STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. I 95 
they could be made available in many ways? They could be exchanged with 
the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies of other States for similar 
works of theirs, and thus form the nucleus of a library which we very much 
need. They could also be made use of as missionary tracts to enlighten a 
certain class at our own doors: for there are thousands who have been edu- 
cated only in the epicurean department of taste, and who regard the beauties 
of the rose as inferior to that of the cauliflower. They could also be used as 
emigration tracts to show the resources of our State in the production of 
fruits. Each State is endeavoring to produce not only the necessaries of 
life, but to have a surplus for export by which the balance of trade is main- 
tained in her favor. A gentleman from Maine was asked what do you grow 
down in your State? Wegrow men; and by the way, ours is the best State in 
the union to emigrate from. Now, while our State is sending her immigration 
documents broadcast to inform the world that we grow wheat by the million 
bushels to be manufactured in our own mills of a hundred run of burrs, that 
no other country in the same latitude can mature corn to perfection equal to 
ours and produce half the amount. While you are telling the Englishman 
that the luxuriance and richness of our grasses will fatten a thousand cattle 
upon a hill, the Irishman that we growa mighty heap of potatoes, the 
Frenchman that our soil produces abundantly of oil and wine, end the 
Dutchman that it is a land flowing mit sour krout and larger beer, and that all 
we can possibly need is a famine in some other part of the country to realize 
good prices and a ready market forall our surplus products. While you are 
making known all these truths, let it also be known that we can grow fruit 
and men. A few copies might also be used for the benefit of some of our 
eastern friends who have never verged from around the old hearthstone of 
sacred memories to gaze upon the wide, open world beyond, but still think 
they occupy the very centre of civilization, and need not go very far toward 
the setting sun in order to approach him who is next neighbor to a savage. 
In proof I have but to name a friend of mine residing right here in Minne- 
apolis, who a short time since visited the home of his nativity, way down in 
that old time honored State where wooden nutmegs used to grow, and was 
stopping with a pious deacon, who, in all the simplicity of his heart, besought 
the Lord in family prayers to bless his friend from the far distant West who 
had so little opportunity of hearing the gospel preached. But times and 
things have changed, and this once vast wilderness is now beginning to 
blossom as the rose. No wonder our eastern friends express surprise, when 
once they see what otherwise they could not believe, except some gent 
through some magic skill, had worked his way with giant power; but no, 
it could not be, there is a race more potent still, a race of heroes with uncon- 
quered will. Look at our mills, factories, workshops, school houses, 
churches, and farms that have sprung into existence on every hand within 
the last half score of years. But what has horticulture to do with all this? 
Much in many ways. She lends her tastes to every laudable enterprise to 
beautify and adorn, and none can be complete without her aid. Hers is the 
wreath that encircles the brow, the jewel that sparkles in the crown. 
Nurserymen. 
It is said by some that this Society has been run in the interest of the 
nurserymen. Suppose, for the sake of argument, we admit that it has; 
