" Run Ye Not After Strange Gods." 31 



were twenty-five trees on his place that have given better returns 

 each year than the average of any twenty-five acres in farm crops, 

 and he would rather have them to-day than twenty-five acres of 

 farm land. Anything we raise must receive the necessary atten- 

 tion; and if farmers would give the same care and attention to fruit 

 they do to corn and wheat, they would be successful. We have the 

 chinch bug, the Hessian fly, the cut-worm, the potato beetle, etc. 

 These must be watched and destroyed; so with the insect enemies 

 of our fruit. The difficulties are not peculiar to us, but are found 

 everywhere. At the east and south many complaints are heard; 

 they say they cannot compete with the west in raising fruit, and in 

 a few years will have to wholly depend on us for it. 



Mrs. Irena H. Williams, of Madison, then read the following 

 paper: 



" RUN YE NOT AFTER STRANGE GODS." 



The spirit of the age seems to be love of a change, and for 

 some reasons it is well; for others it is falling off from the good 

 old ways of those who preceded us, by which we are not the 

 gainers, but rather sutfer loss. This is a fruitful theme, but only 

 as it applies to floriculture will I glean. 



In a family where the love of plants is an innate taste, early 

 spring brings to mind the necessity of quickly preparing a list of 

 the variety, and quantity of seeds and plants, needed to make 

 beautiful the home garden. Wise men first came from the east, 

 and to this day their wisdom is in high repute, so, to the catalogues 

 from their establishments, we turn. What an array of slumbering 

 beauty does the seed here described present, but the dear little 

 flowers of childhood " are lost to sight, tho' still to memory dear," 

 and in their places we find elaborate, high sounding, meaningless 

 names with such wonderful descriptions, that we no longer recog- 

 nize the old friends, and rather sorrowfully write new names, think- 

 ing, ah well! we too must keep pace with this age of progress. 



The plant list is more bewildering, still the botany of girlhood 

 has somehow slipped away amidst the stern realities learned since. 

 We are nonplussed indeed; at random the selection is made. High 

 prices and high-falutin names go hand in hand, but we think with 

 so much concentrated loveliness, Solomon in alb his glory would 



