76 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. E. J. Cutts, of Howard, then read the following paper 

 "Vine Growing in Wright County."' (See index). This was 

 followed by "A Woman's Experience in Vine Culture", by Mrs. 

 Sophronia Irwin of Excelsior. (See index.) Mrs. Irwin's paper 

 was listened to with great attention and at its close she was 

 liberally applauded. A long and interesting "discussion fol- 

 lowed, at the end of which the society adjourned to meet at 

 7:30 P. M. 



Evening Session, 7:30, Tuesday, Janury 10, 1893. 



The meeting was called to order by Pres. J. M. Underwood, 

 who introduced Hon. W. H. Eustis, mayor of Minneapolis. 

 Mayor Eustis stepped forward and welcomed the society to 

 Minneapolis in the following words: 



Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen: It is a great pleasure for 

 me to meet the representatives of the state horticultural society this 

 evening. Now, I did not intend to make you an address, but somebody 

 whispered in my ear some time ago, that having succeeded my disting- 

 uished predecessor, Mr. Winston, that I would be expected on this oc- 

 casion to come before you and say you are welcome to the city of Minne- 

 apolis, and when this evening, at dinner time, I saw that I was booked 

 for an address to you, I said that a cog had slipped somewhere. (Laughter.) 

 I am here to say just a word or two to you. 



I am glad to meet with you. It is a comfort and pleasure to turn in 

 from the cold street without and come up here and find the 

 palms all around, and the flowers blooming with fragrance, and 

 the tables weighted down with the fruit of the soil of Minnesota. 

 I have been pained ever since I came to the state, ten years 

 ago to think we could not raise apples in the state of Minnesota. But, 

 lo! the apple, my favorite fruit, is here. 1 remember, in old St. Lawrence 

 county in New York, how my father tried to start an orchard of apples: 

 year after year he would dig out the old and put in the new, but he never 

 succeeded in raising any apples. I had an idea that Minnesota, being on 

 about the same parallel as St. Lawrence, gave no promise of ever raising 

 apples here. We used to raise apples in some of the counties in the state 

 of New York, down in Geneseo and Rochester counties, but never in St. 

 Lawrence county. Now, when I came to find the finest grapes I have 

 ever seen raised here, right on the shores of lake Minnetonka, I could 

 hardly believe my eyes; but it is true. 



Now, if I were to select out any body of men and women in this state 

 before whom I would stand to-night, I should select those who are here 

 to-night. You are here as disciples of nature, because you are accustomed 

 to think the great thoughts of nature. You are groping through the 

 paths by the light of science, and by grafting and by pruning and by 

 tilling, you are bringing out beauty in the lily, you are adding sweetness 

 to the violet, flavor to the berry. That is more than Solomon could do. 

 You do it because you have your ear close down to the great beating 

 heart of nature and you are studying it. You think about these things 



