Ethics op Horticulture. 201 



no need of the modern horticulturist growing narrow. His 

 education must be of the broadest kind ; let hitn leave the 

 narrowness — the "one idea"— to those in some of the so- 

 called learned professions who are only educated in one par- 

 ticular line of thought. I have been pained to note a dis- 

 position among some of our leading horticulturists, at the 

 conventions I have attended, to crowd out everything not 

 strictly relative to the cultivation of fruit and flowers. I 

 have noticed the shrug and frown of impatience and the in- 

 clination to check discussion when papers were presented 

 on subjects that related to the home and its outlook for a 

 better regime in the future. I have been sorry to see this 

 tendency, because I feel that all these things are necessary 

 to the broader development, and the horticulturist should 

 guard against everything that will tend to make him 

 warped and one-sided in his nature; he must uproot all 

 these tendencies to narrowness, and not tolerate them any 

 more than he would the distorted and unsymetrical treo. 



The evolution in ethical culture which the horticulturist 

 is sure to experience very largely, afifords an imposing out- 

 look, for his future, virtue and happiness are inseparable in 

 the goal which he approaches in a steady line of advance- 

 ment. Nature herself leads him on, and he instinctively feels 

 the assurance, withiu himself, of victory. 



Ceaselessly bent upon the advancement of his profession, 

 restlessly at work improving the conditions of his existence, 

 he simultaneously strengthens his moral life, while at the 

 same time the influence of his own right life will serve as 

 an inspiration to others. 



A beautiful faith is the faith in the upward tendency of 

 humanity ; it renders easy the numerous battles, the count- 

 less sacrifices and the dangers that betide the way. 



Although we meet at these conventions, give cordial 

 greetings, read papers, discuss different methods, and part 

 agfiin with regretful good- byes, we are, unconsciously per- 

 haps, marking epochs in the work, making history and 

 making horticultural literature that may serve as stepping- 

 stones for those upon whom our mantles may fall, and it is 

 to be hoped that we may leave some light-house built upon 



