40 ANNUAL REPORT. 



On motion of J. S. Harris, Cyrus L. Smith, of Minneapolis, 

 was chosen assistant secretary. 



Mr. J. S. Harris was called upon to respond to the address of 

 Capt. Blakeley, and then came forward and said : 



Mr. President : In reply to the remarks of Capt. Blakeley I 

 have only a word to say. When we received an invitation last 

 winter, at our annual session, to hold our next annual meeting 

 in St. Paul, we were rather glad, and to receive a welcome to 

 the city of St. Paul makes us feel still better. We desired to 

 meet you, the people of St. Paul and the people who represent 

 our great State in the legislature at our meetings, in order that 

 they might witness the course of action which we might take, the 

 work which we are doing, in order that if they approved of it/, 

 and appreciated what we were doing, they might lend some State 

 aid for the purpose of developing and enlarging our work. 



The mission of the Horticultural Society, as you all know, is 

 more than to develop fruit growing in the State of Minnesota. 

 We say horticulture; what is horticulture"? Horticulture is gar- 

 dening — gardening of every kind; it is the planting of the forests 

 upon our broad prairies; it is the planting of shade trees that 

 adorn the streets of our cities ; the planting of trees along the 

 roadside, the planting of orchards and vineyards, the growing 

 and harvesting of fruits, and more than that, it is attending the 

 little and tender flower which shall make fragrant the poor man's 

 cottage or adorn the costliest and most gorgeous green-house 

 filled with its exotics, making the homes of the people of Min- 

 nesota happy and beautiful. 



We have, during the eighteen years that the association has 

 been in existence, accomplished something, and we feel encour- 

 aged at the work we have done thus far. We have aimed to lead 

 people to inquire what they needed to do in order that they might 

 raise orchards and gardens, fruits and flowers. Our society was 

 organized in the city of Rochester, on the fourth of October, 

 1866, and it was a hard task to organize it. We called a meet- 

 ing, at which there were some fifteen or twenty persons present, 

 attending the State fair, and we started an association called the 

 Minnesota Fruit Growers' Association. We organized and made 

 efforts to encourage those present, as well as others, to do some- 

 thing to promote the planting of orchards and the growing of 

 fruit. I remember that at the close of the meeting we prevailed 

 upon twelve men to become members of the association. The 

 next year we had another meeting, and it was by means of the 



