28 Wisconsin Statb Horticultural Society. 



it infineoce its possessors? lam strongly induced to the belief 

 that a love of the beautiful is implanted in every human breast. 

 Not of course to the same extent in all, but it is there. It is one 

 of the faculties given us by the Great Father of all, for good and 

 beneficent purposes. If this":facalty is cultivated, it becomes a 

 habit with us to study and admire the beauties of both art and 

 nature whenever and wherever we find them. It is often said 

 that we are creatures of habit. This, to a great extent, is doubt- 

 less true. It is a well known fact that both men and women are 

 to a certain extent what their food and their surroundings make 

 thern. For instance; if a young man be placed where he is com- 

 pelled to live on the coarsest of food, although it may be in 

 abundance, with compan'ons who are ignorant, coarse and un- 

 gentlemanly, while the only books or amusement to which he has 

 access are of the same general character, and he continues to live 

 in this way for a long series of years, what would be the natural 

 result ? Would you expect to see a refined and cultivated gen- 

 tleman come from such surroundings ? Most assuredly not. la 

 ninety-nine cases out out of a hundred you would find a man 

 coarse in features, coarse in mind, rude in manners, repulsive and 

 disagreeable in almost every respect to persons of educadon and 

 refinement. Occasionally you might find a strong intellect united 

 with a strong body, under such circumstances, but coarse and un- 

 manageable. He may have the framework, as it were, of an in- 

 tellectual giant, but lacking the refinements necessary to make a 

 truly grand and noble man. This class of men, and women as 

 well, may be found, not only by hundreds, but by thousands, all 

 over our country. Some of you can readily call to mind persons 

 whom you have known who have been from their early childhood 

 placed in such circumstances, and who will always show the effect 

 of their early training, or rather the want of training and cultiva- 

 tion which might have made life worth much more to them than 

 it now is. 



I do not wish to be understood to claim that horticultural 

 training will do away with all of these evils. The point that I 

 wish to make is this: that the training of children and young 

 persons to understand and practice the arts of fruit and flower 



