252 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



past, eotne thing's, so sturdy, so fruitful and so good, remain, and 

 we have learned so much in the art of defending them against the 

 severities of drouth and cold, that the home orchard, the delight of 

 youth and comfort of the family, may now with confidence be placed 

 about every rural dwelling. 



We hold in special pride the work and standing of our state society* 

 founded so short a time ago that we have with us, even yet, some of 

 its very pioneers, now grown to be the largest society of its kind 

 upon the continent And now our cup seems full as we feel the 

 recognition that the citizens of our state have given our work in 

 providing this new, commodious and beautiful building, that our 

 youth may be more thoroughly instructed in our art, and that the 

 strength and certainty of scientific investigations may be added to 

 the horticultural resources of the state. 



And so, my friends, as we gather here today, to lay this corner 

 stone and count the progress of the past, the blessings of the present 

 and the bewildering possibilities that lie almost within our grasp, 

 we truly say: "There ne'er before was a June day that shed a kind- 

 lier, more auspicious light upon a goodly company." 



I would not at this time draw any separating lines between the 

 members of this company. Whatever the particular branch of the 

 great family of agriculture to which you each belong, we meet here 

 with the common instincts and interests of soil-tillers. We are all 

 followers of that first-named, most necessary and most natural art 

 of man. Although I have the feeling strong within me, I will not 

 magnify our calling above all others. In this large world each man 

 has a useful place, and it is a shallow judgment that names it high 

 or low, for it is the way that place is filled which dignifies the sta- 

 tion. He may fill it like a hero or a craven; he may be a true and 

 useful servant of his race in any station and hear, almost before 

 his work is closed, the welcome words, " Well done," or he may hide 

 his talent in the napkin of morose envy and discontent and ever 

 feel the loathsome poverty of a narrow soul. But withal, is there 

 not a special honor that attaches to producers — those who cause two 

 blades of grass to grow where before there was but one, those who 

 make the perverse and barren soil to bring forth luscious fruits, 

 cover the mountain sides with flocks and cause the waste fields to 

 fill the gra naries of the earth? 



Washington said of agriculture: "It is the most noble, useful and 

 healthful occupation of mankind." Were all who come under its 

 influence moulded into such a character as the Father of our Coun- 

 try, there would be none to dispute the elevating influence of our 

 calling. But as we look upon Millet's famous delineation of "The 

 Man with the Hoe," and realize how large a share of agriculturists 

 it truly represents, we ask with Markhani: 



"Who made him dead to rapture and despair, 

 A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, 

 Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?" 



It is not race nor soil which has "shaped him to what he is," for 



we find such among all races and among the tillers of all soils; it is 



ignorance and the tyranny that always finds out ignorance, which 



has wrought the diflFerence between Millet's man with the hoe and 



this group of men of the hoe which I see before me. That such a 



