WINTER MEETING. 125 



should be removed gradually, and butts, being near the surface, will 

 form a callus for the emission of roots, while the buds remain dormant. 

 The spring is the best time to graft, except the root-grafting. The 

 method most commonly used is the cleft- grafting. Splice-grafting is 

 used on small stocks. The best wood for cions is that of the preced- 

 ing year's growth, taken from near the center of the tree. 



Budding may be done most of the growing season. The best 

 place to insert is near a bud, or where a bud has become a branch. 



Flowers in the Home. 



By May Myrtle ( Mrs. G. E. Dugan, Sedalia ). 



Flowers in the home are like love in the heart, far too beautiful to 

 be scorned or neglected. No home is perfect without flowers; no 

 heart perfect without the indwelling spirit of affection. 



The meanest little house becomes a sacred spot, environed by 

 plant life. A vine over the windows of a shanty glorifies it and makes 

 it an object of interest. 



When we pass a place rich in floral beauty, we at once become 

 interested ; we wonder who lives there and picture the family, always 

 clothing them in forms of loveliness, and imagining them very refined 

 and noble in character, sweet and kind in disposition. 



I would rather have plants in my rooms than to wear elegant 

 clothing and do without the plants. They seem so akin to the human 

 world I often fancy that they know who loves them, and are not nearly 

 so capricious toward those who are fond of them as they are toward 

 persons who do not care much for them. 



My friends call my success with flowers "luck;" I call it by a far 

 more dignified title ; to me it means love. A woman friend said to me 

 the other day : " Why do you cultivate so many plants ? nobody really 

 appreciates them ; of course they are nice and cheerful, but such a lot 

 of bother. I would get rid of them, except a few of the extra choice 

 ones." 



I looked at my treasures and fancied they had heard her cruel re- 

 marks, and I said harshly, " I appreciate them, and 1 love to take care 

 of them ; my room would seem barren as the desert sands without 

 them," and the next day there were five great, fragrant roses wafting 

 their sweet breath out to me from one bush, and the carnations came 

 out gloriously, so that I could pick great boquets of them for many 

 days. I think they did their very utmost to reward my care and keep 

 my confidence. 



