442 SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 



is worth all your efforts, though never a tree should yield to you 

 its toothsome offering nor a flower bloom to reward you. 



It is impossible to place before your eyes a picture of the 

 Northwest as it now is, with its hundreds of promising gardens 

 and orchards, and point out the items and features that owe their 

 existence to the influence of this society. Perhaps it is not too 

 much to say that no other one organization or factor, public or 

 private, has done so much to bring about the conditions that we 

 now find. 



The Wealthy has recently been pronounced by a high author- 

 ity, not a resident of the Northwest, our country's one most valu- 

 able variety of apple. This opinion is based on the consideration 

 that if a man could have but one apple tree the Wealthy would 

 serve him better throughout the year than any other kind. 



This is your own daughter, born and christened in this so- 

 ciety, now grown by the thousands of barrels, and yet until a few 

 years ago none of us ever heard the Wealthy mentioned except 

 by members of this society. You have spoken the name so long 

 and persistently that not only the Northwest but the whole 

 country has heard and become convinced. 



You can all readily bring to mind a number of other apples 

 like the Excelsior, Dartt, Lyman, Okabena, Florence, Minnesota 

 and Patten that originated with members of this society and 

 have been brought to public attention through your efforts. 

 The same is also true of different worthy varieties of other fruits, 

 like the Aitkin, Harrison, New Ulm, Odegard, Rollingstone and 

 Surprise plums and of many vegetables and flowers. 



It took your experience, as related at these annual meetings 

 and published in your Horticulturist, to bring to our minds the 

 fact that much we had learned in our books wasn't true. Partly 

 as a result of this there has grown up within the last few years 

 a literature of horticulture so practical and dependable that 

 there is no one so new and unskilled in the divine art of growing 

 things that he need become the object of his neighbor's mirth. 



It is impossible to suggest any topic in horticultural prac- 

 tice, from cover crops to top grafting, or from bug killing to 

 marketing, that has not had its pros and cons presented here by 

 members rich in experience. That you haven't always subscribed 

 to the same horticultural doctrines has not lessened the value of 

 the discussions, though it has certainly added ginger and some- 

 times a little pepper to the occasion. If your opponent hasn't 



