S . TRANSACTIONS (IF TIIK IM.INOIS 



Society is doing a good work, and our reward is the benefits yearly con- 

 ferred on man. 



I would, before closing my hasty talk to you at this time, most 

 heartily recommend : 



ist. The example of an improved, luxuriant and varied fruit garden, 

 even if it tax us late and early to plant and prune. 



2d. Discussion of best methods of advancing tree planting and 

 culture over all the beautiful and fruitful prairies of the West. 



3d. The adoption, by this Society, of some measure by which its 

 Transactions may be more generally disseminated among the agricultural 

 classes of the State. 



4th. That this Society take similar action to that recommended by 

 the Meteorologist of the Pomological Society of Michigan, and adopted 

 by them, in bringing before the proper authorities the importance of a 

 more general establishment of Signal Service Stations, by which the in- 

 terests of the agriculturists may be better subserved. 



c;th. That action be taken in reference to representation of the 

 horticultural products of Illinois, in the great Centennial Exhibition, 

 such as shall accord with the position she occupies in the sisterhood of 

 States. 



And now, as I am about to take my seat, there rises before me the 

 home of the laborer that is to be — the future home of the husbandman. 



The walks and walls shall be of granite ; rough, that the vines may 

 find niches and corners upon which to cling ; thick, that the winter's 

 cold shall stay out, and the summer's heat shall not produce discomfort ; 

 the rooms large, and furnished plainly but neatly ; the wide hall running 

 through from front to rear, in which the lounge shall lie, where the weary 

 workman shall be fanned to sleep by the sweet breeze as it kisses his 

 temples, while he slumbers after the planting, or the tilling, or the har- 

 vesting; the chambers shall be cool and clean and large ; the library, or 

 reading-room shall have tables for the books and periodicals, and writ- 

 ing ; easy chairs, whose wide arms shall welcome the student, child or 

 man, as he rests from his labors. 



The grounds shall be laid out with taste and skill, by his own hands ; 

 the clean kept walk, winding among beds of sweet-scented flowers, and 

 terminating in shady bowers and pleasant groves ; the mill, propelled by 

 the wind, shall raise the water to the place where it is wanted ; all the 

 common comforts shall be about the place ; and all the fruits, and all 

 varieties of shade, and all the orders of flowers shall cheer in their sea- 

 son ; the harshest voice heard shall be God's thunders, and the only tears 

 shall be the sweet rain upon the roof. And, if death and the white shroud 

 shall come there, it shall be only as the snoiv upon the trees and bulbs. 

 As "life beats in the frozen bough," so, at this home, shall the hope of 

 eternal life be as the hope of the husbandman, that the fruits shall grow 

 again and the flowers shall bloom again. 



Fellow workers, we can all aid in making these things appear possi- 

 ble to the sons of toil, who, " along the cool, sequestered vale of life " 

 keep the even tenor of their ways. 



