I was in hopes that a home for this society might have been erected this year or at least made ready for the 1916 meeting.  This would surely have been an occasion worthy of the anniversary which we hope to celebrate.

The building committee appointed by the last meeting went before the legislature and tried with all the eloquence at their command to make the members of the legislature see the necessity of appropriating sufficient money to build a permanent home for this organization.  The members saw the force of our argument, but we could not convince a majority of the appropriation committee that they should deviate from their plan of retrenchment which seemed to permeate their every act.

We were disappointed but not disheartened.  We were promised better success in the 1917 session.  So we are living in hopes, and I firmly believe that if our efforts are renewed at that time that this and the auxiliary societies may have an opportunity of meeting and transacting business in a home that, while it will belong to the state, will be for the use of these organizations, and that we may be able to take up our abode in it not later than the winter meeting of 1917.

Secretary Latham has prepared an excellent program for you.  Many friends of this society are with us again, full of enthusiasm and vigor, and I know that we will have one of the most successful meetings ever enjoyed by this organization.

Owing to the fullness of the program, I should consider it an imposition on my part if I should attempt to make an extended address at this time and will hasten to call on the gentlemen who are to contribute to the success of this meeting.

[Illustration:  New varieties of strawberries originated at the Minnesota State Fruit-Breeding Farm.]

Annual Meeting, 1915, Minnesota State Horticultural Society.

A. W. Latham, secretary.

Did you attend the 1915 meeting of this association, held in the West Hotel, Minneapolis, four days, December 7-10 inclusive?  Of course as a member of the society you will get in cold print the substance of the papers and discussions that were presented at this meeting, but you will fail altogether in getting the wonderful inspiration that comes from contact with hundreds of persons deeply interested in the various phases of horticultural problems that are constantly passing in review during the succeeding sessions of the meeting.  With such a varied program there is hardly any problem connected with horticulture that is not directly or indirectly touched upon at our annual gathering, and the present meeting was no exception to this.  In all there were sixty-nine persons on the program, and with the exception of Prof.  Whitten, whom we expected with us from the Missouri State University, and whom sickness kept at home, and one other number, every person on the program was on hand to perform the part assigned to him.  Isn’t this really a wonderful thing where so many are concerned, emphasizing as it does the large interest felt in the work of the society?