438 SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 



Greeting from the Department of Agriculture and Forestry, 

 University of Minnesota. 



A. F. WOODS, DEAN. 



It is with mingled feelings of love, loyalty and pride that 

 I bring you greetings, dear Mother of Minnesota Horticulture, on 

 this your fiftieth birthday. Each year has added to your beauty 

 and strength and to your power to foster the great ends for which 

 you came into being. The great Northwest owes to you a debt of 

 gratitude that it can pay only by helping you to promote the arts 

 and sciences of horticulture. The names on your roll of fame 

 are many. They are remembered not only for what they have 

 done in horticulture but for their helpful, neighborly, brotherly, 

 cooperative spirit. The progress of horticulture in the Univer- 

 sity, from Gideon to Green, is due to your interest and fostering 

 care. These famous names are as dear to you as to us. On the 

 foundations so well laid, we hope to build a great superstructure. 

 We know that your guiding and sustaining hands will always be 

 near. Our horticultural department is your oldest child, and 

 though you are still young and able to take care of yourself, 

 we want you to come and live with us. Your motherly presence 

 and influence will be a great joy to us and a great inspiration and 

 help to the boys and girls. We hope that you will not long delay 

 your coming and that with us you may celebrate many happy 

 returns of this semi-centennial anniversary. 



The glory of horticulture is embodied in the glory of the 

 garden. Rudyard Kipling has left us a poem on this theme. 



Our England is a garden that is full of stately views, 



Of borders, beds and shrubbery, and lawns and avenues, 



With statues on the terrace and peacocks strutting by; 



But the glory of the garden lies in more than meets the eye. 



For where the old thick laurels grow along the thin red wall, 

 You'll find the tool and potting sheds, which are the heart of all, 

 The cold frames and the hothouses, the dung pits and the tanks, 

 The rollers, carts and drain pipes, with the barrows and the 

 planks. 



And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys 



Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise ; 



For, except when seeds are planted, and we shout to scare the 



birds, 

 The glory of the garden occupieth all who come with words. 



