It goes without saying that I am glad to be here.  I want to come as long as you will let me come.  We of the Wisconsin society are watching you closely to see if we can by any means learn the secret of your success, and to that end we are here in considerable force.  Our president is here, and the managers of two of our largest co-operative fruit shippers associations also.

Frankly, we want to beat you if we can.  You have the biggest and the best society in the country, and we have the second biggest and next best, and we are striving for first place.

Having now disposed of the usual compliments befitting the occasion I will aim to tell you of a few things we are trying to do in the Wisconsin society.

The efforts of our society during the past ten years have been directed quite largely to the development of commercial fruit-growing in the state.  While we have not overlooked nor forgotten the home owner we have been working to take commercial orcharding out of the hands of the farmer and put it in the hands of specialists, and we are succeeding.  We have today about thirty thousand acres of purely commercial orchards in Wisconsin and more coming.  We discourage by every means at command the planting of fruit trees by the man who is engaged in general farming except sufficient for his own use.

Further, in this campaign we aim to concentrate our efforts on certain districts so as to build up fruit centers.  For instance we have in Door County, that narrow little neck of land between Green Bay and Lake Michigan, over seven thousand five hundred acres of orchards, apple and cherry.

Along the Bayfield shore line we have another splendid fruit district almost, if not quite, as well known as Hood River and worth vastly more.

In the southwestern corner of the state along the valley of the Kickapoo River, on the high bluffs on either side of the river, have been planted a thousand acres of apples and cherries in the past five years.

While not all of this development is directly due to the Horticultural Society, ours has been the moving spirit.  The Kickapoo development is due wholly to the work of the society.

In this way we are establishing an industry that will be a tremendous asset to the state.  There was a time when dairying was but a feeble industry in Wisconsin, and now we lead.

Our society also aids in the development of marketing associations.  In doing these things we also aid the farmer and home owner, for whatever is best in the commercial orchard is best in the home orchard.  Spraying, pruning and cultivation as practiced by the expert serve as models for the farmer who has but two dozen trees.

The other activities of our society are similar to yours.  We publish a magazine, as you do; we hold two conventions, as you do; in fact our work, and no less our interests, are the same as yours, and I most sincerely hope that the very pleasant relations that have existed between the societies may continue for all time.