STATE HORTiCULTUKAL SOCIETY. 69 



greens should be mingled with maples, elms, and other deciduous 

 trees. I have seen a weeping birch that, with the growth habit of 

 the weeping willow and the white bark of the birch, is charming. 

 In spring time, it is a fountain dropping emeralds ; in winter, when 

 snow-laden, a frozen fountain, graceful beyond telling — always it 

 is a thing of beauty. But there is no end to beautiful trees, and 

 each can follow out his own ideal of beauty and fitness. 



After the trees are settled snugly in their beds, their roots 

 reaching down slowly but surely into the earth, as if to insure a long 

 life with us, we may turn our attention to the kitchen garden. A 

 well-kept kitchen garden is one of the finest adornments any home 

 can have, and here woman begins work with hand as well as brain. 

 We must leave the work of tree planting to stronger muscles than 

 ours — under our supervision, of course — but when we come to the 

 garden, we may clothe ourselves in suitable garments and be chil- 

 dren once more, and enjoy digging in the dirt. And here, oh you 

 town mothers, who come to us country mothers asking that we take 

 your boys onto our farms, right here is your grand opportunity. 

 Have you a garden? Do the boys knjw about it? We must go 

 with them ourselves, must be personally interested, if we would 

 have the boys enjoy it. Get them to plant and care for lettuce and 

 onions, sweet corn and potatoes. The zest of a boy, when trying to 

 make something grow, is only equaled by his patience in fishing. 

 How your boy's eyes shine, and how big his heart feels, when you 

 say to guests: " Our John raised these vegetables." 



Not long ago I heard a gentleman of nearly sixty telling how, 

 when four years old, he planted some squash seeds. Some days after, 

 with the older children, he returned to the spot and one of them 

 called out : "Oh ! see, Henry's seeds have come up!" He looked, 

 and there they were, some of them holding up the split shell as if 

 to assure him they were truly his seeds. He added, that to this day 

 he remembered the exultant thrill that filled him to think that 

 squashes would grow for him. We are all alike, and your boy 

 and mine has missed something beautiful from life if we have 

 failed to supply him with seeds and a place to plant them. If 

 then, you have a place as big as a bed quilt, take your boys with you 

 and see what wonderful things can be developed from your garden 

 — and your boys. 



Literature on methods of work in the garden is so abundant 

 that I shall not risk my reputation in giving advice. You will find 

 more than you will use in almost any seed catalogue. It is easy to 

 step from the useful kitchen garden to the beautiful flower garden. 

 Here is, I suppose, where our friends of the programme committee 

 expect a woman to begin. Unfortunately for those expectations 

 here is where I shall advise small plans, although at the risk of 

 incurring the displeasure of many of Princeton's fair dames. Un- 

 less one has a gardener, I should say about flower beds and bor- 



