298 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold, too windy. Those that live 

 there think it is pretty good, but I have hoed strawberries there 

 when I couldn't hardly stand up for the wind. When the ther- 

 mometer goes up to 95° I go to the house. I hoed one day until 

 it was up to 93°, the wind blew so hard I had to look at the ther- 

 mometer. I think if I was going to stay there I would carry a 

 thermometer in my pocket. Folks that live down there think it is 

 all right, and I would if I lived there. I like Wisconsin winters, 

 and I like Wisconsin summers. I have spent three winters in 

 Texas; Texas climate has not improved a bit. I was there five 

 years ago last December when the whole country was wild on 

 the orange question, the Satsuma orange. In January we had a 

 freeze there that killed everything, contracts and even the men 

 interested in them. Last year they had a good crop of oranges, 

 but there came a frost in November that spoiled half of the crop 

 that was on the trees, and they mixed the bum ones with the good 

 ones and didn't get enough to pay for picking. The fig business 

 is also done up, that is, winter-killed. 



"They make a great fuss about raising garden products. My 

 boy is quite heavy in the chicken business, his wife hatches about 

 4,000 chicks a year, and that is where they get their money. 

 You can't grow alfalfa in that part of the country, you can't 

 grow timothy or clover. The whole country is just level or flat, 

 only nine inches of fall in eight miles from there to the gulf, and 

 a rain of six inches would flood the whole country. I might get 

 back there to see some more rainfall, but I like Wisconsin winters 

 the best. A year ago last winter I spent in Minreapolis, the 

 finest winter I ever spent. I thank you." 



Rev. C. S. Harrison : "Friends, the time is coming and now 

 is when people will realize that it is just as necessary to raise a 

 peony as a potato. The vegetable garden feeds the body, the 

 flower garden feeds the soul. Which is the more important? I 

 leave it with you. Many a poor woman on the frontier who has 

 had plenty of potatoes has had her soul almost starved for the 

 beautiful. She wanted flowers, and she couldn't have them, 

 slowly she pined away — her heart starved. Now so long as the 

 immortal in us is worth more than the mortal, which we must lay 

 aside, we have got to minister to the best part of us and do the 

 best we possibly can for ourselves. We are only just beginning 

 to comprehend the mission of flowers, .the tremendous influence 

 which they have on the human heart and human soul adjusted to 

 this great hunger for something beautiful, and it hasn't always 

 been satisfied. 



"Mrs. Alexander, the great missionary's wife, saw a woman 

 looking very stubborn and indifferent to religious matters, and 

 she wanted to speak to her. So she went out and bought a beau- 

 tiful bouquet of pansies and came back and said to her : 'Perhaps 

 you would enjoy this bouquet of flowers.' Her heart melted and 

 then they could talk together. 



"Jacob Reis, a companion of Roosevelt, did a great deal of 

 work in building up the slums of the cities. He told one of the 

 leading citizens that he could do more with an armful of flowers 



