STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. . oY 
Fame and Work. 
Other Horticultural Societies are watching our progress with much 
interest. Wisconsin places our work side by side with her own, and our 
Canadian brethren seem to be particularly anxious to know what we are 
doing; and even in Bremen, that for-off land of flowers, where some stray 
leaves of our transactions have chanced to fall, we have been quoted and 
our views commendedj by some of those old scientific horticulturists as- 
standard authority, emanating, as they evidently suppose, from men of pro= 
found learning and experience, Let us not try to undeceive them, but still 
continue our work with a zeal worthy of the cause in which we are engaged. 
Thus you see that our influence is not contined to the limits of our own 
State, and there is still a vast region beyond, having a soil and climate 
Similar to our own, that cannot go elsewhere for experience and advice 
with the same assurance of success. I merely speak in view of the import- 
ant results that must accrue from our well-directed efforts in horticultural 
Science. Go beyond the borders of our own State, across the Red River of 
the North, through the land of the Dakotas, along the Abissinawa, and all 
that region beyond which the eye of civilization has never yet explored, 
and we have a country equal in fertility and more extensive than the valleys 
of a thousand Niles. 
““'The march of empire westward wends its way,” not tardily, but with 
locomotive speed, and scarce has the iron track marked out its course before 
we see vast fields of waving grain spread out like ocean’s broad expanse. 
But this is not civilization, it is only capital that precedes it, and must soon 
give placefto thriving towns, villages and rural homes with all the surround- 
ings that mark the progress of civilization and refinement. How soon do 
we see the scheol house prominent in the centre of every district, and in 
every community the church spire pointing to the invisible. 
Ladies and Gentlemen, yours is a great work; you are laying a broad 
foundation that other societies similar to ours will yet build upon. You 
are instilling into the popular mind the principles of peace and good will. 
While the husbandman is beating the sword into the plowshare, it is yours 
to turn the spear into the pruning hook. And in adorning and beautifying 
your homes and making them attractive, you but set the example that 
others will follow until every home shall be made a place of beauty anda 
paradise to its possessor. Then may we look for the millenium, and not 
tillthen. In the meantime we must not expect that sunny skies and flowery 
paths will lure us on the way, but steady, versevering, well-directed effort, 
step by step, will bring us nearer, still nearer, to the goal of our desires. 
COMMITTEE ON ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT. 
Copy of the address was ordered filed for publication, and the 
appointment of a committee on the same was then taken up. 
M,. Jordon. I move that the chair appoint the committee. 
Motion was seconded and carried. 
Committee:—R. J. Mendenhall, T. G. Carter, J. S$. Harris. 
7 
