HOXURS TO AMUXDSEX AXU PEARY 



1 i 



jujubes were grown, dried, and candied 

 in California, where they had been in- 

 troduced by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, and were the first of the home- 

 grown variety to be served at a public 

 function. 



ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT GANNETT 



Members of the National Geographic 

 Society, ladies and gentlemen: It is with 

 great pleasure that I welcome you here 

 this evening, on the occasion of our 25th 

 anniversary. A quarter of a century ago 

 a few score of men assembled in the 

 Cosmos Club and organized this Society 

 and elected Gardiner Greene Hubbard its 

 first President. The Society has had a 

 wonderful growth in its membership, and 

 today its members number 170,000. The 

 business of the Society has likewise 

 grown, and the total income last year 

 from all sources was $370,000. Of this 

 amount, after paying the running ex- 

 penses and spending some $14,000 in 

 geographic research, the sum of $50,000, 

 more or less, was added to our reserve 

 fund, which now stands at a total of 

 about $175,000. 



W'e have carried on geographic re- 

 search this year in Peru and on the east 

 coast of Hudson Bay and have made 

 an examination of Katmai volcano, in 

 southern Alaska, which broke out seri- 

 ously last summer. 



The theme this evening is the South 

 Pole. We are fortunate to have with us 

 Capt. Roald Amundsen, the hero of the 

 South Pole, to whom is to be awarded a 

 gold medal by the Society. The Toast- 

 master this evening is Robert Edwin 

 Peary, the hero of the other end of the 

 earth. I have the honor to present Ad- 

 miral Peary. 



THE TOASTM ASTER, ROBERT E. PEARY 



Mr. President and fellozv-memhers of 

 the National Geographic Society: I fancy 

 it is suj^erfluous for me to say to you 

 how deeply I appreciate the honor of 

 being elected by the Society as Toast- 

 master for this distinguished occasion. 

 I will say to you that I recognize fully 

 that the first qualification for the posi- 

 tion of Toastmaster is to let the others 

 do the talking:. 



Before beginning with the program of 

 the evening 1 am going to read two an- 

 nouncements to you, the first in regard 

 to the special delicacy which you will 

 have the opportunity this evening to test. 

 I might say that our members and guests 

 always appreciate and welcome the oj)- 

 ])ortunity given us by our friends, the 

 Secretary of Agriculture and his assist- 

 ants, to test some of the discoveries 

 made in foreign lands by the agricultural 

 explorers of the Department. 



Two years ago the members of the 

 Society were the first at a large function 

 to test the American-grown dasheen, im- 

 ported from China. Last year Amer- 

 ican-grown dates, imported from Africa 

 and grown in California, were served to 

 us. This year we are given the oppor- 

 tunity of tasting some preserved Chinese 

 jujubes. The story of their discovery in 

 China and of their cultivation in America 

 is told on the printed matter which is 

 placed at every plate this evening. 



AWARD OF GRANT SQUIRES PRIZE 



The first award of the Society from 

 the Grant Squires fund, relating to com- 

 merce and industries of the Orient, has 

 been made to the author of ''Farmers of 

 Forty Centuries." ^Mr. F. H. King. This 

 book is an exhaustive study of the meth- 

 ods by which a very populous nation 

 have been so skillfully cultivating their 

 lands for more than 4.000 years that the 

 fields of China are today more fertile 

 than when first cultivated by man. That 

 is a wonderful record. Mr. King's book 

 represents what the Society believes is 

 an ideal study of foreign places. 



This Society, among other eft'orts in 

 the wide field of research which it has 

 undertaken, has been assisting in ex- 

 ploration in South America, and the first 

 speaker of the evening will be the leader 

 of the Yale-X^ational Gcogra])hic Society 

 Peruvian Kx])edition during the year 

 TO12. This expedition, under the leader- 

 ship of Dr. Bingham, has performed a 

 most interesting work, and procured, af- 

 ter trials and tribulations, most valuable 

 material. 



T have the pleasure of introducing Dr. 

 Hiram Bingham, who will tell us of the 

 home of the Incas and their predecessors. 



