50 Wisconsix State Horticultural Society. 



days he sees the corn and potatoes carefully planted, cultivated, 

 harvested, stored. They are thought about and talked about, 

 until they become part and parcel of all his plans. This is as it 

 should be, for these and kindred things are the very beginning 

 and foundation of all prosperity. They nourish our bodies ; but in 

 our zeal for them we too often forget the needs of our finer natures. 

 Right here we too often lose sight of thafloveof the beautiful 

 in our little child which has such need of nourishment, culture 

 and training. Right here it seems to me our work begins. True, 

 to be teachers we must have knowledge, and, in most cases, it is 

 equally true that our e:u'!y surroundings, teachings and oppor- 

 tunities were far less than we are ambitious to give to our 

 children ; but the past is no longer ours, its record remains, as will 

 the record of each succeeding day, but our business is only with 

 the present, and whatever we lack must be supplied, if at all, by 

 extra effort and diligence. 



Earnest, enthusiastic interest on the part of parents, can hardly 

 fail to kindle similar interest with the children. Undertaking only 

 what can be well done and then carrying our work through to a 

 perfect success, will sustain and increase the interest of both 

 parent and children. If time and means are limited, our begin- 

 nings may be very simple and inexpensive and yet bring their 

 full quota of pleasure. No seed was ever more eagerly sought 

 and carefully planted than that from which I grew my first double 

 sunflower. People of fine tastes, who could see beauty only in 

 roses, smiled, but my harvest of real pleasure was as great as 

 theirs. No crop has seemed more valuable to me than that gath- 

 ered from the dozen plants of wild black raspberries dug from the 

 fence corners and planted in my first garden. Ten pear seedlings, 

 bought with my pocket money, grafted and planted with my boy- 

 ish hands, were of more interest to me than acres of them have 

 been since; and in fact I have often done a less successful job, for 

 eight out of the ten grew, and came to maturity. Similar objects of 

 interest are all about us, abundant, cheip, and wasting for want of 

 use ; so, want of means can have no place among our excuses. 



Want of time may have more weight. This is such a hurrying 

 world, impatient even of steam and electricity, pushing us through 



