SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 241 



THURSDAY AFTERNOON. 

 HORTICULTURE vs. BARBARISM. 



BY J. J. LOBAUGH, ELMWOOD. 



Horticulture is from hortus^ a garden, and means garden culture. 

 A garden is defined as a place set apart in which to cultivate plants, 

 fruits, flowers, etc. The terms horticultural and pomological are 

 not exactly synonymous, and my subject to-day covers a Avider field 

 than simply fruit culture, and in what I may say you will bear in 

 mind I -am referring to plants and flowers as well as to fruit. 



Agriculture is from agey, a field, and means field culture, the 

 production of the plainer and more substantial things of this life, 

 while horticulture may be termed the finer or more artistic part of 

 husbandry — the cultivation of things not only very useful, but 

 with special qualities to attract the eye or tempt the appetite, things 

 that not only nourish the body but that charm the senses, that em- 

 bellish life and blend the ornamental with the useful, and thus, by 

 developing in man higher sensibilities and finer discriminations, 

 appeal to his sesthetic nature and raise him to a higher plane, there- 

 by removing him to that extent from his primitive condition of 

 barbarism. 



Plants, fruits and flowers — there we have utility of the most 

 practical kind joined with ornamentation of the most pleasing kind. 



He who can successfully work out to a definite conclusion this 

 combination from its elementary principles, air, earth, water and 

 plant life, may be as much of an artist as he who elaborates his con- 

 ceptions in the beautiful painting, as he who originates in his mind 

 the graceful temple, the ornament of a city, as he who chisels from 

 the rugged marble the finely proportioned statue. And why not? 

 "By their fruits ye shall know them" has a logical application in 

 this connection, and the products of the science and skill of the 

 horticulturist may well challenge comparison with the productions 

 of any other line of cultivated thought, for they are often highly 

 ornamental as well as y)ractically useful. 



Were we satisfied to have only the necessary in its plainest form, 

 we might live as do the uncivilized, in whom are developed none of 

 the finer possibities of their nature. 



The inhabitants of the extreme north have scarcely any of the 

 comforts we possess. They have no agriculture nor pasturage, few 

 wild animals and no forests where the hunter may range in search 

 of game. No beef, mutton nor pork. No fruit, bread nor veget- 

 ables. No sugar nor salt, no tea nor coffee, and (most fortunately) 

 no spirituous liciuors of any kind. No silk, cotton, flax or woolen 

 fabrics. No iron, steel, copper, lead Jior gold. No pottery. No 

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