122 ANNUAT. KEPOKT 



IN MEMORIAM. 



Mr. Harris. Mr. President, it see*is to me appropriate afe 

 this time that some action should be taken with reference tO' 

 the matter of the death of the Hon. Marshall P Wilder, al- 

 though from the lateness of the hour I fear we can not do the- 

 subject justice. As a member of the Committee on Obituary I 

 have drafted some resolutions. 



The last fifty years is marked as the period of the greatest im- 

 provement and progress in horticulture and kindred arts and 

 sciences recorded in the history of the world, and most of these 

 improvements have been instituted and developed through the 

 disinterested labors of men born since, or about the beginning of, 

 the present century, who have made their lives a blessing to 

 ■humanity, and crowned themselves with unfading laurels. One 

 by one these remarkable men of the age are laying down their 

 armor and departing, to join the greater number in that happy 

 realm, of which that first "Eden" was only an inspiration. With- 

 in a few years we have mourned the departure of a Warder, Kirt- 

 land, Brj^ant, Vick, Downing and many others, whose well- 

 ordered lives, devoted to the public good in the development of 

 horticulture in our country, had earned names as useful men of 

 their time, that caused their death to be regarded as more than 

 a national loss. And now we have received the sad message in- 

 forming us that the greatest and best, the acknowledged leader 

 of them all, the great and good man, the venerable Marshall P. 

 Wilder, the president of the American Pomological Society, has 

 gone over to the other shore and joined that baud of worthies. 



Mr Wilder was a man who was a model worthy of being pat- 

 terned after. I have read his addresses and articles published 

 in various papers throughout the country, and have never seen 

 a word from his pen, or listened to a word that he has spoken, 

 but that seemed to me to be words of wisdom and words fitly 

 spoken. He was a man of the greatest charity, who ranked far 

 above the great majority of his fellows; he seemed to have a 

 boundless love for everybody. It is said of him that there was 

 no man so objectionable but he could see some good in him and 

 point it out to others. He was one of the most remarkable of ' 

 men in presiding in horticultural conventions. He was an hon- 

 orary life member of our Society and seemed to have a fatherly 

 care over it. We have frequently received communications from 



