1899.] ANNUAL REUNION. 93 



He said in the \nist almost everywhere rough nature has been 

 subdued and the earth has been moulded into forms of beauty. 

 The roadsides and the homes of almost all classes testify to the 

 increasing love for the beautiful in nature and show its enno- 

 bling influences. Each successive year shows a gratifying pro- 

 gress in the towns which surround our city. 



I feel we are reaping no scanty harvest from the seeds of 

 good works sown by the founders of this society. I feel this 

 society is doing well its difficult work by encouraging careful 

 discrimination in the search for perfection of culture. If we 

 implant in the minds of the young a love and reverence for the 

 beautiful in the nature about us we will have inculcated the best 

 teaching that it is possible to give. 



The j)eriod which has elapsed since this society was founded 

 has been marked by the introduction of more important im- 

 provements in every direction than any like period of the 

 world's history. Mr. Hadwen closed by introducing Henry L. 

 Parker as toastmaster. 



Mr. Parker said the members of the society take great pride 

 in the fact that they own this hall, and that they can gather in 

 so many representatives of kindred societies and states. Last 

 year has been an eventful one. When we gathered last there 

 were nmtterings of war. Since then war has been fought and 

 we have been ceded a vast amount of territory. What will be 

 done with this territory, whether we help to provide for those 

 countries a good government, or whether we keep them as a 

 part of the United States, is a question yet to be settled, though 

 the latter course is a consummation not devoutly to be wished. 

 However, there can be no doubt ihe results of the war will 

 be of immense consequence to horticulture. Of the 1(), 000, 000 

 acres in Cuba, only 2,000,000 are under cultivation, and yet 

 there can be grown there almost all the crops of the earth and 

 grown the year around. All that is necessary to do is to tickle 

 the crop with a hoe. 



There are three horticultural societies represented here, 

 which are the oldest in the country, — the Massachusetts, the 

 Worcester and the Rhode Island Societies. It gives me pleasure 



