326 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



landscape gardener is not always a skillful fruit grower, nor is the botanist 

 necessarily an entomologist. Essayists familiar with the subjects assigned will 

 prepare papers which will start discussions, and in this way valuable informa- 

 tion will be elicited. These papers and discussions »will be printed, and will 

 carry to hundreds and thousands a knowledge of the different branches of 

 horticulture. The effect of all this will be seen in the improved surroundings 

 of all who come within the influence of our society. 



L. B. Pierce, in the Ohio Farmer, puts much truth in little space in the 

 remark that to the silent, leavening influences of its literature, a society adds 

 the magnetic force of its hearty, spirited monthly meetings, and infuses the 

 spirit of horticulture into whole neighborhoods where perhaps it previously 

 existed in one family only. Horticulture constitutes the poetry, the painting, 

 and the music of terraculture. It not only has charms for the farmer, the fruit 

 grov.er and the gardener, but for the merchant and the professional man as 

 Avell. To every one who has a home it brings in some way joy, amusement, 

 and instruction. Upon its high plane, in some of its branches, the rich and 

 the poor can meet upon terms of equality and mutual sympathy. To advance, 

 then, those ))ursuits and pleasures of earth culture which cluster around every 

 home, should be the object of a true horticultural society. 



Mr. J. C. Plumb, in Western Farmer, wishes young people could be made 

 more interested in these societies. The old adage is " Old men for counsel and 

 young men for war," which is well enough, provided the young men take in 

 their counsel. 



We were reminded of this need, when as a visitor we met in convention so 

 large a number of horticulturists of Illinois, and saw so few of their young men 

 there (and ladies too, except at election hour). Gr. W. Miueer, in an able report 

 called attention to the same fact, and urged that the life of our societies 

 depended upon enlisting the young. Friend Osborne, of Iowa, on the same 

 subject, says "The young men are not engaging in fruit culture much," and at 

 the National Agricultural Convention at Chicago we saw next to none of the 

 young farmers. 



Now, should it be so? We don't want our venerable friends to absent them- 

 selves, but we do want to see "young blood" in council with mature wisdom, 

 and would urge the fathers to provide for the attendance, and those wlio pre- 

 pare programmes to see that some young people are enlisted, and the social 

 element have a place in every meeting, in ways best adapted to the locality. 



FLORAL HALLS AT FAIRS. 



E. Colston Vick, who made a beautiful display at our last State fair, con- 

 tributes a valuable article to the Ohio Farmer concerning halls for exhibition, 

 from which we extract briefly as follows: 



A dark, small, building, where the exhibitors are always crowded, only dis- 

 courages the exhibiting of flowers, plants, etc. I have seen good, cheap halls 

 made of plain board sides, about inch stuff I should judge, being well braced, 

 and the top simply covered with ordinary hot-bed sash, or sash very much 

 resembling it, whicli makes a very neat, light building. One great pleasure 

 derived from the cultivation of flowers is the evident delight they afford our 

 friends, and the amateur or even the true professional florist is almost as proud 

 of his choice flowers as the mother of her children. Then there is great satis- 



