22 CENTENNIAX CELEBRATION OF THE ACADEMY. 



that the founding of the Berlin University in the time of national peril made new Prussia the 

 strength and glory of science and of truth in Europe. 



I see a venerable gentleman, said the Chairman, who, take it all in all, has done 

 more for horticulture and agriculture than any other man in this country, and who 

 now represents at this table the Historic, Genealogical Society, — the Hon. Marshall 

 P. Wilder. I am unwilling to deprive him of the opportunity of speaking, and us 

 the opportunity and pleasure of hearing a word from him at this time. Mr. Wilder 

 spoke as follows : — 



Mr. President : — If an avalanche from my native hills had slid down upon me, I should not have 

 heen more surprised than I am now that you sliould have called upon me so early in the ceremonies 

 of this hour. I thank you, sir, from the bottom of m}' heart, for the very kind manner in which you 

 have introduced me, and I beg to say that it will be a red-letter day in my register that I have been 

 able to be present, after months of confinement, to meet again so many familiar faces with whom I 

 have been long associated. I thank you, sir, most sincerely, for recognizing here the New England 

 Historic, Genealogical Society. We are, sir, but an infant institution compared with that glorious 

 society over which you so ably preside. But our object is the same ; it is to gather up, record, and 

 perpetuate everj'thing that appertains to the wonderful progress of art, science, and civilization in our 

 day. And this is not, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, this is not the result of chance. No, no ! it is 

 the result of the teachings of such associations as your own, the exercise of the mind, the power of 

 mind over matter, the domination of man over nature, elevating her to the highest purposes of crea- 

 tion. I thank }'ou for referring to me as you have in connection with the great industrial pursuits 

 of our land. You do me no more than justice when you say I have been deeply interested in these 

 pursuits. I cannot remember the time, from the day my mother first took me into the garden to 

 help dress and keep it, that I have not loved the cultivation of the soil. I love everything that 

 appertains to rural life and pleasure. And, sir, I have lived, and you have lived, to see wonderful 

 progress in our day in the horticulture and agriculture of our country. When your society was 

 formed there was not an agricultural or horticultural society on this continent ; now they are scat- 

 tered from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; from the Dominion in the North to the Gulf on tlie South ; 

 and on tlie books of the department at Washington are now enrolled more than fifteen hundred 

 agricultural, horticultural, and kindred institutions. I cannot remember quite back to tlie landing 

 of the j\Iayflower at Plpuouth, but we are told that at one time the old colonists were reduced to the 

 small pittance of a bushel of corn ; look at that product in America now, • — fifteen liuudred millions 

 of bushels a year, and the crop of wheat nearly five hundred millions of bushels ; and our Western 

 granaries are storehouses upon which the world may draw for their supplies to meet all deficiencies. 

 I shall not detain you any longer, except to thank you for the respect and attention you have given 

 an old man. But, like rny friend on the right (Mr. Emerson), with whom I have been conversing, — 

 he says he should like to live forty years more, — I should like to live to be present at your next 



