INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 



ON PLANT HARDINESS AND 



ACCLIMATIZATION. 



FIRST SESSION MORNING. 



Held in the Rooms of the American Institute, 19 West 44th 

 Street, New York City, October ist, 1907, at 10 A. M., the 

 President, James Wood, presiding. 



The President We meet in these rooms as the guests of the Ameri- 

 can Institute of the City of New York, and we have the President of the 

 Institute here with us this morning, Mr. Rutter, and I am sure we will 

 be pleased if Mr. Rutter would give us a word of welcome here. 



Mr. Rutter Mr. President and Gentlemen and Ladies : I am glad 

 to see you, the members of the Horticultural Society of New York. 



On behalf of the American Institute, it affords me very great pleas- 

 ure to welcome you, not only to the City of New York, but to the use 

 of the rooms of the American Institute. 



In former years it held very large expositions, and every individual 

 who had anything useful or anything novel that he wanted to introduce 

 to the world, was only too ready to take space and exhibit it in the in- 

 terests of the world, in these institutes, shows and exhibitions. Since that 

 time, of course, the City of New York has changed to that extent that ex- 

 hibitions of that kind at the present day would in no circumstances, in 

 my judgment, prove a success, for every manufactory, every department 

 store, every florist's establishment, has exhibitions of its own, that 

 the public can see day by day, and in this way no interests would be 

 served by such an undertaking by the American Institute at the present 

 time, in the form of an exhibition, or an exposition. 



I am pleased to say that the American Institute always takes an in- 

 terest, and is always ready to afford its accommodations to kindred 

 organizations, to all the societies that have at heart the welfare of the 

 agriculturists. 



I believe it has become an undisputed fact that not only the wealth 

 of individuals, but the wealth of nations is derived from the soil, and 

 the man or the woman who possesses the ability to make two blades of 

 grass grow where only one grew years ago, has certainly proved a benefit 

 to the world at large, and that is what you are doing, bringing to bear at 

 the present time all the scientific knowledge, and all the scientific ap- 



