C. L. Watrous, Des Moines........ C. H. Weaver, 129 South Water street, Chicago......... D. H. Wright, Minneapolis............. Mrs. F. F. Whitehead, New Orleans......... A. W. Wells, St. Joseph............ Mrs. Nevie Woods, Stilesville........... Iowa. .Iowa. .Illinois. .Illinois. Illinois. ..Tennessee. ...Illinois. .Illinois. . Illinois. Minnesota. .Louisiana. .Michigan. ...Indiana. James L. Whippo, Anderson...... Leo Weltz, Wilmington A. R. Whitney, Franklin Grove........ S. D. Willard, Geneva.......... Wm. Wesselhoft, 306 North Fifth street, St. Louis............................. F. M. Webster, Normal........... C. B. Warren, Kansas City. Indiana. ..Ohio. .Illinois. New York. .Missouri. Illinois. ..Missouri. The fourth annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society was held in the city of New Orleans, February 21, 22, 23 and 24, 1883. This meeting was held under circumstances of peculiar interest, the Society being, at the time, the guest of the Gulf States Fruit Growers' Association. The leading railroads of the South and West contributed much to the interest of the occasion by offering very liberal rates to delegates who wished to attend the meeting. The Illinois Central railroad company set the good example by offering very low rates from Chicago and other points on their lines, which, good example, was followed by no less than eighteen other companies, whose lines lead in the direction of New Orleans. But for the unprecedented floods, extending over the North and West, which rendered railroad travel not only very precarious, but in many instances absolutely impossible, there would have been many more to have enjoyed this pleasant and very profitable meeting in the Crescent City of the South. Many are the disappointments expressed by hundreds of fruit growers of the North and West at not being permitted, in conse quence of the ficods, to attend a meeting of so much importance, and especially in a latitude of such peculiar interest to those accustomed to the rigors of a northern climate. As it was, and in spite of the swollen and dangerous condition of the Ohio, the Mississippi and other northern streams, some two hundred or more fruit growers, many of them accompanied by their wives and children, representing twenty-one States and the Dominion of Ontario, found their way to this, the first important meeting of the kind ever held so far in the direction of the noon-day sun. Nor was this meeting exclusively monopolized by the people of the North. The South and South-west, with many from New Orleans and the immediate vicinity, met us on friendly terms in this meeting of mutual interest. The Society assembled in Grunewald Hall, one of the most beautiful and commodious assembly rooms in the country, which had been provided and handsomely decorated and adorned for the occasion by the Gulf States Fruit Growers' Association. Many rare and beautiful semi-tropical plants had been used in the decorations of the hall, which gave to the surroundings an agreeable and pleasant appearance, especially to those of us so recently transported from the icy regions of the North. In connection with the hall were committee rooms and consultation parlors; also, a large corridor fitted up with suitable exhibition tables, all of which were, for the time being, placed at the service of the Society. A very creditable display of fruit was placed on exhibition by members from various sections of our common country. The agricultural press of the country was largely represented at the meeting, prominent among which the Secretary recognized the following: Gilbert M. Tucker, of the Country Gentleman, Albany, New York; S. M. Tracy, Rural New Yorker, New York; John Hyde, Prairie Farmer, Chicago, Ill; C. D. Colman, Colman's Rural World, St. Louis; Mrs. H. M. Lewis, Western Farmer, Madison Wis.; W. H. Ragan, Midland Monthly, Indianapolis, Ind.; E. H. Williams, Indiana Farmer, Indianapolis; D. W. Beadle, Canadian Horticulturist, St. Catherine's, Ont.; O. C. Gibbs, Chicago Tribune; A. W. Campbell, Wheeling Intelligencer, W. Va.; F. P. Baker, Topeka Com monwealth, Topeka, Kan.; S. H. Nowlin, Rural Southwest, Little Rock, Ark.; H. C. Bouton, Farmer and Fruit Grower, Anna, Ill.; J. E. Porter, West Tennessee Argus; J. Y. Gilmore, Louisiana Sugar Bowl, New Iberia, La., and others whose names the Secretary failed to get. First Day-Wednesday. EVENING SESSION, February 21, 1883. At half past 7 o'clock P. M. Wednesday, February 21, President Parker Earle, of Cobden, Illinois, called the Society to order. The afternoon of the preceding day had been devoted to the usual