434 ANNUAL REPORT 



Permit me, in couclusioii, to tender my thanks to the mem- 

 bers of the Wisconsin Society for the many courtesies extended 

 to your delegates, and for the deep interest they manifest in the 

 welfare of our Society, and also to the members of the Minnesota 

 Society for the high privilege they conferred upon me in making 

 me their delegate upon this and other occasions. Respectfully 

 submitted, J. S. Harris. 



OLMSTED COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In addition to the report of the secretary of the Olmsted 

 County Horticultural Society, Mr. M. J. Hoag, at the annual 

 meeting of this Society, the following is presented from the 

 Rochester Record and Union, from its report of the proceedings 

 of that society: 



The annual meeting of the Olmsted County Horticulturists 

 was held in the city hall Saturday afternoon, January 8th. 



Mr. A. W. Sias, President of the society, read the following 

 paper: 



OBJECT LESSONS IN HORTICULTURE. 



Gentlemen of the Olmsted County Horticultural Society : 



There is no way by which the student can gain a knowledge 

 of the art of horticulture so rapidly as by object lessons. And 

 this calls up the question of where can we obtain the most com- 

 plete objects from which to take our lessons'? Nature's most 

 sublime botanical specimens are to be found in the forests; 

 go there. The Menonite Christians at Mt. Lebanon hold an- 

 nually a celebration of the Transfiguration under the existing 

 trees, known as the "Feast of Cedars." And we should have 

 not only our "Feast of Cedars," but our feast of pines, spruces, 

 firs, hemlocks, poplars, elms, lindens, hackberries and perhaps 

 the sweetest of all should be the feast of the maple, on which 

 occasion some zealous brother should treat all hands to an old- 

 fashioned "sugaring off." 



Grentlemen, I believe it possible for the members of this little 

 obscure horticultural society to inaugurate a new departure in 

 horticultural work that shall be. followed and imitated by com- 

 ing generations through all future time. The plan hurredly 

 and roughly marked out is for the society to meet every sum- 



