432 SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 



on the water in the dirt cellar and the sprouts growing out of 

 the cracks in the box. 



That particular winter finished me in the nursery business. 

 I lost it all. I struggled along for three or four years, when a 

 man persuaded me to leave the nursery business and take up 

 something that wouldn't spoil. So I began to sell sewing ma- 

 chines. But I never lost my love for horticulture, and I used to 

 talk horticulture to the farmers when I went about the country. 

 I bought a little piece of land at Faribault and planted trees. Be- 

 cause of those trees I came to Minneapolis, and was hired to settle 

 up some business here, and I got a chance to sell a lot of shade 

 trees. I attended the meeting over at the University in 1883 and 

 immediately began to take an active part in the work of the 

 society. 



That is why, if you look over the reports you will see that 

 between the years 1867 and 1883 C. L. Smith wasn't there. It 

 was not because I was not interested in horticulture. I lived 

 neighbor to one of the oldest pioneer horticulturists of Minne- 

 sota, a man who did a good deal for the work of horticulture, 

 D. W. Humphrey, of Faribault. His place stands there now in 

 sight of the Milwaukee track as a monument to his interest in 

 tree planting and tree growing. 



During all this time, as I say, I was interested in horti- 

 cultude ; I talked horticulture wherever I went. Why ? Because 

 I wanted to see people get more out of life than the man was 

 getting who simply worked for the money he could make. I 

 learned in those early years that the man who worked just for 

 money was a failure no matter how much money he got, while the 

 man who worked for love of humanity or for love of his work was 

 happy if he didn't get anything — and he got more out of life, even 

 if he didn't get any money benefit, he really got more out of 

 life, more value out of life, than the man who accumulated a for- 

 tune but got it through treachery, not through love of the work 

 he was doing. 



I want to say a few words about some of those men that have 

 been mentioned here. Fortunately during that period I became 

 acquainted with such men as D. W. Humphrey, Col. John H. 

 Stevens and Wyman Elliot — and I want to say right here I have 

 accomplished what few men in life have, reached the very height 

 of my ambition, and that is due more to John H. Stevens and 

 Wyman Elliot than it was to anything inherent in myself, be- 

 cause they were the ones who inspired me and started me on 

 the right road. 



