^i^rjiial ]^eports. 



DECEMBER 1, 1895. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



J. M. UNDERWOOD, LAKE CITY. 



Members of the ?Iinnesota State Horticultural Society:— 



Ladies and Gentlemen: — I shall speak to you this evening- on op- 

 portunities for the horticulturists. By horticulturists, I mean those 

 persons whose minds are inclined to recognize the importance and 

 pleasure derived from developing- the natural resources that beau- 

 tify the landscape about them and that provide the home with 

 fruits, flowers and vegetables. 



In the city and village, very many could add to the pleasure and 

 comfort of their surroundings by interesting themselves in the 

 work of our society and learning the way to plant and care for the 

 many beautiful and useful flowers and vegetables that can be 

 grown on a town lot. There is a growing spirit in this direction; 

 the park-like appearance made by the removal of fences has done 

 very much to bring this about. Isolation naturally engenders care- 

 lessness and tends to make a person slovenly in his habits; contact 

 with society spruces one up and makes him appear at his best; so, 

 if you remove j'^our fences, you naturally feel that you are on pa- 

 rade and must appear at your best. This spirit reaches out to your 

 neighbors and takes possession of them, and soon they follow your 

 good example; and others are led to indorse the improvement, until 

 the whole community seems of one mind, working to make their 

 homes look beautiful. This, at least, has been the resultin the town 

 where I live and was brought about by contact with the horticult- 

 ural spirit of the members of our society. 



How much better it is to have the roadway of a street well rounded 

 for drainage and all the land that can be spared on the sides made 

 a part of the lawn, than, as before, to have a wide, flat, muddy road- 

 way extending to the sidewalk, a rickety, unpainted fence and a 

 shabby, poorly kept lawn. Here was an opportunity long wasted 

 for fine landscape effect. Our cities and most of the smaller towns 

 in Minnesota are now provided with water-works, which make it 

 possible and easj' to keep the lawns fresh and green. The trees and 

 flowers are made to flourish, and in the little vacant patch back of 

 the house a nice vegetable garden can be raised, with radishes, let- 

 tuce, peas and tomatoes. Having these fresh, crisp and tender from 

 one's own garden, how healthy and independent even the town folks 

 can be! 



It is wonderful how much can be accomplished in a small garden 

 if one can have a water supplj' — and right here is an opportunity 

 to which horticulturists should give more attention, and that is, the 



