138 State Horticultural Society. 



■say in what a different manner will he go about developing' the hidden 

 resources of his state or beautifying his own grounds or feeding" his own 

 body. 



What a lost world the whole subject of agriculture, horticulture, 

 Horiculture and gardening is to a soul that knows nothing of it. What 

 a source of constant blessing it is to him who lives among its uses and 

 beauties and intelligently holds converse with the charming life and util- 

 ities with which nature has clothed the plant, flower, fruit and field. 



Heaven is not so far away when we fit the living for the earth and 

 the earth for the living. Let us allow the dead past to rest. We don't 

 live in the past but in the present. W^e live in the twentieth century 

 and want to be in touch with it, and not the dead centuries gone by. 



It most certainly is evident that the teachers of the near future will 

 have to teach the fundamental principles — the zvliys, zvhats and hozt's of 

 agriculture in our common schools. The best friends of the children 

 favor it. The age demands it. The knowledge of it will fill a want "that 

 nothing else can fill. If objections are made that there is not time to do 

 these things, then cut out the worthless and useless from the readers, 

 geographies, grammar and arithmetics, and put this in their place. It 

 will be a blessing to all who will have to solve the problems of the future, 

 to lose those and find these. 



If you will take the children into these new fields of agricultural, 

 horticultural and floricultural knowledge, and let them study the flowers, 

 grasses, fruits, grains, birds, useful and destructive insects and fungus 

 growths and teach them the zvliys, zvhats and Jwzvs of such things, you 

 will be able to get enthusiasm into your classes and inspiration into your 

 school work. These things have voices that appeal to childhood. Such 

 languages as these living, growing, useful, things can speak, our youth 

 can learn, and remember and use. They will never forget what these 

 things say, because every part of speech is a living, breathing thing. Na- 

 ture teaches lessons of growth and life, lessons of perseverance, lessons 

 of industry and economy, lessons of purity and thrift. Wliile a child is 

 learning one Greek or Latin wgrd and its endings, it could learn hun- 

 dreds of these useful things, and when once learned they would bless 

 the child every day it lived, while the Greek or Latin is soon forgotten, 

 and drops out of the every day life. 



The elements of agriculture are introductory to the study of the 

 deeper sciences of botany, zoology and chemistry. It serves to develop 

 the child's powers of observation and retention. It will awaken sensa- 

 tions and stimulate the reasoning faculties. Boys and girls will not want 

 to run away from this kind of school work. They will be charmed with 

 it. 