preliminary work of such occasions to the arrangement of fruits for exhibition, and especially to social greetings and to the formation of new acquaintances; and now, at the hour appointed for the first regular business meeting, in the beautiful hall and under the brilliant gas lights, assembled as happy and intelligent a congregation of practical horticulturists as may but rarely be met with, drawn together from far distant points, ranging from almost two thousand miles, to the immediate surroundings. The following gentlemen occupied seats upon the stage: Parker Earle, Esq., President; Prof. S. M. Tracy, Secretary; Major S. H. Nowlin, Ex-Governor R. W. Furnas, of Nebraska; Prof. J. J. Colmant, of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College; T. T. Lyon, President Michigan State Horticultural Society, and O. B. Galusha, President Illinois State Horticultural Society, representing the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society; and Judge E. M. Hudson, Judge A. G. Brice, Major Austin W. Roundtree, Captain J. J. Mellon, Captain A. Sambola, John T. Hardie, Esq., Adam Thomson, Esq., S. M. Wiggins, Esq., and George W. Nicholson, Esq., representing the Fruit Growers' Association of the Gulf States. Upon taking the chair, President Earle addressed the Society as follows: "Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society, we are assembled to-night in this beautiful hall, in the great commercial metropolis of the South, upon the invitation of the Fruit Growers' Association of the Gulf States, whose President, Hon. E. M. Hudson, of this city, I now have the pleasure of introducing to you.” Mr. Hudson, who is a practical farmer and fruit grower upon a large scale, as well as an eminent counselor at law, addressed the Society as follows: Gentlemen of the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society: It was expected that the Governor of our State would have been present to tender you a welcome and a greeting. He is, unfortunately, kept away by public duties from the city at present, but I am charged by him in his name, on behalf of the State of Louisiana and of the city of New Orleans, to tender you a cordial and hearty welcome. While expressing his deep regret for the circumstances which kept him from participating in your deliberations, he also desired me to say that, should his business engagements allow him, he will try to be here before your adjournment to take some part in your deliberations. Gentlemen, in the absence of the President of the Fruit Growers' Association (for I am only the Vice President), it devolves upon me, as his exponent, to tender you a welcome; to welcome you here as the representatives of the great Mississippi Valley, a valley which but a few years ago was considered a very inconsiderable portion of these United States, but which, to-day, I think I can say, without exaggeration, when we consider the system of its railway and river connections, extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific slope. We welcome you here as the exponants of an era of peace and prosperity, because it is only with peace and prosperity that art and agriculture can flourish. We welcome you here as our neighbors-neighbors with whom identity of labors and interests have made us acquainted long before we saw your faces. Yours, gentlemen, is no ignoble mission. The history of the world teaches us that in all ages, where civilization and culture has prospered, horticulture has prospered. It is only when civilization has declined that the cultivation of the soil has fallen into disrepute. In the proudest days of Greece and Rome, when the poets sang, agriculture was at the acme of its prosperity. Afterward, in the decline of the Roman Empire, it fell into disrepute, and it was only when letters were revived by the orders of the monks in their mountain caves that horticulture began again to prosper. Its revival commenced with the revival of letters in the Monastic Period. I said it was no ignoble profession. Charlemagne, himself, was the first who recognized it as a noble one. And now, if we cast our eyes back over the last fifty years-I will say for the last quarter of a century-and see the wonderful advances which have been made in the United States, having learned all that the older countries of Europe could teach us, we have in our turn become teachers. You are all teachers; by your example, by the organization of such associations as this, you are teaching the young men of the country the art of horticulture; I say art advisedly, for you are teaching them the best method of cultivating the |