238 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



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Why are so many farmers' tables bare of refreshing fruits and 

 health-giving vegetables? Why is fruit culture, vegetable gar- 

 dening, and ornamental planting so generally neglected by the 

 men who should be specially interested in it? The answer is 

 found in the fact that the great majority of our people consider 

 horticulture a business of little importance and unworthy of 

 attention, when it interferes with tneir regular farm work. It 

 has also been thought unworthy of the fostering care of the 

 State, and the miserable pittance of $2,000 which is annually 

 being doled out to the State Horticultural Society to advance 

 this great interest in a state of the magnitude of an empire, has 

 been supposed to be all that was necessary. The remedy is edu- 

 cation. And here the importance of horticultural societies, 

 state, district and local, becomes apparent. 



Were it necessary to prove this proposition, I would refer you 

 to the two best known and most successful local societies in the 

 west, those of Alton and Warsaw, and the influence they have 

 had, not only on the communities where they have done their 

 active work, which are noted for their horticultural products, 

 and handsome, tasty homes, but upon the horticultural interests 

 of the entire west. It was my good fortune to attend one of the 

 meetings of the Marshall County Horticultural Society, last 

 February, probably the youngest in the state, and I found an 

 intelligent and cultured gathering, including a goodly number of 

 young people. They were exceedingly enthusiastic and earnestly 

 seeking for horticultural knowledge. It is safe to predict for 

 this society a bright future, and that in a few years we will find 

 better orchards, better fruit and vegetable gardens, more hand- 

 some lawns and pleasant homes, more groves and shelter belts, 

 more attractive school grounds, and more intelligent, contented 

 and happy young people in that community than where these 

 educational influences do not exist. 



I have made this allusion to show what can and should be done 

 in every county in the state, and is it not the duty of the vari- 

 ous districts, as well as the State Society, to use their influence 

 'to encourage the organization of local societies? 



Arbor Day is another educational influence of no mean order.. 

 The State Horticultural Society and the educational department 

 of the state have taken a lively interest in this work, and it is a 

 pleasure to know that during the two years Arbor Day has been 

 celebrated a marked improvement has been made in the sur- 

 roundings of the school houses and rural homes of Central Illi- 

 nois. This is as it should be, but the work is just begun and 

 must be prosecuted year after year. The time may come when 

 a sufficient number of trees may have been planted, but every 

 returning Arbor Day will suggest the necessity of a general 

 clearing up and ornamentation of the grounds about the school 

 house, church and home. 



