ANNUAL MEETING, I9O3, MINN. STATE HORT. SOCIETY. 7 



and we were very glad to meet these horticultural experts from 

 other states. The writer was highly honored by cordial appreciation 

 given to his three addresses. 



THE GREAT BANQUET. 



Why has not our society something of this kind? Tickets were 

 75 cents, and the proceeds went to memorials for the fallen heroes 

 of horticulture. 



Editor E. A. Webb of the Farmer, published in St. Paul, was 

 the host on this occasion, paying the bills. We enjoyed the pleas- 

 ure of sitting near him. He is an earnest, honorable man, doing 

 all mortal man can to develop his glorious Minnesota — "Land, of 

 the sky-tinted waters." 



There was touching allusion to the departed, and often the 

 meeting let itself loose with wit and story, and some of the finest 

 talent of the city was secured to lend charm and interest to the 

 occasion. Songs were rendered, recitations of high order, and a 

 young man with his magic gift as a whistler, who with marvelous 

 skill brought all the song birds of summer into the room in the 

 heart of winter. The exercises wound up by an address from 

 President Northrop of the University. It was sublime, solid and 

 inspiring — giving an uplift to us all. He paid glowing tribute to 

 that heroic band who were not working for riches, but giving their 

 talents and lives for their fellowmen and for the state. 



The society has 1,430 members. It was the grandest meeting 

 we ever attended. 



ANNUAL MEETING, 1903, MINNESOTA STATE 

 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A. W'. LATHAM, SECRETARY. 



The thirty-seventh annual meeting of this society passed into 

 history on the afternoon of Friday, December 4th, the final session 

 coming to an end at five o'clock. The gathering in all respects 

 equalled our most sanguine expectations ; in accommodations at the 

 place of meeting, in attendance, in the size of the fruit show and 

 the smoothness with which the program moved along, the meeting 

 was almost an ideal one. The First Unitarian Church, in which 

 the session was held, provided ample accommodations for all of 

 our purposes. The room in which the fruit was displayed was in 

 the basement and so separated from the audience room above, in 

 which the meeting was held, that there was none of the disturbance 

 which usually results from the contiguity of these two rooms. Four 

 rows of tables the whole length of the hall, with tables at every avail- 

 able place against the walls around the room, provided the accom- 

 modations needed for a fruit display of over 1,200 plates. The 

 exact figures secured at a careful count showed 1,184 plates of 



