STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 425 



SOUTHERN MINNESOTA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



At the fifteenth annual session of the Olmsted County Horticultu- 

 ral Society held at Rochester Jan. 7, 1888, the society was merged into 

 the new organization, entitled as above, at which time a number 

 of letters were read and papers presented, among which were the 

 following : 



Mr. Deacon read the following letter from Mr. Wyman Elliot, 

 President of the Minnesota Horticultural Society : 



LETTER FROM MR. ELLIOT. 



* 



Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 2, 1888. 



Friend Sias : Your letter of December 30th received and noted. 

 Thank you for the invitation to attend the annual meeting of your 

 county society. It will be impossible for me to come down, as I have 

 much to do preparatory for the meeting of the State Horticultural 

 Society here the seventeenth of the present month. 



I hardly know what to say to you with regard to the formation of a 

 horticultural society, the tendency of which would be to draw away 

 from the old Minnesota State Horticultural Society or divide the work- 

 ing force of that Society. You know as well as I do that we need to 

 encourage the parent society as much as possible, and if possible give 

 it greater efficiency in its broad field of labor. My first impression on 

 reading your letter was that it would not be a benefit to the horticul- 

 tural interest of the State. Would it not be better to organize these 

 township horticultural societies and let them be auxilliary to the 

 county societies, and the county societies made more efficient and 

 capable of rendering better aid to the State Society, instead of creating 

 a sectional society that will eventually detract from and divide the 

 work of the State Horticultural Society ? I may misunderstand the 

 idea of forming another society within our State whose object would 

 be to divide the work, and eventually the support we receive from 

 the State. I think we should not do anything that will divide or 

 cause sectional sentiment. to arise to the detriment of our State organ- 

 ization. I have worked always with the idea of some day our State 

 Society becoming a powerful factor in the development and dissemi- 

 nation of horticultural literature among the masses that will give an 

 impetus to our art, and cause every thinking tiller of the soil to have 

 confidence in our work. Then we shall not lack the means whereby 

 to carry on the work successfully. One strong central organization 



