HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 45 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the State Horticultural Society : 



In behalf of the citizens of Minneapolis, I bid you a warm, 

 hearty welcome to the city you have honored with your presence. 

 They sympathize with you in your endeavors to forward the in- 

 terests of Horticulture in this state. They apj)reciate your 

 efforts in making their homes more pleasant and beautiful with 

 lovely flowers, valuable plants, choice shrubbery and trees for 

 ornamental purposes, and desirable fruits and other necessary 

 articles for their tables ; realizing that' no fireside can be happy 

 and healthy in their absence. They are patrons of the fruit of 

 your labor. They are fully alive to the importance of the great 

 work you have undertaken. They are desirous of lending you 

 a helping hand in every possible way, so that your efforts may 

 be successful. They feel under deep obligations to you for the 

 selection of this city for the holding of your twenty-second an- 

 nual meeting. Their doors are opened and their homes are at 

 your disposal during your deliberations. They ask each of you 

 to become their guests while in attendance at this meeting. 



EESPOXSE TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



A. W. Sias, of Rochester, responded on behalf of the Society. 

 He said: 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



Permit me, on behalf of the State Horticultural Society, to 

 heartily thank the good people of Minneapolis for this cordial 

 welcome. This Society reminds me very forcibly of Hiawatha, 

 when wooing his dusky bride, in what is now one of the charm- 

 ing suburbs of this city. You will recall to mind the fact, that 

 the great poet, H. W. Longfellow, who immortalized the name 

 of Minnehaha, Laughing "Water, informs us that Hiawatha — 



' ' Lingered long about the doorway, 

 Looking back as he departed. ' ' 



And just so it is with this Society; we" linger long about the door- 

 ways" of this kind ancl, hospitable peojile. Let it be understood, 

 however, that we use the term hospitable in a restrictive sense, 

 as we are no longer strangers in this beautiful city, for be it 

 known that the very man who christened it, and gave it such a 

 charming name, ''combining the Greek and Indian tongue," 

 was our second president, Mr. Charles Hoag; and the man who 



