SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 



the stranger within their gates has grown, until this society has 

 become the largest of its kind in the world. Fruit also is grown 

 so plentifully in all parts of the state, where only a few wild 

 berries or puckery plums were found, that the poorest children 

 can have their fill. As for our members, they come from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, Canada also giving us its quota. 



The next year Mrs. Cross came with me and was with us 

 until last year when she went to sleep. The year after Mrs. 

 Thayer, Mrs. Sartell, and several other ladies from our part of 

 the state, came down to help with the good work. We found Miss 

 Sarah Manning, Miss White and quite a number of other ladies, 

 including Mrs. Green, Mrs. Bonniwell, and last but not least 

 Mrs. A. A. Kennedy, of Hutchinson, a minister's wife with 

 illimitable humor, which we all enjoyed. There were three of us 

 at the same hotel with her. She told us it was the first genuine 

 outing she had ever had the chance to enjoy, so we three set out 

 to give her the time of her life. Needless to say, we did it, and 

 she started home to rejuvenate her Reverend. 



Then there was Mrs. Tillotson, Dr. Mary Whetstone, Mrs. 

 Ruff, Mrs. Alderman, Miss Emma V. White (we are always lost 

 until we see her) Mrs. Tillotson, Mrs. Barton, Mrs. Cuzner, 

 Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Sawyer, Mrs. Boardman, Mrs. Kingsbury, Mrs. 

 Wedge, Mrs. Countryman, Miss Gertrude Cairns — then Mrs. 

 Knowles with her seedling apple and sweetmeats. These and 

 many others pass before our vision shedding the blessing of their 

 presence on the society, and we certainly do miss Mrs. Under- 

 wood with her gentle ways, when for any reason she fails to 

 appear, and I am sure we would all miss Miss Esther (the secre- 

 tary's assistant for ten years) were she not here. But there, I 

 could go on indefinitely and then not tell you the names and good 

 qualities of half of the ladies who have honored us by joining and 

 working for the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. 



