STATE HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 35 



" A joy forever," for eveu uow in winter there is a grandeur 

 expressed in the leafless trees, with their many colors of bark and 

 twig, their branches outlined against the sky, grimly defying the 

 blasts of winter, while nestled at their roots are numerous plants, 

 partly dormant, but beautiful still, and to the lover of nature show- 

 ing the unmistakable signs of the great resurrection of the coming 

 spring. 



Natural parks take the preference, for in fact we could not 

 have an entirely artificial park. We do have natural parks like our 

 grand Yosemite. What joy it must have been to the first man who 

 gazed upon that famous valley, with its cascades of over one thou- 

 sand feet, and cliffs of mountain four thousand feet high, untouched 

 by the hand of man. It seems to me one could not resist the 

 impulse to bow the head to nature's God in view of these grand 

 works of his hand. I am glad to note that our Government has 

 taken the matter of preserving this valley, with all its beauty, for a 

 grand National Park. Immense tracts of timber land should be 

 reserved by the government, not only for their beauty, but for 

 climatic influences ; and it is more my object, in this paper, to en- 

 courage the saving, protecting and caring for our natural groves and 

 rough lands, than to describe to you the artificial or planted park, of 

 which I know but little from practical experience; but in regard to 

 natural, will say I have the pleasure of living in this kind of a park. 

 In fact our whole country could easily be made one grand park, situ- 

 ated as we are on the broad Mississippi, at the foot of the Des Moines 

 rapids. Hamilton has fourteen miles of river view, unsurpassed for 

 beauty even by the Palisades of the Hudson. A person standing on 

 the bridge that spans the river between Keokuk, Iowa, and Hamilton, 

 Illinois, views a magnificent scene; bold, projecting headlands, ap- 

 parently covered with a natural growth of oak, maple, and other 

 deciduous trees, with here and there the evergreen planted near the 

 few houses on the blufEs, is the prevailing view of the Illinois .side; 

 Avhile on the Iowa side, the long outer wall of the canal, with its 

 graceful curves and broad ribbon of water, with the cliffs rising from 

 one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above, on which are very 

 fine residences, but the timber has been nearly all cut off, and of 

 course the greater part of the beauty gone. But while gazing as I 

 always do on this beautiful scene, while crossing the bridge, I am 

 forced to exclaim: ''Distance lends enchantment to the view!" 

 Why is one disappointed in a nearer view of the landscape? cer- 

 tainly not in the lay of the land, but on taking any road along the 

 river side they will see it is the disfiguring work of man, by stripping 

 bare of trees the beautiful, rounded knolls, and sloping valleys, to 

 make fields. The consecjuence is unsightly clay knobs and muddy 

 gulches, for the land washes badly, and in a few seasons the soil is 

 all gone, and the crops raised do not pay for grubbing out, and con- 

 sequently the field is neglected and allowed to grow up to weeds. 



