WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE A WISCONSIN MAGAZINE published by the WISCONSIN STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY containing each month articles on fruit, flower and vegetable growing written by WISCONSIN growers for WISCONSIN conditions. In this respect it is in a class by itself as horticultural papers published for profit must cover the whole country. WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE is not published for the purpose of making money, but exclusively for the benefit of the people of Wisconsin. It is better-for WISCONSIN people, than any other horticultural paper published. It tells the best varieties to plant in WISCONSIN, the best methods of cultivation for WISCONSIN. It's a paper for the home gardener and fruit grower as well as for the big grower. "WE ANSWER QUESTIONS" is the slogan of the Society. Every question answered, first by personal letter and then in the paper. Every dollar received for fees (subscriptions) and advertising is put into the paper. Honest nurserymen advertise in WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE and only that kind. The other kind cannot buy space. The price, one dollar, includes membership in the STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. No formal application necessary; send fee to secretary. Madison. Fig. 1. Map of Wisconsin showing Comparative Distribution of the Cane Fruit Industry. (One centimeter diameter equals twenty acre devoted to cane fruits.) TRANSACTIONS OF THE Wisconsin State Horticultural Society ADDRESS OF WELCOME HON. J. J. BLAINE, Attorney-General. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen; Members of the State Horticultural Society: At the request of your officers I have been invited to extend to you as delegates and members of the State Horticultural Society a welcoming hand on behalf of the state. I assume, following the usual custom, that a resident of the capital city representing the state is the proper person to extend this welcome. However, I am only a temporary resident of the capital city, and I feel that in welcoming you on behalf of the state I am welcoming you on behalf of yourselves, for the reason that such men and women as you make up the state of Wisconsin. So on your own behalf, as well as on behalf of each of us, we are all welcome to participate in the enjoyment that we may receive in meeting here with the State Horticultural Society. It is, indeed, a pleasure to have an opportunity to meet together in such a splendid undertaking as the development of horticulture. I am not a specialist in horticulture. I have followed it very largely as a means of recreation, and, indeed, horticulture affords very pleasant recreation. There is a certain amount of grafting that is permissible in horticulture, but it is the grafting of the progressive and constructive kind, where you by a process make two buds grow where only one grew before, and make two or more kinds of fruit grow where one grew before. That is a laudible kind of grafting. Horticulture has its place in romance, in history, and in science. As an art it is probably one of the most developed of all the arts with respect to the cultivation of the soil. One can not be a horticulturist unless he is an enthusiastic, painstaking, loyal son of Mother Earth. Horticulture always invites the keenest attention, and I think the ravages that are made upon the plants, the flowers, and the fruits necessitate that keen attention which the horticulturist must give to his industry. I have stated that horticulture has its place in romance. Indeed, it has! I need not remind you that some havoc was played in the very beginning of the existence of mankind under the biblical theory when man tasted of the forbidden fruit. In science, if it had not been for the apple, the discovery of the law of gravitation might have been deferred for many years. For, as we all know, it was Newton lying under the widespreading boughs of an apple tree who observed and discovered through the dropping of an apple the natural law of gravitation. So in history horticulture has played a very important part. When this old world was forming its civilization after Adam's time the people were preparing the earth as a habitat for mankind, and the fruit tree was put forth as the most important thing then to be developed. It was the advice of those who in those far remote days were trained in warfare that an invading army besieging a city should not destroy the fruit trees, for if they did they would be destroying the sustenance on which the soldiers might exist after the besieged city had been taken. So all through history it has been the story of the fruit trees, and so through civilization we have always been taught to go into the vineyards and there labor. Horticulture never invites a lazy man to the task, because the lazy man will stand no show in the development of the horticultural art. The very moment that you plant a rose or a tree there begins an irresistible struggle between all the insects. and fungi and enemies of the rose plant and the tree, and unless the rose grower and the fruit grower are vigilant, industrious, and painstaking, these enemies will conquer. But if he has engaged himself in the proper preparedness, then when he plants the rose he invites God's sunshine to give it its colors. and its perfume which have spoken so many messages of condolence or good cheer, whether at the bier or at birth. Horticulture includes, of course, more than the development of fruit. It includes the development of beautiful flowers, the profitable vegetable, and the planting of trees, not only for beautifying the earth, but also for utilizing the products that are developed from the plants. Devastate a nation or state of its plants and trees and you will make it a desert. Palestine, in the time of Joshua, flowing with milk and honey, capable of producing that rich and numerous people, once ruled by Solomon, devasted of its forests, became a barren and desolate plain. And so the Horticultural Society is necessarily engaged in interesting its members in propaganda for the progressive, constructive development of horticulture all along the lines, not only for artistic purposes, but also for utilitarian purposes. The products of horticulture are one of the essential elements of food in our daily lives. My fellow citizens, I meet with you today, and I greet you. This beautiful capitol is yours by right and not by invitation. It is your money, it is your industry, it is the result of your horticultural ability that made possible this building for you, and for the state of Wisconsin. This edifice stands as the housing place for your government and for your comforts, and you and I are entitled to share those comforts and its beauties, and as one of the representatives of the people of this state I heartily welcome you to share and partake in those beauties and comforts. More important, however, is the fact that all the people of this state will look to you, no matter in what degree your efforts may be measured, great or small,-will look to you for the development of the horticultural industry of the state of Wisconsin, which some day, under your guidance, by reason of your enthusiasm and your industry will make Wisconsin second to none as a great horticultural state. Wisconsin today has an enviable position by reason of its butter and cheese on account of those who have built our splendid dairy industries, and there is no reason why you cannot bring Wisconsin up to the same position with respect to fruits, vegetables, and other lines of horticulture. A good, true, loyal horticulturist is the greatest teacher against |