ANNUAL MEETING. 179 



elements of our business in the very nature of the case Ji tendency from the 

 bcfijinning to form and ennoble character? I know in all my large acquaint- 

 ance one man with a coarse and ungenerous nature, who took up gardening 

 in as fine and favorable spot of earth as the sun sliinos upon, but he was not a 

 success! Another born to us fine and lovely inheritance in one of our 

 nurseries as it is possible for human desires to reach, and yet is but a moral 

 failure! Do not facts of observation in every day life like these sufficiently 

 establish tiie case that without a settled character for honor and nobility, the 

 fairest prospects are but abortive? How often have I lifted my heart in 

 thankfulness to the " Giver of all good" that I had a business, and that my 

 business was at once so pleasant ajid so fruitful of good I Can you not all, as 

 fruit growers who honor your business, agree with me in this pure sentiment, 

 and be thankful for the reflex influences of your pleasing business upon you? 

 But to approach our subject a little nearer and particularize. The cultiva- 

 tion of intelligent thought is doubtless the real key of all real success in life. 

 AVluit marks the differences between men, and makes one man more exalted 

 and noble than another, is thought; deep and well directed thought; as 

 Scotland's bard has truthfully and characteristically said, "'Tis the mind is 

 the measure of the man." How friendly is the atmosphere of the gardeu for 

 retired and contemplative thought. Poets have sweetly sung of her "secluded 

 bowers," and we all find in actual life, that here in our daily duties with the 

 soil, and with the mysteries of vegetable life, we must think, and think suc- 

 cessfully, to make any headway. But compared with some of our modern 

 schools of learning, how easily and cheaply we are taught to think in the 

 garden, the orchard, or the nursery. How testing and trying, how educating 

 and ennobling is the kind of thought that must be daily and hourly practiced. 

 Just what is needed to bring out and develop a full, sound, and complete maa- 

 hood, is the tuition that the practical horticulturist is subjected to. Here 

 even the poorest, and the man without the advantages of accumulated fortune, 

 may come to tliis accessible university and daily drink in lessons of practical 

 and applied wisdom. If one wishes to become a professional lawyer or doctor, 

 a minister or a teacher of our children, he usually finds at the very threshold 

 of his desires a very formidable difficulty, and unless his kind friends come 

 timely to his assistance, a difficulty that ho is powerless to surmount, and the 

 whole scheme proves abortive, and a valuable life is lost to the world. Is 

 this fearful difficulty standing at the threshold of the Temple of Pomona? 

 No! we have not found it so. Here a willing and apt scholar may, without 

 let or hinderance, " walk in " and work out for himself a niche in the temple 

 of fame. Intelligent, thoughtful study is the key to success, and the gracious 

 sunlight that stimulates the growth of all the manly virtues. Second, 



MANLY INDEPENDENCE 



Is a foundation stone of first importance in the structure of high and noble 

 character. Without it nothing can be achieved either for the man himself or 

 for his fellows. The man simply becomes a great weight upon the progress 

 of society, and a mere parasitic sucker upon the productive industries of his 

 time. Under the progressive inflaenco of this noble and essential trait of 

 character, how it is built up! And how the man goes on from step to step iu 

 his high development to bo an honor to himself and his country! Fruit 

 growing and general horticulture, in our humble opinion, is the very best 

 means for the healthy growth of the muscular and mental sj-stems, and by 



