ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 77 



by day— it is the burden of your ttioughts— and it is the essence of your 

 dreams by night, how to produce some new variety. Now, then, such 

 lives develop the highest manhood and womanhood. 



I am glad to meet you to-night, you who hold communion with nature. 

 That is all we are here for, to follow in the footsteps and find out the 

 plans that the great Master had when he started vegetable life; to find 

 out his ways and ascertain his thoughts; and when at last we have ex- 

 hausted the laboratory of ihe great I Am, and ascertained the last secret 

 of the vegetable and animal life, then it will be time for the end of time 

 to come. We are marching on that highway and you are the pioneers, I 

 might say, in this movement to a higher vegetable life, which means a 

 higher animal life. 



I am glad to say welcome to you in the name of the city. You are wel- 

 come to this hive of hospitality, and I will not shorten or weaken our 

 greeting by making it long. You come to us and we give you the cordial 

 greeting of citizens who appreciate your life and the work that you are 

 doing. Our hospitality and our greeting is as sweet as the honey in the 

 honeycomb that I saw in yonder room. I remember, as a boy, I used to 

 sit down in my father's yard and listen and watch and wonder when the 

 bees would swarm. Then, at last, I would hear the increasing murmur 

 and see the increasing cluster, and I knew the old queen was moving, and 

 soon they would take a bee line for some place. Then, how we would fool 

 them with our mulberry stalks, and entice them to stop. (Laughter.) I 

 am glad we have held out the mulberry stalks and have caught this hive 

 of industry from all over the state and enticed it to light in this city for 

 a period. You are welcome to our city and hearts and all that we have. 

 (Applause.) 



Response to address of welcome by Hon. Alfred Terry, 

 Slay ton : 



Mr. President, Mr. Mayor and fellow horticulturists: Many of you 

 will join with me, I know, when I say that we have very pleasant recol- 

 lections of the past hospitality that we have always received from this 

 city. This lends even a double charm to this welcome which we have 

 just received from the mayor. (Applause) Many and many a time our 

 society has received a number of invitations at the same time, and I 

 know that Minneapolis has been placed where they have always felt that 

 they could have an undoubted aud unqualified welcome. 



We recognize that in Minneapolis wonderful improvments have been 

 going on in past years; we recognize nature's gifts, among them St. Anth- 

 ony Falls; we recognize also that push, that energy, that determination 

 of the citizens of this place. We also recognize that there is no inven- 

 tion of our times but what Minneapolis grasps after and places before 

 our eyes. We recognize also that in hospitality she is second to no city 

 in the world, and I shall be glad, with the rest of you, when I see that 

 ship of defense of ours, which is soon to be launched upon the oceans 

 of the world, I shall be glad, as I said before, to see that glorious vessel 

 bear the great name of Minneapolis, and spread its renown from continent 

 to continent. (Great applause.) 



I know that we oftimes go back to our boyhood days and think of the 

 pranks and tricks that we have played. We think of this, that and the 

 other thing, but the thoughts are only for a few moments. Yet when we 



