Complimentary Banquet to Lather Bwrbanfc 



gation of our own people. The next toast of the evening 

 will be : "What We Know About Horticulture." 



Colonel John P. Irish, to whom the response to this toast 

 has been assigned, has been a citizen of the State for more 

 than twenty years. From his earliest residence here he has 

 given the State the benefit of his broad experience, his com- 

 prehensive observation and his high intelligence. He has 

 devoted his very best energies to the development of the ma- 

 terial resources of California, and being gifted with the power 

 of statement, his expressions always illuminate any subject 

 which he treats. 



In addition to the response which he makes to this toast, 

 as a Director of the California State Board of Trade he 

 will extend the congratulations of the Board to Mr. Bur- 

 bank. 



I felicitate this company on the address he will deliver, 

 and take high pleasure in introducing Colonel John P. Irish. 



Response by Colonel John P. Irish. 



The State Board of Trade has for nearly twenty years 

 devoted itself to making known the apparent and latent re- 

 sources of California. In that time the State has achieved its 

 pre-eminence in horticulture. That industry here ranks with 

 the learned professions, requiring study and skill and a close 

 scrutiny of the working of Nature. Man is mighty, but he 

 does not know it all. A small insect, desiring a special fruit 

 for its sustenance, operates upon the limb of an oak tree, 

 and at the point of operation the fruit is produced. Another 

 insect, requiring a different fruit, operates upon the same oak 



. . 35 . . 



