STATU POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 29 



this society, be with all that may be said so that it shall tend to 

 the prosperity, the increase of prosperity in our State, that we 

 may become with the growing years more and more a State 

 where thy favors rest. We pray thee, our Father, that thou 

 wilt indeed be with every session of this convention. 



We remember with a great deal of gratitude, some of us men 

 and women who have been called from the fields, the pastures 

 and the orchards, we remember the early days. We pray thy 

 blessing, then, to rest upon the husbandmen, these men and 

 women who come from the fields, come from the places that are 

 nearest to the heart of God for they are near the heart of nature, 

 these men and women who toil, labor and live in the fresh, 

 beautiful country, among the orchards and vineyards and pas- 

 tures and fields. Help us to learn there where thou hast placed 

 us the lesson of faith and contentment, to hear amidst the flowers 

 as they bloom the teachings of the Divine Master, "Consider the 

 lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they 

 spin." Help us to learn the lesson of abiding in the Divine 

 Master. As the branch abides in the vine, so may we learn to 

 abide in thee. And help us in all our lives to yield the peaceable 

 fruits of righteousness, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentle- 

 ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, — against such there 

 is no law. And so by the means of culture and the means of 

 information that shall come from this gathering of thy ser.vants 

 and thy husbandmen here in our city, may it tend to the increase 

 ot contentment and prosperity and peace throughout our bord- 

 ers. 



We ask it all in the name of Him who has taught us to say 

 ''our Father." Amen. 



