GER-MAX ASTESS. 

 Be3X collectjon ; R. X. M^singer, Milwaukee. Bronze medal. 



FAySIES. 

 Best and greatest varietr ; B. P. Cahoon, Kenosha. Bronze medal. 

 Best six varieties ; R. X. Messenger, Mil-vraukee. Fessenden's Complete 

 Farmer and Gardener. 



Best collection of green-house plants owned bv one person : R. X. Mes- 

 singer, Milwaukee. Bronze medal. 



Best basket boquet, with handle ; Miss E. Ogden, Milwaukee. Bronze 

 medal. 



Tree Cactus ; H. W. Haves, Palmvra. Transactions. 



The Committee report " that they have performed their duties with as 

 much care as the great press of spectators on the dav to which exami- 

 nations were deferred, would permit ; and, in common with the multi- 

 tude of visitors, at this the Second Annual State Fair of your noble 

 Society, your Commiuee cannot refrain from expressions of regret, that 

 in the delightful department assi^ed to them, so little emulation has 

 been awakened, especially among the amateur Florists of Milwaukee 

 and its vicinity. 



" The cultivation of ornamental plants and beautiful flowers, is a 

 highly useful as weU as pleasurable employment of the leisure hotirs of 

 the denizens of cities — ^both male and female — for that which we aid in 

 calling into being, or nourishing into beauty and excellence, we instinct- 

 ively love ; and the love of the beautiful refines and ptirifies the mind, 

 and adds to the capacity for the enjoyment of innocent and rational 

 pleastires, exactly in proportion to the increasing satisfaction derived 

 from each new experiment, and every successful result of our heart-felt 

 labors in this department of the poetry of rural life. One who loves 

 flowers, and ctiltivaies them because he loves them, cannot be a bad 

 man, and the person who "ars them for profit only, is always made bet- 

 ter and happier by his humanizing profession. These are truths that 

 few will gainsay, and none can disprove. We, who have seen, know it. 

 Tou, who wotild prove, have but to try it. 



*' Hortictilture is the religion of nature, as well as the * poetry of rural 

 life ;' and it is the duty, therefore, of every one to practise it in cities, 

 where little of nature is seen ; and in towns, near which great State 



