The relationship between this society and the university strikes me as typically American. There are two ways of doing things—leaving public undertakings entirely to private initiative, to individuals, to voluntary groups; that is one plan. There is another plan which consists in putting everything into the hands of the state. Constituted authority takes charge of the whole life of the citizen's, all the activities and enterprise are made public, state affairs.

Those are the two extremes. The dangers of those two methods are very obvious. Many enterprises left to private initiative will be done in haphazard fashion; there will be duplication and waste. When the state undertakes all these enterprises it changes the whole aspect. Public management may make for a certain efficiency, but it sooner or later undermines the initiative, the feeling of responsibility of the individual. We are a practical people, we compromise and combine the various methods of doing things. It is the typical American way to combine private initiative with a certain measure of state co-operation. The work for horticulture in the state of Minnesota has been developed under exactly these conditions.

If I remember rightly, this society was organized in 1867. It has assumed a definite leadership in the development of horticulture in the state of Minnesota; the university has gradually been adapting itself, so to speak, to the work of this society. The society and the university have officially been in close relationship. I believe that in the early days the secretary was at the same time a university officer and for the last twenty-five years, I am told that at least one expert of the university staff has always been a member of the executive board of this society. This has made a personal bond.

Then the society has done a great many important things. You have stood by at times when people were not perfectly certain about the importance of various kinds of scientific work. You have been steadfast. Sometimes it required courage to stand for the scientific ideals which the university was attempting to carry out in important work that had a bearing upon horticulture.

And you have, of course, the chief responsibility and distinction of having seen to it that our fruit-breeding farm should be established. I believe you were also kind enough to pick out the site, although none of you were personally interested in the particular real estate ultimately purchased.

So that we feel—we of the university feel—that the work of horticulture in this state is distinctly a co-operative undertaking, and that the leadership and enterprise and vision of this society have been the chief things that developed horticulture in Minnesota to the point it has reached. But we do believe that the co-operation of your university is an important and, we hope, from now on will be an increasingly important thing. Certain work is going on constantly at the University in the various departments, and that work is of distinct benefit because you recognize it.

We had a good illustration a few minutes ago. The professor of soils was having his brains picked, as he had a perfect right to have, by you. You were asking him questions, and I noticed once or twice he said he didn't know. That must have inspired confidence in him; I have a good deal of faith in people who don't know it all. That shows two things—they have a sense of humor, and they expect to find out. There is something pathetic in a person who knows it all; it is a case of arrested development.

So out of the department of soils you expect to get the result of careful and scientific study of the nature of soils. From the department of plant pathology you expect to learn about the various forms of plant diseases and the way in which these may be eliminated. From the department of entomology you expect to learn something about the troublesome insects, which are so universal an annoyance. I think they simply exist to test our character, to see whether we have courage to go on, bugs or no bugs. We do the best we can to become familiar with the habits of these nefarious creatures and let you know what we know. So I might call attention to one or two other departments—but you know how much is being accomplished. You get regular reports. You have a committee to visit and investigate our fruit-breeding farms. If I may judge from the reports which your committee makes—I don't know whether it is because it is one of your children and you are indulgent—your committee seems to think good things are being done and distinct progress recorded at the fruit-breeding farm. With your support and confidence we are enlarging the work there. It seems we should have more land in the early future, and we may ask for your co-operation in convincing the powers that be that such increase of territory is necessary.

How many members have you? 3,407 members, I believe. Perhaps you have more since that number was given this morning. At any rate, there is a good number, and when you think of all the wisdom and all the experience that those 3,407 people have, it seems a great pity not to get it organized in better form. Come and pick some more brains while these brains are still available and organize this great mass of knowledge.

Here is the next problem. Who are the people that are going to take your places? Who is to have a gold watch given him fifty years from now—or given to her fifty years from now? This thing is to go on, and how? It goes on by discovering in Minnesota the horticulturally-minded people in the state; you must always be on the lookout for people who are to do the big things. The great European governments are considering how they are going to keep their armies recruited, how the next generation is to be brought in and organized. That is the same problem in every nation. It is extremely necessary to put out dragnets for specialists. There are probably thousands of men in Minnesota who are horticulturists, they are dormant horticulturists, and your business and ours is to try to discover them. So the problem with us is how to get out the dragnet.