72 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



we found necessary to distribute, and we started out to distribute those 

 books in our institute work, advertising tliat a certain number of copies 

 of a valuable book would be given free at each of the meetings. The 

 book was a really desirable possession. We have tried to present it to be 

 just what it is, and it was a surprise to us to see'how far reaching that 

 advertisement was. Time and time again we have opened up our insti- 

 tutes at half-past nine, though generally at ten o'clock in the morn- 

 ing — that is as early as we can get together on the first day — in the larg- 

 est halls furnished by our state, and had every seat occupied by ten o'clock. 

 1 have known men to be there after having driven ten or fifteen miles in 

 cold and wintry weather, so they might be sure that the book promised 

 would not be lost by them through any failure of theirs to be on time. 

 As the doctor said, ''The average man wants to possess something for 

 nothing, and in that way you have a big hold on him." We have to study 

 those things and we do study them. I believe if I were put to-day into the 

 ante room of a hall with my eyes bandaged, and then the bandage taken 

 off, I could make a pretty shrewd guess, by the way people come into the 

 hall, as to whether they come from mere curiosity or from an interest in 

 the meeting itself. When they come from curiosity they fill up the back 

 part of the hall first, and you always have plenty of room down where the • 

 Methodists put their mourner's bench. On the other hand, after the 

 work has been established in a place, and the people become interested 

 in the themes which are presented, then they begin to fill up the front 

 seats. Now, we have the people assembled here from this notice to get a 

 book, and also to hear what may be presented. I am going to leave it to 

 you, that unless there is a good deal of tact used in the presentation of 

 the subject of horticulture, they will soon begin to go out of the door. 

 I have learned there are more ways to dismiss a congregation than by 

 pronouncing a benediction. (Laughter.) In order to make the institute 

 a success, I have made it a rule that it is always in order for people to go 

 out of the institute whenever they please. I have sometimes told them 

 the story of a friend of mine who said to me, one day, "Mr. Gregg, I don't 

 like to go to church," and I said, "Why?" "Well," he says, "because that 

 man stands up and jaws, and I can't jaw back." I tell them that it is 

 proper to jaw back in an institute. (Laughter.) He also said, he 

 didn't like to go to church because he had to stay until the 

 thing was closed, but I tell them that it is always in order for them 

 to go out of the institute room before the benediction is pronounced. 

 Now, bearing in my mind the fact that the majority of these people have 

 no liking for horticulture, we aim to interest them in subjects of a dif- 

 ferent nature, as, for instance, many of you may have heard of our friend 

 Theodore Lewis, a man from Wisconsin, who can talk "hog" and hold an 

 audience as very few men can. Put Theodore Lewis on the platform and let 

 it be understood that he is going to talk"hog,''and let him have his pictures 

 behind him- and there you have another powerful factor, we have held 

 institutes when we could not have held them without pictures. I am 

 not talking disrespectfully now, but I am talking of a class of people who 

 are not interested in horticultural work. They have brains and power, 

 but they are not interested in it. So, I say, hold them with hog, and I 

 speak respectfully of hogs when they are sold at six cents a pound on 

 foot, and going higher. I tell you, in all probability there will be a time 

 this winter when we will put that hog on the platform to hold these peo- 

 ple interested. 



