160 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



There is one other remembrance of Waukesha county 

 that I remember kindly. It was the spring of the y^r 

 thirty one years ago next month. A lady friend who took 

 a great deal of interest in us children, said to five or six of 

 us boys, " I wish on Saturday you would all come up to my 

 house and I will give you an outing." We all gathered 

 there and she went with us into the woods. We each took 

 a spade and we found five beautiful maple trees, and each 

 of us dug up one of those trees and took it to the school 

 ground and planted the trees there. After the planting of 

 the trees, in which she taught us many lessons, we went 

 over to her house and there she gave us each a saucer of 

 miaple syrup following which we had some crackers and 

 milk. In those days crackers and milk were considered au 

 extravagance. I thought that a wonderful thing she had 

 done for us — crackers and milk and maple sugar. I ap- 

 preciate it to this day. When I went back there a year ago 

 last June, the lady pointed out to me the only remaining 

 tree of those we planted that day, and she said: "That is 

 your tree. We saved it to remember your having lived 

 here among us." I am glad I planted it. I think the little 

 lesson learned that day has done me a great deal of good. 

 I do not know but it has moulded ijiy life. 



I have a little boy who is studying horticulture to day. 

 He is four years of age. He generally goes right out after 

 dinner, and he has a little piece of ground prepared for him 

 where he watches the germination of the seeds planted 

 there, and often pulls up the seeds before the sprouts come 

 up and before the root is started. He is getting an interest 

 in horticulture. He cannot learn his letters; I have tried to 

 teach them to him. I have got him to count up as far as 

 four, but not to five. I think he is a genius in horticulture 

 but not in figures. Those lessons that boy is getting are 

 the best possible lessons he can learn at his age, and I wish 

 more people would strive to teach their children not to read 

 and count, but more of things that are about them that will 

 add to their pleasure and enjoyment to the end of their 

 da;^s. I believe that the success of life comes from the en- 

 joyment of each day, and if we can add to the measure of 



