STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 27 



innocent young bosom, and hurling the instrument upon an adjoiniag 

 flower bed, 1 said : "If T cannot mow when I am a boy I wont when I 

 am a man." It was an unfortunate remark, taken in connection with 

 my previous work. The afoiesaid paternal straightway marched me 

 to the barn, and with the aid of a rawbide caused the chilling "snows 

 of winter" to descend on my nether extremities, which caused them to 

 bud and blossom as the rose [laughter], while the neighbors thought 

 from the sound that a menagerie had broken loose. It is thus that a^ 

 a child I was trained up the wrong way, which, when I become old, I 

 did straightway "depart from it." 



(jentlemen, I will detain you no longer. I trust that your stay iu 

 our city may be pleasant, your deliberations haruionious and profit- 

 able. Bidding you, on behalf of our citizens, thrice welcome, I leave 

 you to your further duties. [A.pplause,] 



RESPONSE TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



E. H. S. Dartt, of Owatonna, responded on behalf of the Society. 

 He said: 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



I can say in behalf of our Society that we are not surprised at this 

 cordial greeting. When we have watched a man or a city and have 

 found them pursuing a straightforward, uudeviating course for a long 

 period of time, we come to know about what to expect of them. 



Minneapolis has always treated us with that kindness and considera- 

 tion which we think our cause merits. In the days of our infancy, 

 when we were struggling for existence, when we required that ma- 

 terial aid without which great enterprises often fail, two righteous 

 men were found in Minneapolis who rendered that aid and we lived. 



Now, sir, it may not be quite right for us to claim that the finding 

 of those two righteous men saved your city, but we know she has 

 been saved to a period of growth and prosperity that is the marvel of 

 all beholders, and we believe this wonderful prosperity is largely due 

 to that spirit of liberality among her citizens that "cropped out" so 

 conspicuously in our Horticultural fathers, Wyman Elliot and R J . 

 Mendenhall. 



Certainly, sir, as has been intimated, we have met with great dis- 

 couragements. At a very early day L. M. Ford told us we could not 

 successfully grow the common varieties of the standard apples in 

 Minnesota, As a Society we were then in that hopeful period of youth 

 and our trees were in the same period, and we sat down on Ford, A 



