34 American Horticultural Society. 



make his own home beautiful, but should liiul some stimulus for his neigh- 

 bor whose grounds are lean and bare. 



The work that has been done by horticultural agencies in redeeming 

 this great country, its towns and its farms, from the nakedness of forty years 

 ago is something to rejoice in. The land is blossoming with beauty in thou- 

 sands of parks and lawns and cottage door-yards; but many leagues of bar- 

 renness still stretch along almost all of our railways and highways, a vast 

 field for the preacher of this new gospel of beauty and home comfort; and 

 until every farm-house and cottage in all the length and breadth of this 

 magnificent country shall be blessed by sheltering trees and blooming beds, 

 or climbing vines, or some sweet spot of green turf which shows the out- 

 bursting longing of the immortal spirit for beauty — until every American 

 farm shall have its garden for vegetables and fruit, and every village lot its 

 fruit-bearing tree or vine, will the duty of the horticulturist as a teacher and 

 a missionary be parti}' undone. 



NARROW DISCUSSIONS. 



I think it has often been a fault of our horticultural societies that their 

 range of discussion has been too narrow. They have been given too much 

 to the special interests which affected the business of the majority of mem- 

 bers, and too little to those relating to the public welfare. In fact, we are 

 often simply pomological societies or nurserymen's clubs. We come 

 together with our great problems of culture, of insect management, of the 

 cures for mildews and blights, and our whole business success is often in- 

 volved in liniling answers to these vexing questions, and we are prone to 

 neglect the sweet influences which make for beauty alone and the refine- 

 ment of the home. 



I hope for an extension of all horticultural influencer-, for more socie- 

 ties, for more horticultural columns in the press, for social rural clubs and 

 tree-planting associations, because I believe that the great horticultural 

 movement of this age is doing far more for the higher civilization than all 

 the factories and forges and trade guilds in the land. I^et us labor gener- 

 ously toward that millennial day when every cottage shall shine with some 

 of the beauty and every laborer's table carry some of the fruits of our art. 



FRUIT-GROWING. 



But while I would exhort everybody to grow trees and vines and plants 

 for beauty and fruits for home supply, I do not by any means seek to influ- 

 ence any largo increase of fruit-growing for commercial purj>oses, for I be- 

 lieve that fruit-growing as a business is increasing quite as fast as our facili- 

 ties for distribution, and rather more rapidly than is profitable to the grow- 

 ers. It appears to me that there is no subject of more immediate practical 

 interest to the commercial fruit-grower than this one of the means for a 

 wide distribution. You are all well aware that our most importjint and 



