44 2 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



milestone, but we are not yet satisfied, and now we are making 

 giant strides towards the next one. 



Each year we are getting new ideas from one another, and we 

 go home and put those ideas into practice, those that seem to be of 

 value to us. Each year adds new facts, and after thinking over 

 and revolving them in our minds we follow out the principles on 

 which these facts are based, and then when we have done that we 

 have got a good pedestal to stand on. Our course is so rapid. _ Of 

 all the millions of dollars spent by the state of Minnesota in the 

 state to help along enterprises that are considered valuable, the little 

 pittance that they give us does more good than a like sum, it seems 

 to me, can do for any other purpose. Just see what has been done 

 to add to the comfort, happiness and wealth of the state through 

 the medium of this society ! If some one discovers a new planet,, 

 that never will shed a new light to us in a practical way, his name 

 is heralded from one end of the world to the other. If one originates 

 a new apple that will be of untold benefit, as the Wealthy has been to 

 the country and to the whole world, for it has gone across the sea, 

 he may never get any credit while he lives, or if he does get any 

 it will be dealt out in homeopathic doses. But that is neither here 

 nor there, for that does not concern us. The great remuneration, 

 the compensation that we are to receive, does not come in the way of 

 praises from others, but it comes from the consciousness of duty well 

 performed ; and those members of this society who have been 

 through all these years bearing the burden through the heat of the 

 day, and without a thought of personal gain to themselves only 

 as the whole state gains, they are the ones that have the conscious- 

 ness that buoys them up and keeps their heads above the water. 

 They are the ones that go down to the grave and may feel that pos- 

 terity can rise up and call them blessed, because they have in their 

 way been instrumental in bringing about the grandest results that 

 have been brought to this state without any greater help from this 

 state or from those that have been able to give than our society has 

 had. However, it would not do any harm to give them some good 

 words while they live, not because it will benefit them so much, but 

 because it will show that they are appreciated, and when one appre- 

 ciates the life work of another he is more likely to do something 

 of the same kind for himself and for others, as the one he is imitat- 

 ing has done. 



Now the society has done a great work, but can we fold our 

 hands and lie down and rest? Can we say, "a little more sleep, a 

 little more slumber" ? No, there is a little more work yet ; we must 



