36 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



All intelligent citizens look to the soil as the great source of 

 national and individual wealth ; and consider every advance which 

 is made in its improvement adds to the means of their happiness. 

 Land and labor are the great sources of public and private wealth. 

 The more fertility we impart to the one, and the more intelligence we 

 infuse into the other, the greater will be the returns and the greater 

 our means and power. Wealth rightly employed procures for us all 

 the substantial enjoyments of life — it renders us as individuals or as 

 a nation, independent. The character and power of a state depend 

 upon the know'ledge, industry, enterprise and independence of the 

 rank and file of society, not upon the very few rich men, nor the few 

 wise men. 



The appellation of '•''great and good'" can surely be applied to those 

 who concentrate their efforts to improve an}^ particular branch of 

 ao^riculture, as they are thereby promoting the welfare of the whole 

 community and the happiness of the whole human family. 



The efforts of such persons as we have with us to-day to improve 

 the various branches of agriculture, by imparting scientific, as well 

 as the best practical instruction, are better appreciated and are 

 receiving more credit and encouragement from men of property, 

 culture and influence than ever before. Many of us can well remem- 

 ber the time when the worst stumbling blocks in the way of improve- 

 ment and progress were a few farmers themselves ; they were 

 distrustful of all institutions and associations that were being 

 inaugurated for the special benefit of agriculture ; they were noted 

 for their skill in the art of ' 'holding back" — no ox was ever more 

 skilled in this direction. But now, when such a one strays into our 

 meetings we have to look a long time before finding a mate for him^ 

 for no two were ever known to ''back" or ''pull," together. 



Prof. B. F. Koons when asked to read a paper on "Insect* 

 Injurious to the Apple," before a pomological society, said his first 

 thought was : ''No, I dare not confront such an assemblage of men 

 who are well informed upon this important subject;" and then after 

 giving a sober second thought to the matter, it occurred to him that 

 what he said there and the deliberations of that body would not stop 

 there, but its proceedings would find their way into the public prints 

 — that the reports would appear in the annual report of the Board 

 of Agriculture, and thus be perused by a hundred others for every 

 hearer present at that time. He also related several of his experi- 

 ences he had had as he mingled among men. On one occasion, in 



