PAPERS, ADDRESSES AND DISCUSSIONS OFFERED 

 AT VARIOUS MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



INVOCATION. 



Rev. L. H. Clarke, Gardiner. 



Our Heavenly Father, we ask Thy blessing upon this gather- 

 ing. As we come together bringing with us the first fruits of the 

 fields may it be that these shall fill our minds with holy sugges- 

 tions, may they be to us as a sweet song which awakens the high- 

 est emotions of the heart, by their perfection of beauty, sweetness 

 of fragrance and richness of substance, teaching us of Thy 

 unbounded resource of worth and glory, power and love. While 

 we consider the principles and methods of agriculture may we 

 feel Thy presence among us. We pray that this presence of 

 Thine may inspire us to recognize the true place which the 

 husbandman should occupy in society. Alay we feel that in this 

 age of wonderful development agriculture is still as in the days 

 gone by the basic pursuit of mankind and that it demands of 

 men the highest degree of culture of mind, purity of heart and 

 earnestness of endeavor to hold it in its enthroned position. 

 May it be a call of God to the farmer not only to produce boun- 

 tiful harvests but to discover the untold wealth of new harvests, 

 to reveal new products, bringing out of God's treasure house 

 things new as well as old. To this end may Thy blessing be 

 upon the Pomological Society of the State. Quicken this organ- 

 ization that it may be Thy servant, that it may bless society, 

 that it may make the husbandman a prince of God, a man not 

 only endowed with the power to produce wealth but a man of 

 highest moral and spiritual strength, one sufficient to sustain 

 society with the sustaining harvests from the broad fields and 

 vineyards, as well as one able to instill into the decaying elements 



