314 ANNUAL REPORT. 



President Wilder's appropriate and interesting address was well 

 read, and was listened to with marked attention by every one 

 present. 



First Vice President Berckmans then announced the second 

 regular sentiment, as follows: 



" The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society." 



Responded to by President SchaiFer, who presented the statistics 

 of the growth of Philadelphia and of the institutions of the Quaker 

 City, all of which are given at length in the Pomological Report. 



President Schaffer then announced the third regular sentiment^ 

 as follows : 



" Pomology of the South." — Dr. Samuel Hape, Vice President 

 of the Georgia Horticultural Society. 



Dr. Hape made an eloquent and appropriate response, a copy of 

 which has not been furnished the editor. 



President Schaffer then announced the fourth sentiment : 



" The Refining Influence of Pomology,'' and called on Dr. W. 

 J. Beai, Secretary of the American Pomological Society, who spoke 

 in the humorous line, f but was too modest to print his remarks or 

 furnish them for publication — an example in a Secretary not to 

 be commended. — g.J 



President Schaffer then announced the fifth regular sentiment,, 

 as follows : 



"The Growth of Horticulture in the great Mississippi Valley,"" 

 calling on Hon. Parker Earle, President of the Mississippi Valley 

 Horticultural Society. 



Mr. Earle responded as follows : 



Mr. President: The Mississippi Valley is truly a great one. It 

 is not only the largest, but it is the richest valley in the world. It 

 embraces twenty states — and they are all large ones — and several 

 vigorous territories in training to become states. It extends from 

 the Alleghenies to the Rockies, and from the great lakes to the 

 Gulf of Mexico. I will not tell you anything about the wonderful 

 richness of our soil, the weight of our farm crops, the size of our 

 herds, the magnitude of our mines, of our seventy-five thousand 

 miles of railway mostl)'^ built in a quarter of a century, for you all 

 know that when any nation of the world gets hungry it sends to 

 the Mississippi Valley and gets plenty of food, and when its clothes 

 wear out we send the wool find the cotton to make more. 



You have asked me to say something about the growth of horti- 

 culture in this great valley. But, sir, the subject is too large and 

 the time is too short, I can truly say that some wonderful things. 



