206 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



dren and infuse them with the same feeling. A love of flowers is a 

 love of the beautiful, is a love of the good; and thus we are led on, 

 step by step, in the grand march of improvement. It is said that 

 flowers are the medium of communication from angels to mortals; 

 and may we not believe this, since they are found everywhere, from 

 north to south, from east to west. They appear on the mountain- 

 top and in the valley: on the dry, arid plain, and on the surface of 

 the quiet lake. The most beautiful songs of the poets, uninspired 

 save by the silent influences of nature, are of the flowers. 



Honored by God, recognized and immortalized by earth's great- 

 est men, flowers are worthy our consideration. We read that God 

 Himself planted the first garden. He fixed its foundations. Each 

 fruit-bearing tree, and each flowering shrub, took its place in the 

 Garden of Eden by the direction of Jehovah, as certainly as the stars 

 with which he decked the skies. We think of God as the builder of 

 the universe, of suns and planets, and of systems of worlds ; but it 

 should be remembered that He came down to earth, not as at Sinai, 

 amidst thunder and lightning, but in Eden, where He planted a gar- 

 den, and placed Adam there to tend it. Here, then (we say it rever- 

 ently) we have the Greater and Adam proprietor and tenant, en- 

 gaged in the first agricultural and horticultural enterprise of which 

 history supplies an account. 



Hence we claim for horticulture a Heaven-ordained rank — an 

 exaltation such as belongs to no other occupation known to the 

 human family. The time is not far distant when young men will 

 esteem it as an honor to be known as agriculturists and horticultur- 

 ists — scientific tillers of the soil. And when farmers, by their 

 learning, their ability and their influence, will compel the acknowl- 

 edgement that agriculture and horticulture, by the vastness of its in- 

 vestments and untold millions of contributions to the wealth and 

 welfare of the country, is entitled to the highest recognition in the 

 affairs of government. 



Dr. Hall — I agree with the essayist, that a fruit diet is conduc- 

 ive to health. 



G. W. Minier — Horticulture is the religion of agriculture; no 

 man can be a good agriculturist if he is not a horticulturist. I hope 

 this paper will stimulate the ladies to come to these meetings and 

 take part. When every Roman had a home they were all patriots. 

 Give every American a pleasant home, however humble, and we will 

 hear nothing of anarchists, strikers or labor agitators. 



Song by the Glee Club: 



"Larboard watch ahoy." 



