PRESENTATION OF PHOTOGRAPHS 
of J. S. Harris 
and a Group of “Veterans of Minnesota Horticulture.” 
[See frontispiece.] 
The closing feature of an eventful day, Thursday, Dec. 9tl 
in the program of the late annual meeting, was the presenta st 
tion to the society of a life size photograph of our ‘‘oldest 
member,” J. S. Harris, of La Crescent, and astill larger pictur 
of a group of ten of the older members of the society, who 
names appear below. The presentation address was made b 
Ex-Sec’y Oliver Gibbs, Jr., in the following well chosen words: _ oY 
Mr. President:--A few of the members of this society have come 
together recently at a photographer’s room and had their pictures 
taken in a group,and have commissioned me to present the first _ 
copy to the society and to ask that it may be preserved by th 
librarian and hung upon the walls of our assembly room, in the ~ 
near or distant future,when we shall come to have a hall of our own, | 
and where they may forever look down upon the society’s meetings, 
as the historic forty centuries looked down on Napoleon’s army — 
from the pyramids—not, however, with the stony stare of the ~ 
Sphynx,with its insolvableriddle,upon men warring against men,but 
pleasantly, with looks of encouragement to their successors still, 
meeting as we are meeting now to help each other and all others ins a 
the practice of horticulture or in the enjoyment of the fruits of it. eee 
All good people, and all who are trying to be as good as the con- — 
ditions of life seem to admit of, wish to be kindly remembered ~ 
after they shall have walked the way of nature. This is one of the 
motives in bequeathing our portraits to our families and friends — 
and to the public, and is what has inspired this group which Iam 
about to present here. : 
_ I present this picture with the hope that other groups will follow FS op 
it, for no one group can be complete in itself or completely char- 
acteristic of the society. os 
The persons in this group are old-time members of the society; — 
all; I think, reaching back in their affiliation beyond the ’80’s, and 
most of them to the ’60’s, into charter membership, and yet as you 
see them nearly all here today they are men still in the prime of 
life, the united ages of the ten being 731 years, an average of only a 
little rising 73 years, still workers in the garden and orchard, and 
workers here, and still calling themselves “the boys.” Long may 
they, and all like them, continue to work and enjoy life, and when ~ 
they and ourselves go hence, may we go where there is still good : 
work to do, feeling as we go—or saying: 
SG} Time, thy steady onward sweep 
We own at last is best: 
lt brings us life-renewing sleep, 
Or dreamless, endless rest.” 
