EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 89 



to-night go home with that resolve and put that rcsohition to 

 grow the best fruit possible, into practice at an early day. If 

 you do that, I do not think you need fret very much about the 

 competition of those more favored regions so far away. Let 

 us grow the best to the highest state of development, then 

 grade it conscientiously, pack it attractively, and place it 

 before the consumer as the best of its kind. Banquets of this 

 kind will do much to stimulate the grower to develop that 

 which is truly the "Flower of Commodities." 



ToASTMASTER Hale : I am glad to be able to say to you 

 that we have a man with us to-night wdio really knows some- 

 thing. He is a former president of the Ohio Horticultural 

 Societv. and he is going to tell us something worth knowing : 

 Mr. W. W. Farnsworth. 



Mr. Farnsworth : I think the most of you are acquaint- 

 ed with Mr. Hale and know how much to discount his 

 speeches. I am glad to say that I am a native of New 

 England ; that is. about a hundred years ago my grandfather 

 went from a little north of here to the West. I have been 

 thinking to-night that if he could have looked into the future 

 and seen what it held for the earnest workers of the soil, 

 could have seen this magnificent display of apples on the 

 tables, that he would have felt that Connecticut held as much 

 in store for him as did Ohio. You know some Westerners 

 say that the Ohioans started West, got "cold feet" and 

 stopped. We don't accept that; we claim the State was set- 

 tled by people who knew a good thing Avhen they saw it and 

 were contented to stay where they were instead of going fur- 

 ther and faring worse. 



I congratulate this Society for the splendid showing you 

 are making in your work, for the great interest that is mani- 

 fested here, and upon your awakening to the splendid oppor- 

 tunities that lie before you. at your very threshold. Do you 

 know, I have been telling my friends that I had rather have 

 an apple orchard in ( )hio than an orange grove in California. 

 "He laughs best who laughs last." I am laughing now; the 

 future is very bright for the horticulturist who will improve 

 the knowledge he has at his command to-day. Fifteen years 



