514 TwElTTY-FlEST BlENNIAL RePOET 



MOSES F. JOHNSON, AN APPRECIATION 



H. F. Hillenmeyer. 



The sad duty of offering a brief memoir of the late Moses F. 

 Johnson, long president of this association, has been assigned to 

 me. May it be said first, that continuing and severe illness has made 

 it impossible to search for personal scattered records, or examine 

 fuller ones not in my possession. I thus detail personal reminiscen- 

 ces rather than offer an historic narrative. 



I first became acquainted with Mr. Johnson as Superintendent 

 of the fruit exhibit of the Louisville Southern Exposition in. 1883. 

 His name and fame had, however, extended over the state as Pres- 

 ident of the Fern Creek Fair Association of Jefferson County, a fair 

 which was unique in that its exhibits consisted only of fruits, 

 flowers and vegetables. In digression may it be said, that around 

 this interesting hamlet of Fern Creek, and by Messrs. Johnson, 

 Decker, Strong and Hawes — a former secretary of this society — ■ 

 was first demonstrated in Kentucky, the feasibility of the profitable 

 cultivation of the improved blackberry right where the wild one Avas 

 a pest in every worn or barren field, and to add further that here 

 also and at the same time, kindred spirits were evolving the in- 

 dustry of the second crop potato. 



Then he is recalled as a judge of fruits at fairs, near and wide, 

 or as manager of such exhibits. At the St. Louis World's Exposi- 

 tion he staged and managed our state's offering with honor to him- 

 self and to it. During the earlier years of the State Fair he offici- 

 ated in the same capacity. Then other trusts came to him, and he 

 was unable to yield further service in that line, and declined the 

 further presidency of this body. 



When Col. Ion B. Nail became State Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture, appreciatiag Mr. Johnson's wide, accurate and up-to-date 

 knowledge of the theoretical and practical phases of all the ques- 

 tions and problems invo/ved, he was offered and accepted the posi- 

 tion of State Institute ] ecturer. It was in this field that he became 

 so widely known in eveiy part of the state and perhaps accomplished 

 his greatest work. 



Mr. Johnson was not an ornate speaker. He was one of those 

 rare men who can stand before an audience, and in language simple 

 as that of a child discuss a practical or technical question so con- 

 nectedly, so logicjiily, and convincingly that any hearer of the gospel 

 of fruits, of trees, of flowers, of the necessities and amenities that 

 could and should surround every country home, heard it indeed in 

 his own tongue. 



These are the salient features of Mr. Johnson's public career. 

 But he was a many sided man. His courtesy in every contact with 

 his equals, subordinates, associates and all, was faultless. He was 



