Ladies  and  gentlemen  visitors,  and  citizens  of  CorvaUis :  —

The  occasion  which  calls  us  forth  at  this  season  of  "  mellow
fruitfulness  "  I  think  we  must  all  look  upon  as  a  very  interesting
and  homelike  one,  with  something  of  a  cheer  in  it,  with  which
we  gather  around  the  evening  hearthstone  and  tell  stories  and
roast  apples,  and  though,  perhaps,  there  are  not  many  outside
the  horticultural  society  who  would  claim  to  know  much  scien-
tifically of  the  pleasant  subjects  under  discussion,  yet,  I  think
there  are  few  who  would  admit  that  they  did  not  know  as  a
familiar  friend  the  flowers  smiling  up  at  them  from  the  garden
walks,  or  the  vegetables  in  the  back  dooryard  waving  their  green
tops,  odorous  of  dinners  yet  to  be;  and  the  frait  trees  in  the  dear
home  orchard,  let  them  torture  themselves  into  very  dragons  in
shape,  who  does  not  know  and  love  them  also,  and  cherish  them
as  a  brother  in  his  heart.  We  have  all  doubtless  noticed  in  the
summer  gone  the  procession  of  flowers  as  they  passed,  and  were
not  unmindful  of  the  transformation  going  on  in  the  trees
around  us,  from  the  time  in  the  early  spring  when  the  sodden
winter  branches  broke  into  starry  bloom,  until  later,  passing
down  the  year,  we  have  seen  them  laden  with  golden,  green  and
purple  buckets  of  nectar,  drawn  from  those  inexhaustible  vats
in  "the  deep  delved  earth,"  or  from  the  viewless  cisterns  of  the
upper  air.  And  now  that  Oregon  fruits  have  traveled  far  and
wide,  and  are  **  still  blushing  with  the  praise  of  their  own  loveli-
ness," how  appropriate  it  is  to  the  occasion  that  those  from  whose
orchards  they  near  have  gone  forth  should  assemble  and  mentally
exchange  with  each  other  the  fruits  of  this  year's  experience.
