Horticulture as an Educating Influence. 283 



more than these, and yet not have that practical education that is 

 so essential to success as well as usefulness in life. Indeed, some 

 of the most learned men, so far as book education is concerned, 

 that I have ever known, were among the most helpless in the 

 practical work of every day life. It may be asked right here, 

 would you exclude books from us and our children? By no 

 means. I care not bow many books you have, nor how diligently 

 you use them, provided they are used as a means or assistance in 

 getting an education, and not as an education in themselve?. 



He would be a bold man who would assert that Abraham Lin- 

 coln was not well educated. Still if we should estimate him 

 simply by his book learning, he would fall far behind Edward 

 Everett, Charles Sumner, and others who might be named. But 

 look at him; making his way from the humble log cabin, without 

 papers, with almost no books at his command, or within his reach ; 

 yet he is constantly getting his education while clearing away the 

 forest, while working upon a flat boat, while serving as a private 

 soldier, and then as captain of his company, while studying law, 

 while practicing at the bar, while serving his neighbors in the 

 legislature, and then in congress, and finally serving the nation 

 and the world so honestly, so truly and so well, that not only to- 

 day, but in the centuries to come, he will stand forth as one of the 

 noblest as well as one of the grandest specimens of manhood that 

 the civilized world has ever produced. 



I have mentioned this to show that large libraries are not an 

 absolute necessity in forming good, intelligent and useful men 

 and women. In states and territories comparatively new, like our 

 own, but few large, elegant libraries are to be found ; and among 

 thinking persons the question often comes up, what course shall 

 we pursue in order that we may not only not retrograde, but go 

 forward in knowledge and in influences that 2:0 far toward elevat- 

 ing and refining not only our own families, but those of other 

 families about us. I have no hesitation in saying that I believe 

 the study and the practice of horticulture in its influences to be 

 one of the best that can be adapted to farm life. Its every in- 

 fluence is for good, and not evil. It is elevating and refining. 

 You have all read, time and again, of the thief, the burglar, the 



