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38 ANNUAL REPORT. 
be supplied through the agency of horticulture. The disas was in the very 1 
‘past when there was but a faint’ hope that this want would be met, but thanks to 
the information collected and sent out by the State Horticultural Society 
the persistent efforts of some of our people in making trials and pes i 
Enough has already been accomplished to encourage us in the belief that fruit 
can, and yet will be, successfully grown here in quantity sufficient to satisfy our 
varied wants. When this shall be, and how it is to be done, are the grave ques- 
tions we are called upon to meet, and it depends upon the solution and answer to 
the latter question whether the answer to the first shall be, ‘‘Very soon,”’ or “Far 
- away in the future, after generatious have passed away.’’ Therefore we are 
called upon to consider the question ‘‘ How shall it be done.”’ 
We do not profess to have matured any plans on the subject, and now only 
introduce it that it may enlist the attention and stir up the minds of you who 
know and feel how important it is that our horticulture should overtake and 
keep pace with our progress in all the other arts and sciences. We believe that 
political economy, public policy, and the influence which horticulture exerts upon 
the condition of society demand for it the fostering care of the State government; 
but to secure that care there must first come an awakening and educating, for 
even the legislature is not awake to its importance. It may be that before we 
have a legislature in sympathy with us, we will have to begin at the cradle, and 
raise up a generation that is familiar with natural science, who by study and 
observation have learned how plants live and grow and produce their fruit; how 
they may best be propagated with a view to secure hardiness; what methods to 
pursue to produce varieties by crossing and hybridizing, with a certainty of 
improvement, and have at least a superficial idea of the influence that horticul- 
ture exerts upon society. But for this we can not wait. What shall be done? 
Horticultural Societies the Means. 
The most effectual means that at present appears to be available in awakening 
an interest favorable to horticulture and hastening the desirable end, appears to 
us to be the establishment of a system of district or county societies, which shall 
hold frequent stated meetings for the discussion of various questions bearing 
upon the subject and the conducting of systematic experiments. In every com- 
munity where such an organization has maintained a live existence for a reason- 
able length of time, we quickly detect an air of refinement and spirit of emula- 
tion among the people to make their homes and their surroundings pleasant, 
comfortable and beautiful. It requires no arguments or array of facts to prove 
to us that such associations should be organized and kept up all over our State, 
and that they would not only be useful in their several localities, but would 
prove a source of wealth, power and influence to the State. How shallit be done? 
Plans for organizing. 
One plan that suggests itself is that this State Society take the matter in hand 
and mature a method of organizmg them under its auspices, and holdmg them 
as subordinates, assigning to them their work, and requiring them to keep in 
correspondence and co-operation withit. To carry out this method would require 
the appointment of a commission to enter the field and push forward the work, 
and perhaps for many years have an oversight of them, at an expense of one to 
three thousand dollars per year. We see at once that this is not practicable, for 
