STATE HOHTlCULTtTRAL SOCIETY. 93 



about grape culture, and that is our president. I think that he ought 

 to be added to that committee. Tiiere is no question but what he has 

 had as much experience as any or all of us put together, I move that 

 our president be added to that committee. 



The motion was adopted. 



On motion, the meeting then adjourned until 2 o'clock p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 

 Tuesday, January 19, 1886. 

 The meeting was called to order by the President at 2 o'clock p. m. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



Prof. Edward D. Porter, of the State University Farm was intro- 

 duced and delivered the following Address of Welcome : 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Horticultural Society : 



I feel myself, sir, very highly honored in being called upon to extend 

 to you the congratulations of the horticulturists of Hennepin. County 

 and the citizens of Minneapolis upon thisyournineteeuth annual meet- 

 ing. We greet you, sir, not as strangers in our midst, for your annual 

 gatherings for years past have been looked forward to by our citizens 

 with pleasure and with profit. We greet you also, gentlemen, not only 

 for the many pleasant social relations which have been formed by these 

 gatherings, but for the honor of the work in which you are engaged. 

 By your efforts you have removed the stigma which rested in the 

 early years of our State history upon us, because our soil, they said, 

 was unfruitful and our climate uncongenial, incapable of producing 

 anything but snow and ice, and pine trees and prairies. But your 

 efforts have shown, that, in addition to these, and fair women and 

 noble men, and an abundance of No, 1 hard wheat, we can compete 

 with the world in the production of flowers and fruits and vegetables, 

 these three graces of agriculture which add beauty and comfort to the 

 strength of the other products of the soil. But, gentlemen, these re- 

 sults have not been accomplished without untiring labor and ceaseless 

 energy. The difficulties, discouragements and failures in horticulture 

 in this State in the past thirty years have been enough to dishearten 

 men of average courage, but, as "a smooth sea never made a skillful 



