sembly and see such members present, is not limited to very narrow bounds. 
In connection with our sister societies, we collect a vast amount of in- 
formation, but we do not succeed in disseminating it as we might. The value 
to be derived from consulting the pages of our reports, by our people at 
large, is not as fully appreciated as it should be. If they would only make 
use of the information there stored up, the oily-tongued fellow with the fancy 
picture book and the latest fad could not number so many victims as he is 
at present credited with. As regards our reports, I feel justified in saying 
that if Uncle Samuel would set aside the cost, to him, of Minnesota’s share in 
his free seed distribution, which aggregates about $75,000 a year, and this 
share be invested in our horticultural reports at the actual cost to the state 
of the printing, and the reports thus obtained be judiciously distributed, the 
benefit to our people would be incomparably greater than it now is, for I 
can personally testify to the worthlessness of much of that seed and am per- 
suaded that the reports would fulfil a much higher mission in Minnesota, 
although probably, judged from the greatly elevated point of view to the 
politician, I am grossly in error, wandering hopelessly and helplessly in the 
palpable mists of the valley, unable to see cause and effect, as they so clearly 
see from their more elevated point of view. 
The reports of members will present to you general conditions during 
the season of fruit, plants, shrubs and trees, throughout the boundaries of 
our society, much better than I can do, so I will not refer to them except 
in a general way. 
In 1898 our trees were so weakened by nearly fruitless efforts to mature 
the over-abundant crop hanging upen their boughs that they failed to set 
many fruit buds, and of these many were killed by the very severe cold in 
February. Here and there, however, young trees in protected locations bore 
partial crops, and at Mower County Fair I had the pleasure of displaying a 
fine fruit exhibit, although it took a large portion of the county’s crops to 
make it. 
