Mental and Moral Influence of Horticultueb. 31 



women. We have a country so rich and wonderful in varied re- 

 sources, that none but the best of the race seem to be worthy to 

 inhabit it. We cannot all of us, nor indeed can many of us, send 

 our children to colleges to be educated, and perhaps it is not best 

 that we should do so. Let us be thankful that educated and re- 

 fined men, that strong and noble men, are by no means confined 

 to the graduates of our institutions of learning. Some, as you all 

 know, of the noblest specimens of men that our world has ever 

 known, were educated entirely outside of colleges and seminaries. 

 I have spoken of horticulture at this time not as a means of 

 money making, or even as a means of securing comfort, but sim- 

 ply as a mental and refining discipline in our education. I have 

 said it was cheap, for I firmly believe that it may be made to pay 

 all its expenses. . I have said it was pleasant, because it will add 

 so much to the beauty of our homes in their outside adorning and 

 will add so much to our pleasure within them. Palaces are not 

 necessary to make happy homes, but cultivation and refinement 

 are a necessity to a truly happy one. A gentleman who was the 

 owner of the largest and most expensive residence in the county 

 where he lived, called upon a lady who was once a school-mate of 

 mine. He was upon friendly terms with her, and one day, soon 

 after entering the bouse, he threw himself upon the lounge and 

 said : " Well, Sarah, there is the most pure home in this house of 

 any I ever entered." Yet it was a plain log building, upon a farm 

 a number of miles from any town. A limbing rose bush covered 

 nearly one whole side of it. A yard of flowers adorned one por- 

 tion of the enclosure ; fruits, shrubbery and lawns the rest. 

 Within was a very small library, and a few papers and maga- 

 zines; the furniture was all plain and inexpensive. The lady 

 herself received her education in a very ordinary district school. 

 She married while young and moved to the then almost boundless 

 wilderness of Michigan. Here she added horticulture to her many 

 other cares, and the result may be seen to-day in its efi'ect upon 

 the children who were born and grew up there. She is now fast 

 growing old, but she is still a noble wife and mother, a true friend 

 and an educated and refined old lady. Why should we not have 

 such homes by the thousand in all portions of the northwest. 



