MINNESOTA ERE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 71 
ue Sias. Do they mae the blight? I had one Transcendent, 
among others, that did not blight, and this was covered with ants. 
I could see no other reason for this difference. 
_ Mr. Dart. I think it was because they checked the flow of sap, 
by loosening up the soil around the roots, thus favoring the dry- 
ing of the soil. 
Adjourned to meet at 7 o’clock Pp. m. 
TUESDAY EVENING. 
THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT SMITH. 
The meeting was called to order by the President at 7:30. 
The regular programme was proceeded with, the President’s Ad- 
dress coming first. It was accepted and ordered on-file for publi- 
cation. 
The following is the address in full: 
Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the 
Minnesota State Horticultural Society : 
Since our last annual meeting, the centennial year of this great republic 
has passed, never to return to any of us now living. A year of pleasure and 
profit to very many, and a year of sorrow and loss to some, I have no doubt, 
and a year in which ali have had occasion to pause and take a look at the 
past, and to note the progress and improvement, not only within the United 
States of America, but to glance over the whole civilized world, and com- 
pare notes with them, and see the advance and improvement made within 
the last one hundred years. And in so doing, shall we find that horticulture 
and horticultural improvements have kept pace with other arts and sciences? 
In answer to this, the report from the able delegates of this Society at the 
Great Centennial Exhibition and meeting of the American Pomological So- 
ciety’s reunion, will be much more instructive and satisfactory than anything 
which I can say on this subject. But while the Centennial Exhibition is 
supposed to show the improvements and progress of one hundred years, we 
here in Minnesota, and especially the horticulturists, have not had one-sixth 
of that time to prepare and start for the race and competition with the whole 
world, and yet our State Horticultural Society, only in its tenth year of ex- 
istence, in this cold, dry climate, where they say neither fruit nor corn can 
be grown, have, through the energy, pluck and perseverance, under diffi- 
culties, and at the individual expense, of such men as Wyman Elliot, J. T. 
