STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 9 



improved in practical knowledge, and better fitted for the duties 

 of life in which you are daily engaged. 



Sure as the sunlight of the morning to the natural world is the 

 yearly banquet of fruits and flowers to the cultivator. Annually 

 is it spread, varied only that our labors may never weary and our 

 interest never wane. With faitli we plant the seed and prune the 

 vine ; with intense interest watch the growth of the plant and the 

 development of the fruit. Did you ever think how your interest 

 would be abated were success always certain — were there no 

 drawbacks and disappointments, — with how much less en-nest- 

 ness and less perseverance your efforts would be pursued did 

 success unbounded always crown your efforts ? Yet the annual 

 banquet is always served, and the disappointments and discour- 

 agements, buried at the time, are resurrected to greater enjoy- 

 ments and to a higher appreciation of the works of the Creator. 

 Thus by the obstacles we meet are we made to enjoy the success 

 which follows, and are irresistibly spurred on in our efforts to 

 beautify and adorn the earth on which we live, and thereby render 

 it more enjoyable to our fellow man. 



Our mission we believe to be a worthy one. All are ready to 

 acknowledge the influence of the cultivation of fruits and flowers 

 on our higher natures. As they are with certainty annually given 

 to us, so are they as sure to exert a refining and elevating influence 

 upon our higher faculties, leading us from the grosser tendencies 

 of our natures to a higher and a better life. No one can be daily 

 engaged in the cultivation of such oflerings as have been placed 

 upon those tables, and at the same time walk with the low and 

 degraded in his moral and spiritual nature. We see evidence of 

 this on every hand. We prove it in the bearing and deportment 

 of those who visit our exhibition. Without fear of being open to 

 accusations of unjust egotism we say that we feel proud of every 

 individual who has enrolled himself as a member of our society. 

 With equal safety may we point to the high moral standing of 

 those not on the list of members, who have so generously con- 

 tributed to make this exhibition what we now see it. 



While we never should lose sight of the influence of our exhibi- 

 tions, we should remember that all the influence we hope to exert, 

 all the good we hope to work out, is not wrought through a 

 display of the productions we would foster and encourage. Highly 

 as we value the aesthetic influence of horticulture and floriculture, 

 we must bear in mind that the greatest influence comes through 



