STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 51 



and with it the hopes of the owaer, still the few varieties of 

 trees which have passed through the frigid ordeal unscathed 

 clearly demonstrate the fact that apples can be grown in Minne- 

 sota. Surely the people of the State owe a liberal meed of 

 gratitude to your society and to its individual members who, 

 ignoring money considerations, have given time and energies to 

 a work often full of discouragements and disappointments, and 

 every success of which is general benefit to the whole people. 



Gentlemen of the Amber Cane Association: Untimely frosts 

 have occasionally nipped your crops of cane but not your en- 

 thusiasm foi your work. Your mission is to fix the carbon fur- 

 nished by the sun, through the stalk of cane and transmute it 

 successfully into the sugar and syrup of commerce. Eecent ex- 

 periments in the new diffusion process at Fort Scott, Kan., 

 with which you are no doubt familiar, make it probable that 

 this country may yet produce the bulk of the sugar which it 

 consumes, and the syrup made from the amber cane already has 

 an enviable reputation in the market. Our warm summers and 

 rich soils offer more favorable conditions of growth than the 

 sugar districts of Europe and resolve the question into one of 

 the proper plant and right kind of appliances to effect the de- 

 sired result. 



Gentlemen, we welcome you to St. Paul, and trust that your 

 deliberations may be appreciated by the public in the manner 

 which their importance demands. 



RESPONSE TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



S. M. Owen, of the Farm, Stock and Home, Minneapolis, 

 responded on behalf of^the Society. He said: 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



The formal acknowledgment, in mere words, of so hearty a 

 welcome as the one just given us, would seem to be a work of 

 supererogation. The proper place for the true response to such 

 cordiality should be in the heart, and not upon the tongue. 

 There may seem to be an incongruity of flowers, fruits and sweets 

 in a realm of winter carnival. It may, however, be appropriate 

 for me, as the present mouthpiece of this Society, to briefly refer 

 to some of its characteristics and labors, which inspired the 

 pleasant words just said of it. 



Horticulture, the best, the finest, the most intelligent cul- 



