HORTICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 179 



have anticipated a rich reward for the trouble I have taken to meet 

 with you again. As I come this time as a delegate representing 

 the horticultural society of the State of South Dakota, I will say, 

 first, that we wish to thank you most heartily for the aid we have 

 received through your liberality in allowing all our members to 

 draw copies of your annual report. We have not as yet become 

 equipped with public funds, or any provision for the printing of our 

 reports. We have had nothing to offer our members who join with 

 us except the Minnesota reports, and it has been one of the greatest 

 means of keeping the Dakota society alive up to the present day. 



We have been steadily growing in numbers, although our mem- 

 bership is still small. You all know how difficult it is to organize 

 and keep alive a society in any new state or territory where it 

 has not yet reached the pericd of recognition by the legislature. 

 I will say here, that our membership at the present day, although 

 only about twenty-five or twenty-six, is composed very largely of a 

 most excellent class of horticultural workers. There are very few 

 who are not capable of writing a good paper on some horticul- 

 tural topic, and of contributing valuable matter in our discussions 

 as we take our subjects up. I feel \ery proud of the material of 

 which our society is composed, and see in the excellent qualities of 

 that material, great hope for good work, that shall give us a large 

 and influential society in the near future. We are now fully or- 

 ganized as a state horticultural society. Our society is incorporat- 

 ed, committees appointed and we have applied to the state legis- 

 lature for that recognition which is given to all the horticultural 

 societies in the neighboring states. We have no doubt that our 

 legislature now in session at our capitol will give us provision for 

 printing our reports and an appropriation for our expenditures. 

 Hence we expect to be able to repay you, in part, in the way of ex- 

 changes for the liberality that you have extended to us and of 

 which I have previously spoken. 



We also expect in time to give you some benefit from certain 

 lines in horticulture and forestry, that from necessity we are com- 

 pelled to work out in that western district, in which you already, I 

 see, are taking considerable interest. 



I received from your president an invitation to contribute some- 

 thing on the subject of native shrubs and fruits. I will endeavor 

 to do it at some other time. 



We are coming to the conclusion, without wishing to discourage 

 any of the lines of experiment in imported fruit, so to speak, that 

 we have enough within the list of our native fruits to supply every 

 household in that prairie country with delicious and wholesome 

 fruits for the table. We begin to see how we can make those fruits 

 grow in our gardens, and whatever may be the outcome of the 

 higher class of fruits, we shall not be destitute of fruits, if we 

 pay careful attention to such as we have. I will not take your time 

 now, but as your sessions proceed I will do what I can to help your 

 meeting along as I have occasion hereafter. (Applause.) 



An adjournment was then taken until Thursday morning at 9 

 o'clock. 



