FORECASTING THE FUTURE OF THE MINN. STATE HORT. SOCIETY. 445 



Forecasting the Future of the Society. 



REV. C. S. HARRISON, YORK, NEB. 



In looking ahead we are to take into account the growth of 

 the esthetic spirit — or the growing love for the beautiful. Fifty 

 years ago there was a struggle for the necessaries of life. 



There are three steps in the development of a new country : 



First, the demands of the stomach must be regarded, for we 

 must be strong for labor, and so food is one of the prime essen- 

 tials. 



In the next stage regard is also paid to the demands of the 

 palate, and so we minister to our tastes, and pleasant things, like 

 fruits, must be grown. We recognize also the fact that fruits are 

 of prime importance for health and are much cheaper than 

 doctors. 



Then comes the development of the love of the beautiful. 

 When God finished the world and ripened it for man, He planted 

 it to flowers. These are the smiles of God. And the great fami- 

 lies of them with which He planted the world, from the tropics to 

 the great tundras of the North, attest His kindness, forethought 

 and marvelous skill. So we should keep step with Him. We are 

 to recognize the necessity of human aid in developing the Divine 

 plans. 



There is the daily prayer offered by prattling children and 

 decrepit age: "Give us this day our daily bread." But the 

 prayer is answered through human aid. God furnishes the capi- 

 tal and we the labor. He spreads fertility on these vast plains, 

 He loads the mighty squadrons of the sky from his viewless 

 pumps out on the oceans, and the fleets of the air wing their way 

 in His viewless aeroplanes and pour their treasures on the earth. 

 He puts vital forces in those lances of light which come pushing 

 from the sun, and energizes the unseen forces of nature, and 

 there He stops. Man must come in with his plows, harrows, 

 drills, reapers, threshing machines and bakeries. In answer to 

 prayer, He does not rain down loaves of bread from the heavens, 

 but depends on His earthly partners to do the work after He has 

 furnished the capital. 



So in the floral world He furnishes the species, and man the 

 varieties. He gave the single dahlia, and in thousands of experi- 

 ments men have divided that primitive flower into so many 

 families that their old mother would not know them. The primi- 



