72 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Washington five days ago, Pennsylvania was the only state the whole 

 of whose schedules had been received back at the census office, and I 

 need not tell you how formidable an undertaking is the tabulation of 

 the agricultural schedules of even a single state. I trust my Nebraska 

 friends recognize in the agricultural schedule of the eleventh census an 

 honest effort to give agriculture its due prominence in the great na- 

 tional stock-taking. When my worthy colleague (Mr. Mortimer 

 Whitehead) and myself entered upon the discharge of our duties, we 

 found that the most comprehensive and elaborate measures had been 

 concerted and already well nigh perfected — I will not say for magni- 

 fying the importance of the manufacturing interests of the country, 

 but certainly for leaving neither jot nor tittle of those interests with- 

 out adequate representation in the reports of the census. Inspired by 

 a keen sense of the injustice under which agriculture has for so long 

 been made to suffer, in that general belittling of its importance which 

 alone has rendered possible those inequalities of legislation which are 

 now proving so burdensome to the agricultural interests of the coun- 

 ty we started out with the determination that the eleventh census 

 should be made to afford the most faithful reflex of the actual condi- 

 tion of the farming interests of the Union that has ever been sought 

 to be obtained, and in this endeavor we were warmly supported by 

 Superintendent Porter. How far we have succeeded time alone will 

 show. 



Horticulture falls within the jurisdiction of my colleague, but the 

 allied subject of forestry, the importance of which is nowhere more 

 fully appreciated than in Nebraska, I am responsible for, and 1 am 

 now maturing my plans for a special investigation of that subject by 

 the most competent experts that are available for the purpose. As 

 you will already have discovered, the horticultural products of the 

 country have had an amount of attention bestowed upon them more 

 nearly commensurate with their importance than has ever been at- 

 tempted before. Not only are the horticultural questions in the gen- 

 eral farm schedule more numerous than those of any previous census, 

 but the special agent for that section, Mr. J. H. Hale, who, I regret 

 to say, will be unable to attend your meetings, has been instructed to 

 make his investigation as thorough as unlimited time, a liberal appro- 

 priation, and his own wisely directed enthusiam can make it. 



One word more in conclusion. I have often borne public testi- 



