44 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I will not tire you with a romantic liistory of this explorer, but that he 

 was successful in his plans to discover America, where was to be founded 

 a great empire, of which the interior metropolis was to he the city on the 

 lake, where was to be held the exposition to be named in his honor and to 

 perpetuate his memory, we are all witnesses, and we all hope to be there 

 and to assist in honoring this man of tremendous foresight and courage 

 and perseverance. 



While we do not know it to be really so, yet we believe he even had it in 

 his plans to have laid out in this part of the country the fair state of 

 Minnesota, for the purpose mainly of allowing the friends here gathered, 

 and their predecessors, to organize this horticultural society with the de- 

 sign, without doubt, that, with other similar organizations, we should be 

 present on the occasion of this exposition to assist in honoring and glori- 

 fying his name. That our society may be able to do this fittingly is cer- 

 tainly our hearty purpose and wish, although the apparatus for its ac- 

 complishment cannot really be said, as yet, to be in motion. The ma- 

 chine is planned, and its parts adjusted, the engineers are posted, and 

 everything seems to be ready except the necessary orders to move. We 

 are patiently waiting for this, and as somebody says, "All things come 

 round to him who will but wait.'' 



Our society, in common with the rest of mankind, should learn a lesson 



from the foresight and perseverance of this great man, long since passed 



away, but whose lesson forever remains. The work we are doing, not 



bearing fruit as we could wish in the present, is the substratum work 



that is bound to yield results in the future, we hope not so many hundred 



years from now, but within the knowledge and period of our immediate 



successors. 



"Let us then be up and doing.'" 



And "learn to labor and to wait.'" 



Music: Lake City Quartette. 



Toast: "Our Women Allies, — The best half of horticulture." 

 Reponse by J. T. Grimes, Minneapolis. 



Ladies and gentlemen:— I am aware that the subject assigned me is a 

 delicate one, involving as it does the question of woman's right to the 

 best of every good thing. 



"Our Women Allies— The best half of horticulture." 



In fact, without the refining influence of woman the "best half of horti- 

 culture" would be an unknown quantity, amounting to but very little in 

 the economy of life's enjoyment. What did man know about horticulture 

 anyway until woman had the courage to reach out her hand and pluck 

 the fruit from the tree of knowledge, and tell him that it was fair to look 

 upon and likewise good to eat? And having taken the initial step in this 

 great work, she has led him on ever since, not by force, but simply by at- 

 traction, in the path of the beautiful, along which flowers bloom and 

 fruits grow and ripen, whose luscious sweetness tickle the palates of the 

 very gods. I mean, of course, gods of our fraternity. 



Where would we be to-day without "our womeu allies?" Who was it 

 that took us by the hand when we were innocent and childlike and 

 pointed out the unfolding beauties of nature in bud, leaf, flower and fruit? 



Who first taught us to say "Our Father which art in Heaven?'" Can we 

 ever forget that sainted mother? 



