STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 25 
TUESDAY MORNING. 
The annual convention of the State Horticultural Society met in pursuance to 
notice in the City Hall, in this aty, yesterday, at 10 4. M., J. T. Grimes, Esq., 
of Hennepin county, im the chair. <A beautiful and appropriate composition, 
“Consider the Lilies,’ was rendered by Mrs. A. C. Dewitt, m a charming man- 
ner, when Rey. Dr. E. D. Neill offered an impressive prayer. President Grimes 
then Introduced to the society Mr. A. B. Nettleton, of the Tribune, who, in be- 
half of the citizens of Minneapolis, extended the hospitalities of the city to the 
members of the society in the following words: 
THE WELCOME. 
Gentlemen of the State Horticultural Society: It has been made my pleas- 
ant duty to extend to you, on behalf of the citizens of Minneapolis, a hearty and 
old-fashioned welcome. You are most cordially weclome, not only to the aty 
in which we take a pardonable pride, but also to the homes and firesides of her 
people. I discharge this duty with the greater pleasure because | have a per- 
sonal, sincere and abiding belief in the great importance of the work with which 
you are identified. If he is a benefactor of his race who causes two blades of 
grass to grow where but one grew before, what shall we say of the men who, 
with tireless patience and intelligent zeal, study the capabilities of our soil, and 
the capabilities of a climate like that of Minnesota, and urge nature to bring 
forth in abundance those products which, without urging she would rigorously 
withold from man? You, gentlemen, are certainly benefactors of that portion 
of the human race occupying this new northwest. 
Your president has casually mentioned railroads. Itis my belief that the men 
who are conspicuously identified with these and kindred great commercial un- 
dertakings—enterprises that impress the imagination with their magnitude— 
get an undue share of credit in connection with our material progress. The 
welfare and proserity of a community, of a State, ofa nation, rest, after all, upon 
the persistent and modest labors of such as you—men who work for the future 
as well asthe present, in subduimg the forces and possibilities of nature to subserve 
the needs of the human family. Again commending you to the hospitality of 
our citizens, and trusting that your deliberations may result as profitably as you 
could wish, | will occupy no more of your time. 
THE RESPONSE. 
In response to which the society, through John 8. Harris, of Houston county, 
replied. 
Mr. Presidént, and people of Minneapolis, through their representative, Gen. 
Nettleton: We accept the welcome extended, and appreciate it, not so much 
because it comes from a people proyerbial throughout the land for hospitality, 
but because we feel that it is the spontaneous expression of a people peculiar for 
their love of the good and beautiful; who have the welfare of this State at heart; 
have confidence in the State Horticultural Society, and are in sympathy with our 
labors. Our society was organized in the dark days, when it was believed by 
almost everyone that whatever other advantages our State possessed it could 
never be made to produce good frult. Twelve or fifteen years since, after three 
