PRESIDENT S ANNUAL ADDRESS. I I 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



W. W. PENDERGAST, HUTCHINSON. 



Fellow Members of the Minnesota Horticultural Society: 



Ladies and Gentlemen — Time steals by with muffled feet, giv- 

 ing no alarm at his approach, no token of his presence, no bugle 

 blast to note his departure. He takes no heed of the weather or the 

 seasons. Winter's cold tempests, summer's dissolving heat, the 

 ethereal mildness of spring, are all alike to him. He moves as 

 "Noiselessly as the springtime her crown of verdure weaves, 

 When all the trees on all the hills open their thousand leaves; 

 Noiselessly as the daylight comes when the night is done, 

 And the crimson streak on ocean's cheek grows into the great 

 - sun." 

 — still as the glittering host above our heads at nightfall, which 

 go on "treading their eternal circles," having uttered no sound 

 since that glorious morning when all the stars sang together in 

 celestial concord. Today we know that for the past twelve months 

 he has been quietly gliding by, because we find our horologe set one 

 year ahead of where it stood at the time of our last annual meet- 

 ing. We know it by the fact that all of our ornamental and our 

 shade trees, our vines and shrubbery, have taken on another sea- 

 son's growth; we recognize it by the deepening furrows on our 

 faces ; we sorrowfully realize it when we look around in vain for 

 the revered forms of our brethren and fellow workers Harris, 

 Cross, Mackintosh and Lugger, who have fallen victims to his all- 

 devouring scythe and been spirited away to the realms of shade 

 "beyond the reach of mortal ken until He before whom all crea- 

 tures bow and to whom all nature listens shall speak, and all who 

 ever lived shall hear; to whom the yawning graves shall give up 

 their dead, when the sun shall sicken and the earth and its isles 

 shall languish and the heavens be rolled together like a scroll." 

 We ought also, if we have been wise, faithful and diligent, to be able 

 to mark the advance of time by the successful culmination of plans 

 which we have conceived and carried out, by the good work which 

 we have done. We should have some sheaves to show from the 

 harvest we have gathered. Have we better trees, of better kinds? 

 Do they show better judgment in the pruning, cultivating and gen- 

 eral management? Have the fields and home a cleaner, tidier look? 

 Is thrift apparent everywhere? Would the place command a higher 

 price than it could have been sold for a year ago? 



"Have we worked for some good, be it ever so lowly? 



Have we worked ? — for all labor is noble and holy. 



Have we let our good deeds be our prayer to our God?" 

 If so, then we may say that though the year has gone it has 



