Aw^al Meeting, 



December 1-3, 1896. 



JOURNAL OF THE THIRTIETH ANNUAL MEETING OF 

 THE MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Tuesday Morning Session. 



The meeting was called to order at 10 o'clock a. m., in the 

 rooms of the County Commissioners, in the Minneapolis court- 

 house. President J. M. Underwood addressed the following 

 words of greeting to the members: 



Members of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. — Again 

 it becomes my pleasant duty to open our annual winter meeting, 

 and as I think of it this morning it seems as though about a year 

 ago we all started out on a journey, and we have been twelve months 

 in making the trip. It seems to me as though the journey had been 

 up hill part of the time; some of the time we have been traveling 

 in the valleys where it was extremely pleasant going, but much of 

 the time we have been climbing, and we have come to obstructions 

 occasionally. We have had some very big boulders to get around; 

 the road had been over a rough country part of the time, and I think 

 sometimes we have had to get out and remove the obstructions. 

 Then, again, I feel as though we had got down on the prairies in 

 Illinois, where we used to live, and become stuck in the mud — and I 

 recollect perfectly how it used to be there. When we got stuck in 

 the mud and one yoke of oxen could not pull us out, we would have 

 to double up occasionally, and often we would have to go to the 

 neighbor's and get two or three more yokes, and by and by after 

 great exertions we would finally pull through and get out on hard 

 ground again. So it is in our horticultural pursuits — we often get 

 into sloughs; and I have met quite a number of people during the 

 summer and at different times who have been pretty deep In the 

 slough and have had some very discouraging times. But, after all, 

 we seem to have climbed out and got on top of the hill, and now we 

 are here to take a survey of the work that has been accomplished, 

 and we are here to tell our experience of the past year and to tell 

 each other of our journeyings, and, if possible, to learn something of 

 the different routes and experiences that have been taken and ihe 

 advantages that may be gained by the different routes. 



