130 Ilississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



^laborers, which to him were a part of his machinery, and his accumulating 

 fortune claimed his entire attention, and prevented him from taking any in- 

 terest in the world, its doings, or necessities. Being intelligent, and natur- 

 ally j)rogressive, his new ideas, expensive machinery, and wonderful achieve- 

 ments were the astonishment not delight of his neighbors.' For as he grew 

 rich, they grew poor. He literally absorbed everything around him. The 

 neglected grounds, and smileless faces of his poorer neighbors told too truly 

 the secret of his success. 



Neither the farm nor the plantation nor the ranch should be a place of 

 drudgery and unthinking, monotonous toil. Work, hard work, there 

 must be. But this is incident to any undertaking, moral, mental or physi- 

 cal. But labor, to be improving, as well as remunerative, must not only be 

 connected Avilh thought, study and research, but with recreative diversity. 

 Every farm, large or small, should combine the delicate, attractive duties of 

 horticulture, which can hardly be separated from floriculture, with the 

 sterner duties of agriculture. The former is to the latter what light is to 

 the landscape, the sparkling stone to the golden crown, the linished capital 

 to the fluted colunm, the brilliant rainbow to the darkening cloud; a final 

 touch, giving a charm of grace to the plain necessities of life. Here woman 

 finds ample scope for the free exercise of her taste and skill. Our Brazillian 

 friend was a bachelor. But had there been deft fingers to encircle his am- 

 ple porch with carefully trained vines ; had his lawn been dotted here and 

 there with beautiful plants and brilliant flowers, creating a delicious com- 

 mingling of love and admiration; had vases of fragrant bloom been placed 

 with careful negligence about the house, to attract his attention and arrest 

 his sordid thoughts, think you he could have worshi]ied gold for its own 

 sake with the same devo*^ion, and remained as indiflerent to the interests of 

 those about him ? Never I 



As a recreation, horticulture can be engaged in by old and young, rich and 

 poor, learned and unlearned, alike, producing pleasure without alloy, and 

 unrivaled sweets without treachery. O, the blessed influence of nature's 

 growth! Silent, constant, progressive. Nature creates no antagonisms, no 

 resentment. Rivalry, envy, strife, jealousy, find no food for growth here. 

 And unlike most other pursuits, every effort brings its own reward, from 

 the cultivation of a single plant, shrub or iree, to the magnificent extent and 

 proi)ortion of a Shaw's Botanical Garden. With loving care, such as a child 

 may give, a plant will develop the same beauty of flower, the same perfection 

 of fruit, and teach the same lessons by the cottage of the poor as by the pal- 

 ace of the millionaire. In this God is verily no respecter of persons. 



The weary mother turns from her perplexing household cares to her 

 plants, the ofl's])ring of her forethought and skill, and (inds in the care of 

 them a solace and a comfort, and restful inspiration not connected with any 

 other duty. With every draught of water, every pruning process, some new 

 development, some unexpected beauty is ])resente(l, to charm dull care away, 

 to lighten the burden of life, and inspire the heart with lio]ie and courage. 



