Concluding his address at the Horticultural banquet in Philadelphia, Mr. Oliver Gibb, Jr., of Minnesota, said: "One word more, Mr. President, and now I want the attention of the millionaires, as I see several of them present. As we have looked admiringly and may be with a little envy to-day upon the smiling face in marble of the sturdy old merchant, in Girard College, have not some of you on this occasion, or have you not at some other time, had the thought come into your mind : ' Oh, what could I do with my wealth to create such a memorial as this institution? What would do so much good, what would make me so honored and so loved as this? What other institution can I endow, that will give me a place among the few names that are not to fade out of the memory and records of man, and enable me, if perchance I shall be permitted, when the great change comes, whatever it is, to retain an interest in earthly scenes, to look over my work in this life and watch and enjoy its beneficent results hereafter?' It may seem to you that the places of great endowments are all filled, that nothing else can be devised beyond the commonplace; but gentlemen, the philanthropist who comes forward to found and endow a school of Horticulture and Forestry in the Northwest will provide for the greatest need of the times and for all future time in that golden empire, and will place his figure in bold relief against the Western sky, to be gazed upon with veneration and affection, and grow brighter and grander in the view; and when in the far future mere military heroes shall be forgotten or looked upon as curiosities of a barbarous, or semi-barbarous past, every forest in the West, every improved fruit or flower, every improvement of the face of nature in city or country, from the advancement of the culture of plants, every happy home, will be associated with his name.

The whole question, whether hundreds of square miles of the Northwest shall remain, or relapse into a desert, or be made to blossom into a land of homes; the question whether other hundreds of square miles shall wait for generations to grow comfortable or by the short cuts of knowledge prove horticulture and forestry a relief to those who are there now, or are soon to follow, can be solved by such an institution, liberally endowed, as no other means can do it. And when horticulture and forestry shall become established over the West by such an institution, nothing else can so train young men and young women in these learned professions, to continue the work to the end of time. Our State colleges of Agriculture are doing all they can for these sciences, but their means are too limited, and their liberty is too circumscribed, by lack of patience and appreciation of the average politician who goes to the legislature. I am sorry to say they are not all the pets of the legislature, as it is said is the one in Michigan. We want a school that can work with scope and means and freedom on long headed and level headed plans for the public good and yet be out of reach of popular clamor.

We want a school established with a central head and with experimental stations in the several natural divisions of soil and climate, a school that will know no State lines, and nothing that is not or not likely to be practical. Where is the happy millionaire or syndicate of millionaires, who will give it to us?"