266 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



me, and I will show you a man who has served the world well and 

 advanced it. We are trying- to carry joy, sweetness, light, comfort 

 and beauty into every home in this great state of Minnesota, and we 

 have abundant reason to be encouraged in what we are doing. I 

 can remember when this society consisted of just a handful of men, 

 and I am glad to see them here today, These men were interested 

 in this great work thirty and forty years ago, and they have stuck to 

 it through thick and thin; nothing has daunted them, and they 

 have worked for the good of the cause with just as good vim and 

 earnestness and pleasure as they had in the beginning — I think 

 more, because every step that we take shows that we are advancing. 

 Very many of us are getting gray, we are getting old, but our hori- 

 zon ig broader, avenues are opening up in this direction and that 

 direction, and we can see a wonderful prospect spread out before us. 

 You were speaking yesterday when I came in here about work in 

 the schools; the schools are going to take it up. I have been asked 

 a great many times if I did not believe a separate text book should 

 be put in for horticulture. At the present time I would say, no. We 

 cannot have a text book on forestry, on horticulture, on agriculture, 

 for everything that people think should be taught in our schools, but 

 we can train the boys and girls in their nature studies, in their field 

 work that we are turning attention to now all over the state, we can 

 train their thoughts in the right direction, we can set them to think- 

 ing on these things. We can place no limit to an education. When 

 a boy graduates from the University of Minnesota he has an educa- 

 tion only to fit himself to keep on educating himself and thinking on 

 in the right direction, thinking to a finish upon everything that is 

 laid before him that is worth his thought. And that is the way we 

 are going to put this into the public schools of the future, and it is 

 going to cover not only horticulture, but forestry and agriculture, 

 and it will cover all these nature studies; we will put them all to- 

 gether, and the boy will see things in nature that will be worth 

 something to him. The good time is coming, is right upon us; all 

 we have to do is to work until we reach perfection. 



Mr. Hartwell, (111.): I want to express my appreciation of 

 the words just spoken by your newly elected president. As I 

 understand it, you are here in part to express your sympathy 

 with this idea of putting your public schools in relation to this 

 horticultural society. You have elected the state superintend- 

 ent of instruction as president of this society. To me it is a 

 great outlook, and I want to express my feelings more emphat- 

 ically by asking the secretary to enroll my name in the list of 

 life members of your society. (Applause.) 



