XVI. 



HORTICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY.' 



"Ultimate results of the World's Fair exhibits of 

 fruits and flowers." This is the subject which your 

 secretary has set before me for discussion. It is one 

 peculiarly difficult to consider, because the ultimate 

 good which -comes from such exhibitions as these is 

 subjective rather than objective. In other words, each 

 observer draws certain conclusions for himself which 

 are likely to continue to influence his thought and busi- 

 ness for years to come, even after the memory of the 

 exhibits themselves has grown old and dim. For the 

 time being, your mind may rest upon some new variety 

 which you have seen, or upon some new or at least 

 strange method of propagation or management of nur- 

 sery stock ; but after a time the variety becomes old or 

 passes from sight, and the strange methods have lost 

 their first interest to you. These observations are not 

 the ultimate results which are to influence your life, and 

 if you have not seen beyond them, the great exposition 

 can have only a temporary value and interest for you. 

 The visitor may not at first catch any larger truth which 

 seems to fit into his life, but if he has seen the exhibits 

 carefully, he is likely, eventually, to evolve a few gen- 

 eral facts which abide with him. So the ultimate value 



iRead before the American Association of Nurserymen at tlie World's Fair, 

 Ciiicago, June 7, 1893. Printed in Report of flie Eighteenth Annual Meeting, pp. 

 lto5. 



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