STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 57 



mountain ! If the one thousand members do not come to us, we 

 must go to them, with the press gang of persuasion and a copy of 

 our report, including the back numbers, and bring them in. In a 

 word we need to set afoot some good missionary work. It will pay 

 now, and pay still better hereafter ; for in horticulture there are no 

 backsliders. 



THE PRIZE ESSATS. 



A few days before the departure of Wyman Elliot for California, 

 I received a notice from him that the committee on the essays 

 about Orcharding in Minnesota had awarded the prize of twenty- 

 five dollars to Hon. K. P. Speer, of Cedar Falls, Iowa. An order 

 for the amount was drawn on the treasurer and sent to Mr. Speer, 

 and it has been paid. The prize on the essay on Seedling Fruits 

 was awarded to Mr. Pefifer, and that also has been paid. 



THE AMERICAN FORESTRY CONGRESS. 



At the summer meeting of our Society a resolution was presen- 

 ted by Col. Stevens and adopted, expressive of our good will and 

 hospitality towards the American Forestry Congress to assemble 

 August 8, in St. Paul. I attended this session of the Congress, 

 and did what I could to carry out the spirit of the resolution. 

 Copies of our report of this year were furnished to the members in 

 attendance with the compliments of our Society, under instruc- 

 tions from the Executive Committee, and a resolution of thanks 

 was passed therefor. On the second day of the session I had the 

 honor of receiving from the ladies of the Jewell Nursery at Lake 

 City, a large shipment by express of cut flowers in button hole 

 bouquets, baskets, hand bouquets, &c., and of presenting the same to 

 the Forestry Congress with the compliments of the donors and of 

 the State Horticultural Society. They were turned over by 

 the President of the Congress to Hon. H. Gr. Joly of Quebec, for 

 distribution to the members, and the occasion formed a pleas- 

 ant episode in the closing hour of the session. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



I also attended the meeting of this Society a portion of its time 

 to see what could be found for the advancement of horticulture. 

 Its biological section under the charge of Prof. Wm. J. Beal, of 

 the State Agricultural College at Lansing, Michigan, and who is 



