204 TRANSACTIONS OP THE HORTICULTURAL 



greater than he who conquers an empire; how much greater is he 

 who leaves his successors an abundant supply of fruit. It is not 

 enough that our tables are supplied with bread and meat, our phys- 

 ical well-being requires a due proportion of easily digestible, fresh, 

 crisp garden vegetables, with appetizing and health-giving fruits. 



Horticulture has much to do with hygiene, and the agricultur- 

 ist can ill afford to ignore its importance in this respect. Every 

 farmer, so far as the interest of his family is concerned, should give 

 some attention to horticulture. We should be much the gainers if 

 we would look more to our orchards and gardens for our medicines, 

 and less to the drug stores. The small-seeded fruits, such as black- 

 berries, raspberries, currants and strawberries, may be classed among 

 the best foods and medicines. The sugar in them is nutritious, the 

 acid is cooling and purifying, and the seeds are laxative. To cure 

 fever or act on the kidneys, no febrifuge or diuretic is superior to 

 water-melon. The water or juice alone should be taken. 



It is no less strange than true that the table of the day laborer 

 in town, who does not own a foot of land, and whom the farmer 

 contemptuously declares "lives from hand to mouth," is more boun- 

 tifully supplied with vegetables and fruit than that of the agricult- 

 urist, in the midst of his broad acres. The latter gives a variety of 

 excuses for his neglect of the garden, and lives on, regardless of or 

 indifferent to the fact that no acre of his farm will yield so much 

 good living and do so much to promote the health and happiness of 

 his family, as a garden intelligently tended. Even so small an area 

 has infinite possibilities to be developed into a rich reward. 



At the Farmers' Institute, held at Red Wing, Minn.. Jan. 27th 

 and 28th, 1886, Mr. Pearce, of Minneapolis, gave an interesting and 

 instructive talk on raspberries. At the close of his address there was 

 a lively volley of questions, as to varieties, of manure, time of cover- 

 ing, yield per acre, cost and value of crop, which were satisfactorily 

 answered. He said the entire cost of planting and caring for an acre 

 was less than one hundred dollars, the possible jield ten thousand 

 quarts, selling at twenty-five cents per quart, or two thousand five 

 hundred dollars per acre. 



The love of the beautiful is rapidly growing with us as a nation; 

 flowers are everywhere in requisition, and silently exert their refin- 

 ing influence on humanity. They are the emblems of purity, beauty 

 and innocence. Flowers- are an expression of thought, and bear a 

 strict analogy to language. Florigraphy in early times was much 

 cultivated — it received great development at the hands of the Roman 

 Church. The variety of the flowers that adorned the altar enabled 

 the worshiper to distinguish between feasting and fasting ceremo- 

 nies. Flowers have had an important part in all mythologies. Oak 

 was the patriot's crown, bay the poet's, and the myrtle the crown for 

 beauty. The olive was the token of peace, as the ivy was the em- 

 blem of Bacchus. 



