16 ANNUAL REPORT. 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Members and Friends of the Minnesota State Horticultural 

 Society : 

 We meet again in these familiar halls for a season of rest and 

 recreation, and to make another page in the book of horticulture; 

 to exchange friendly greetings, and to tell one another of our suc- 

 cesses and failures, and to receive and impart information that shall 

 make us happier in the pursuit of our avocation, and more useful 

 citizens of Minnesota. The queen of fruits, the gay beautiful 

 queen, has spread a feast and decked the tables with garlands, and 

 we are the invited guests. We come from near and far, and have 

 left business and care at home, and she bids us have a good time. 

 As she is the first dowered daughter of Pomona, it is well 

 that we are disposed to win her smiles by devoting 

 to her much of our attention. Sweet Flora has 

 also secured a place of honor in this feast, and although she may 

 blush to hear our open praise of her beauty, she will not with- 

 draw her smiles or withhold her sweetness when we do homage to 

 the queen. We meet under auspicious circumstances, and we have 

 reasons for congratulation upon the progress that horticulture is 

 making in this state, and for rejoicing that a benificent Providence 

 has smiled upon all our broad domain and given us a seed time, 

 and a bountiful harvest is now at our very doors. The floods and 

 the winds that strike terror to the heart and leave ruin and death 

 in their track have passed us by and health and prosperity are our 

 lot. Our Society is in a flourishing condition; is entirely out 

 of debt, except a debt of gratitude to those true friends who had 

 faith in us, and rendered us assistance in our day of small things, 

 and we have a larger membership than at any previous time. I 

 have heard only good reports of the late annual meeting held in 

 this place, and it has universally been pronounced the best one 



