164 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



A week ago last Sunday we had a lesson entitled " The 

 Lily Lesson," and we were not satisfied with just learning 

 it as it occurred in the Bible, but we gathered together a lot 

 of lilies and brought them into the class as an object lesson. 

 We told the children about the lily family, and we drew 

 many beautiful lessons, and the children listened as atten- 

 tively as possible, and when we got through with the lesson 

 we had the children in the best possible condition to carry 

 to them the truth and beauty of Christ's character. Last 

 Sunday we had the vine lesson. This is a series we have. 

 Somebody saw me coming to the Sunday school with a long 

 vine, and the friend said, "What are you going to do with 

 that? That will make several whips, won't it? " I let them 

 make all the fun they wanted to. After we had had our les- 

 son of the vine in the classes, I took it before the little people, 

 and I noticed that that little class of infant children — 

 twenty or thirty little people four or five years old — were 

 interested as possible. I told them about the buds and their 

 arrangement; how God did it; that He arranged that thing 

 just as He thought wise; that none of us would have ever 

 thought of the things that God thought of, and I told 

 them the same thing was true of all things in God's crea- 

 tion. So I went on about the simple things of bfttany and 

 horticulture as they could be taught from that vine, and I 

 was satisfied that from the attention given in the classes 

 that that was the most desirable lesson I could give to the 

 Sunday school. 



Now I want to say a word about the normal school and 

 its duties. I do not know your arrangement in this state, 

 but we have one in which we are supposed to teach our 

 teachers how to teach. There go out a lot of young men 

 and women to teach our children in the best way. I find 

 that in the curriculum there is almost nothing taught that 

 is going to be a help to our children in this line. I want our 

 normal schools to have the elementary facts of the study of 

 horticulture. I want those teachers to be taught practical 

 lessons how best to use plants and shrubs. I want them 

 taught how to teach so that they can go into a com- 

 munity and make the school grounds the nucleus around 



