WARSAW HORTICULTURAL SOCIETy. 351 



people, that must be productive of good results. And, above all, tbey are educating 

 the people to a knowledge, that to adorn and beautify our homes— to plant orchards 

 and eat the fruit thereof; to cultivate gardens and vineyards, and enjoy the rich 

 health-giving blessings they yield, is not only life and happiness, but religion too. 

 At the December meeting, 1868, President Hammond delivered his Annual Address on 



THE YEAK AND ITS LESSONS. 



• ' Tlie Year and its Lessons ' ' lias been assignetl me by this society as the snb.lect of an address to- 

 day. Lotus, therefore, very briefly consider the successes and failures that have ocon-red during 

 the year now so nearly numbered with the past, as well as the useful lessons they teach us. 



The Spring: opened with great promise of an abundant fruit crop. Trees of all kinds being well 

 supplied with fruit buds, which were generally in a healthy condition: but the warm weather of 

 March brought them forward too rapidly; and when, on the fourth of April, the mercury sank twelve 

 degrees below the freezing point, almost the entire croji of apyiles pears and cherries, was des- 

 troyed, and all the small fruits seriously injured— leaving only the grapes and peaches— and even 

 these did not entirely escape. 



Our insect enemies have also come upon us like the plagues of Egypt. First the Locusts seriously 

 injured our fruit trees in some localities. Next the Grasshoppers stripped many of them of their 

 foliage. Then a worm (which Mr. Walsh says he has never seen before,) made its appearance upon 

 the leaves of young orchards and nursery trees, and about finished the work of defoliation. The 

 f 'urculio has not only destroyed the entire crop of plums in this vicinity, but has this season for the 

 first time, attacked our peaches and cherries. The birds have also been very numerous, appropria- 

 ting most of the cherries, berries, and early ai)ples that survived the frost, and in some instances, 

 destroying almost the entire product of a vinyard in a few days. 



Truly a chajiter of disasters! but shall we yield to discouragements and abandon our business, 

 because diseases, insects and birds increase ':* The man who would become a fruit-grower, and has 

 not sutlicient energy to boldly meet and finally overcome, all these obstacles, has mistaken his 

 calling, and had better turn his attention to some other pursuit. 



He who would succeed as a horticulturist, must be in love witli his i)rofession; he must adopt it as 

 his tjusiness, and identify it with his life. lie must be a close observer; ijossess an indomitable will 

 and a large amount of iiatience and perseverance. He must be a man who has learned to labor and 

 to wait. Not to latior for a season; — to plant an orchard or vineyard, and then sit down and wait 

 with folded hands, oxiiccting without further effort, to gain Pomona's fairest treasures. ]?ut to 

 labor constantly and earnestly, in season and out of season, firmly believing that the reward will 

 surely come. He should also understand something of the nature of the soil, its relations and con- 

 ditions; something of Geology, Entomology, Agricultural Chemistry, and Vegetable riiysiology. 

 In a word,— something of the science of Horticultiu'e. 



In the present age science is called to the aid of every in-ofession and ma<le to do the bidding of 

 man. Commerce once crejit cautiously along the shore, or navigated the inland seas. Science gave 

 her the conipass and taught her to spi-ead her wings and sail from shore to shore. Ere long she 

 brouglil to her aid the mysterious iiower of fire and water, and now she defiles the mighty force of 

 wind and wave, and goes boldly forth to everv sea and every clime, to civilize and enrich the earth. 

 Great has been her triumph on the sea, but greater on the land. The locomotive flies along the 

 shore faster than the shi]i across tlie deei) ; and now the echo of its shrill whistle and the clatter of its 

 iron hoofs, are lieard not only amid the haunts of civilized men, but on the mystical i)laius of tlie 

 great American desert, and amid the solitude of the Kocky Mountains. 



Though science has done so much for the commercial world, how little, comparatively, has it 

 done for the farmer or horticulturist? True, it has given us much valuable machinery, and taught 

 us the importance of a better system of culture. But how little do we knoAV of the mysterious chem- 

 ical influences that are ever at work in the great laboratory of nature to jiroduce the luscious fruits 

 we pluck and eat with so little thought; or of the peculiar structure of the trees and plants with 

 which we daily come in contact; or the subtle influence of the soil on their growth and develop- 

 ment. 



Who has yet discovered a sure pi-eventive for the jiear bliglit or iieach and grape rot? Or a way to 

 circumvent the hosts of insects that prey ujion our fruits? or prevent the depredations of those sweet 

 singers of the grove, who sing to us their morning song, and delight us with their beautiful presence 

 as they flit from tree to tree, and then in perfect wantonness destroy great quantities of our choicest 

 fruit? Surely, we have many important lessons yet to learn. 



It is a very prevalent idea that it is the easiest thing in the world to manage a farm or fruit planta- 

 tion; while it really requires more brains to become a first-class farmer or horliculturist than to 



