236 ANNUAL REPORT 



and prevented rot. Mr. Te Mari, of Japan, who since the 

 World's Exposition has been studying American horticulture at 

 Lansing, Mich., and other points, then made a few remarks. His 

 people are beginning to grow American grapes. "We had no 

 wine until our country was opened; the Chinese had raised wine 

 grapes for many years. Now we shall have wine, too. There are 

 only two varieties of native grapes in my country. We live so 

 much on vegetable food, eating grapes at table was never thought 

 of." 



PRESIDENT EARLE'S ADDRESS. 



At the evening session Mayor Gardner delivered an address of 

 welcome which was responded to in n graceful manner on behalf 

 of the society by President Earle, who then proceeded to de- 

 liver his annual address. This was an excellent, comprehen- 

 sive and practical paper, covering the whole field of horticul- 

 ture. He said the society was organized to meet the wants of 

 the fruit growers, gardeners, forest growers and lovers of rural 

 art in the states of the Missisippi Valley. We have been 

 asked to extend our territorial limits and to embrace all of 

 the horticultural interests of the continent, from ocean to ocean. 

 Aft.n- much deliberation this was done at our meeting in 'New 

 Orleans, so that we are now in name as we had been for years 

 before in membership and in the spirit of our work, an Ameri- 

 can society. 



There was scarcely a state in the Union whose industrial de- 

 velopement, whose entire civilization did not show the deep 

 imprint of organized horticultural activity. It is seen in bend- 

 ing orchards, in burdened vineyards, and in fruitful gardens. 

 It hangs banners in every part of town or city, and sings pseans 

 in groves and forests planted by man or saved from the wood- 

 man's axe. It babbles in fountains built and in brooks preserved, 

 and its beauty shines on 10,000 green and shaded lawns, and in 

 every window where flowers bloom and vines clamber. If you 

 could take out the influence of horticulture from the structure of 

 our civilization, you would have left a system of bare walls, 

 hard farms, and coarse living, in whose presence we should be 

 strangers as in an unknown world. 



Horticulture in its larger definition covered a large field. 

 There is an aesthetic and an economic side to it, and he could 

 not tell which had developed most in late years. Horticulture 

 co-operates with education, religion, and moral culture. All 



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