JOURNAL OF ANNUAL MEETING, I9O3. 507 



sider very essential in the work of any organization. I see many 

 gray heads in thisi society, and the same is true of our society, the 

 gray head predominates, and the question often comes to me, "What 

 is to come hereafter?" Here in your society you are getting in 

 many young men ; I see you are increasing in that direction a great 

 deal faster than we are, and that is something that ought to be 

 commended and that is encouraging. I am glad that I have been 

 privileged to meet with you, and I want to extend to you a cordial 

 invitation to meet with us in the Northeastern Iowa society which 

 meets at Decorah. 



The Chairman : We are glad to hear these words of com- 

 mendation from Mr. Mitchell, and I am sure we have enjoyed his 

 presence here as much as he has enjoyed being here. We have 

 another gentleman here from^ Iowa, one who is no stranger to you, 

 whom we almost regard as belonging to us, and whom we are always 

 glad to greet. I refer to Mr. Patten. We want to hear a few words 

 from you, Mr. Patten. 



Mr. C. G. Patten (Iowa) : I believe there are few living who 

 can appreciate as I can the rapid growth of this association and of the 

 horticulture of your state. I well remember when the apples brought 

 to your exhibitions would not cover more than three times the space 

 of the secretary's table, and now go into the room below and see 

 what you have accomplished. I do not wonder that you have a 

 wonderful inspiration in the culture of fruits and in the matter of 

 home adornment. It took no ken of prophet to predict that here in 

 the Twin Cities, with your splendid opportunities, you were to be the 

 prominent horticultural society of the whole western continent. 

 Massachusetts occupies that position in the eastern states, and I 

 declare to you from whatj I see before me and what I have seen in 

 the years during which I have been coming to this state, it seems 

 to me there is nothing in the way of your attaining the eminent posi- 

 tion of being the first society of this whole western region. I thank 

 you for your kindness, and I hope as many of you as can will come 

 to the meeting of the Iowa society. We are glad to cooperate with 

 you, and we need your cooperation. 



The Chairman : Mr. Patten rarely misses one of our meetings, 

 and we are always pleased to have him with us, and hope he may be 

 able to attend many meetings to come. I am going to call on another 

 gentleman whom we hardly count as a visitor, because he never 

 misses one of our meetings, and we regard him as belonging to us 

 about as much as he does to Wisconsin, Mr. Philips. 



Mr. A. J. Philips (Wis.) : The first meeting of this society I 

 ever attended was held at Winona, and I shall continue to come 

 just as long as I am able to do so. I hope you will not take that 

 resolution that was passed seriously, in which the hope was ex- 

 pressed that I would attend for a hundred years to come. I feel 

 about that a good deal like the old minister felt when his church 

 proposed to raise his salary from $400 to $600. He said, "Brethren, 

 don't do it. It has taken all my strength and energy to collect $400, 

 and if you add $200 more I feel that the task of collecting it will be 

 too great for me. Don't do it, brethren." (Laughter.) It would 

 be more than I could do. One thing has pleased me very much, and 



