STATE HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 447 



mals of other species were to be found in lakes and rivers, the 

 forests and open prairies harbored countless numbers of game, 

 and the shrubs and trees furnished a vast amount of nutritious 

 fruit. Everything necessary for the sustenance of a frugal hu- 

 man being, in the form of food, clothing and habitation, was, in 

 a strict sense of the word, at that time attainable with compara- 

 tively little effort. 



The aborigines of the country, the same as we signify to-day 

 by the name of "Indians," were, at that time, the legal owners 

 and rulers of this vast wilderness and its rich treasure; they 

 were in possession of a paradise, in which these people enjoyed 

 a happy life, full of contentment; the wild nature of the country 

 closely resembling their primitive life, similar to that of the first 

 pair of human beings in the garden of Eden. Like the angel sent 

 by God, after the fall of man, armed with a sword for the purpose 

 of driving Adam and Eve out of paradise, came the civilizing 

 people from Europe into the American wilderness. The axe and 

 the fire destroyed, in an astonishingly short space of time, the 

 luxuriant forests and grassy prairies to an immense extent. Agri- 

 cultural machines of various kinds, and trained domestic animals, 

 aided the diligent hands and the intelligence of man, in the cul- 

 tivation of the soil and in his aim at agricultural success. In place 

 of the former wilderness appeared farms and plantations with 

 luxuriant and remunerative cultivation, flourishing gardens and 

 profitable stocks of cattle. Side by side with agriculture and 

 horticulture and in the same proportion, industries and commerce 

 began to flourish, and means of communication and ways of 

 transportation were established. Population increased steadily, 

 and the formation of new and well organized states resulted in 

 comparatively short periods. The number of population in- 

 creased from a few hundred thousand to fifty millions in a com- 

 paratively short space of time. All nations of Europe and many 

 countries of Africa and Asia, all religious sects and all languages 

 have contributed rej)resentatives, who live in peace, have friend- 

 ly intercourse with each other, follow their separate vocations 

 undisturbed,. and have good cause to be contented and happy. 

 No country on the globe shows in the course of its history a sim- 

 ilar development of its society, agriculture, industry and com- 

 merce to the United States of America. 



The conditions and motives causing this development and 

 guaranteeing its thriving progress in the future, find their sure 

 source of support in the here ruling freedom; in the protection, 



