STATE IIORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 1(1 1 



last decade ; the mani])ulations that served us once serve us no longer ; 

 we need to search for newer varieties and newer methods continually. It 

 ue do well this year, we have encouragement that we can do better 

 another year ; great secrets are being continuall\- unearthed in the garden, 

 yielding to us and rewarding us lor all our stutly and labor. 



The subject, then, though old, is ever wt'ze/andyr^'j-// to the operatives. 

 But, it is astounding to the natives how these "old war-horses" of the 

 farm anil the garden can meet year after \ear, and times without number, 

 and fmd any thing to talk about and i)ul)lish in a bocjk. I!ut there is not 

 a man among us to-day, no matter how elderh and \eiierated. who has 

 not learned something in this \ear of our Lord 1^75, and who is not 

 wiser in these things //oic than he was a twelve-month since. The veteran 

 1 )r. Warder can tell us more about torestr\ and evergreens than e\er be- 

 tbre in his long and useful life. 



The experiences of the past ha\e taught him things he knew not 

 before, and he is able — thank (iod I — to come here and tell it to us, and 

 we, all eager listeners, stand with ears, if not \\ ith mouths, wide open to 

 catch all he says. 



Yes; and there is our friend 1). 11. \\ ier, a leadv speaker, and 

 communicative. He can tell us at this meeting more about the Wild 

 Goose i)lum than even himself expected to know I 



My neighbor — there he sits — Jona. Huggins, is wiser on the apple 

 orchard, and '■ its i)rofits," than ere his years were so many, and yet he 

 will listen to others, and expects still to learn I 



And so 1 might go on through the list : oiu" experiences in these 

 matters are alike ; our testimon\ is one. 



To grow \egetables means work, it can be made to mean slavish 

 work. At Alton, it is not any more jiartic ularl\- remunerative as a busi- 

 ness, for the reason, Chicago being our market, we have to compete with 

 the rich gardens of sunnier climes, and of earlier sjirings. By economy 

 and hardest work, a man may li\c thcreb\ — if he does not die ! Under- 

 stand, I am not in this boat : I have a garden, but m\ fortune is not 

 buried in it. 



The business ma\' not alwavs re>.t under present < loiuU : the world 

 must have its soups and its salads, and somebody must grow them, and 

 some pay will come out of it. My advice is, if you have nothing better 

 stick to this. If better things offer, why, then pitch in ! only keep clear 

 of " the whisky rings" and sich! 



^'ou ask me for my experieni e in growing \egetal)les. 1 w ill ( om- 

 meiK e with letter '"A" in the catalogue: 



"A stands by" — as a little white-headed urchin 1 used to know 

 would say when looking at the zebras, and other pictures in his primer — 

 "A stands by ass." Very well, A stands for 



Asparagus. — 1 propose, then, first to tell you how 1 grow asparagus. 

 The story is short and simple : I take strong one-year old plants, set them 

 in rows from three to four feet apart each way, and cover about as deeply 

 as I would potatoes, and give clean cultivation for the first year. In the 



