24 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Do thou bless with thy loving kindness the absent friends, 

 those whom some of us have left in our homes. Be with them ; 

 guard them from every danger and all peril and all harm. Pre- 

 serve thou us and them and all thy people, that as we strive for 

 the better things of life, as we give the work of our hands and 

 the devotion of our minds, that we may accomplish better 

 results, that more of comfort and more of convenience and more 

 of happiness may come into our homes and into our lives ; do 

 thou bless our endeavor. 'Do thou be with these brethren who 

 meet together to exchange their experience and their knowledge. 

 Bless those who give and bless those who receive. Let kindness 

 and mutual regard be manifest in all the meetings. 



Hear these our prayers, forgive us, we pray thee, our short- 

 comings which are too many, and prosper us by the presence of 

 thy Holy Spirit in all our thought and in our speech and what 

 we do and what we are striving to become. We ask it in His 

 Name. — Amen. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME 

 By Principal W. S. Brown, Dexter. 



In behalf of the citizens of our town and village, I extend to 

 you a sincere and cordial welcome to our community. You have 

 met here for consultation, discussion and deliberation. You are 

 interested in the development and promotion of an important 

 branch of our agricultural interests. 



Though farming always has been, is, and must ever be the 

 basis of the world's industrial activity, yet it has never received 

 the attention it has merited. Most men have followed it more 

 as a fate than a vocation. A youth of today, standing on the 

 threshold of life, confronted by the momentous necessity of 

 choosing his sphere of labor, of taking his place among the mil- 

 lions of competing toilers, too often turns his back on the farm 

 and casts his lot with those who are already congesting the busi- 

 ness and professional avenues. 



Why does he leave the only field which today is not over- 

 crowded for one where the laborers are many and the harvest 

 small ? The answer is not far to seek. There are two reasons. 



