134 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



and purify the mind and heart of man. And from such communities and 

 such surroundings often come our strongest, truest, purest pubhc men; men 

 that the nation delights to own and honor. 



Horticulture is progressive in a material sense. Scores of instances could 

 be cited where a slip of geranium or begonia, given by a loving. friend and 

 placed in a teapot or old fruit can, has been the beginning of a grand suc- 

 cess. The slip grows, and delicately suggests better quarters. A vase is pro- 

 cured. Then it lovingly hints companionship. One by one other plants take 

 their places in the little window. Natural growth and successive additions 

 soon call for more room. Then extra care and diligence are given to garden, 

 field, fruit and fowl that extra dollars may be saved for the coveted bay win- 

 dow. It is soon radiant from top to bottom with the happy plants. The lesson 

 of economical thrift is not lost. The intelligent cultivation and disposal of 

 fruits, vegetables and grain, soon puts the farmer in condition to gratify the 

 growing desire of the family for a new house with conservatory. This cre- 

 ates a quiet demand for choice plants, at quiet prices, simply covering cost. 

 Cut flowers are freely given for festive and funeral occasions. The demand 

 grows, and with it the necessity for market prices. The farmer sees there is 

 money in it. A green-house is suggested and carried into execution. A 

 lucrative business is established, which carries a benediction with it into 

 thousands of homes. 



In the Floral Guide for '83 a son of the late lamented Vick says : " Well 

 do I remember the time when father brought his whole day's mail home in 

 his pocket, the next morning carrying his seeds to the office in a small mar- 

 ket basket; and published a four-page catalogue. Last winter we mailed 

 nearly a quarter of a million of Floral Guides, 130 pages each; receiving some 

 days over three thousand letters, and requiring several wagons to carry 

 freight and express packages, and more than one wagon every day to take 

 the seeds bagged and stamped to the postal car. All these changes he lived 

 to see, and yet amidst all his cares he was never too busy to wear a cheerful 

 face, say a kind word, or give a bit of friendly advice." 



If any one department is more soul-inspiring or better calculated to draw 

 out and awake to new life the spiritual nature, it is the cultivation and 

 growth, or even the simple presence of trees. No farmer can ailord to do 

 without the educating iniluencc of trees; not only ornamental and fruit 

 trees, but a woodland, a grove, a forest; and if nature has not supplied these, 

 or if the desecrating hand of man has shorn you of your richest blessing, 

 then Gov. Furnas and Prof. Lazenby will give you definite instruction just 

 how to proceed to secure this boon. It will require faith, patience and pub- . 

 lie spirit to start an enterprise that will take ten, fifteen or fifty years to com- 

 plete. But aside from the important part it plays in our landscapes, and its 

 usefulness in the arts and economies of life, and its climatic eflects, every 

 farmer's family needs the restful, heart-lifting influence of the forest. The 

 groves were God's first temples, and they are just as pure to-day as when they 

 crowned the hills of Paradise, and during all the intervening ages they have 

 offered a sacred retreat where man may meet the heavenly influences. 



