214 Wisconsin Statb Horticultural Society. 



believe that the Wilson could only bear two crops, and then the 

 beds must be reset, bnt cultivated in this way he had picked 

 seven successive crops from the same bed, perhaps not full crops, 

 but fair ones. He did not think it paid to cultivate the beds 

 more than two years, if you got two full crops, but it was better 

 to turn them under and reset. 



ESTHETICS I^'" HORTICULTURE. 



Mrs. C. A. WiLLARD, West De Pere. 



Eearing that some may think that the silly, verbose utterances 

 of Oscar Wilde may have induced the selection of the title to 

 this paper, I want to say by way of preface that the title was 

 selected, and given by our worthy president, long before Mr. 

 Wilde's advent upon our shores. This apostle of a rose-water 

 culture has, by his assumption of a superior esthetic develop- 

 ment, brought under severe criticism an essential element of fine 

 art. At the risk of being considered as aping this man Wilde, 

 I will venture a few thoughts on the subject of Esthetics in 

 Horticulture. 



The husbandman in the pursuit of his occupation is in constant 

 contact with mystery and wonder. The processes of nature that 

 be has to do with in all his labor, are filled with exquisite and 

 beautiful combinations of matter. The occupation of the hus- 

 bandman, more than any other in all the range of industry, 

 affords the best opportunity of becoming familiar with the most 

 interesting revelations of creative power; he is toiling in the 

 laboratory of the Most High, and may and does become a co- 

 worker with the Creator in perfecting wonderfully beautiful and 

 useful results. Such are the possibilities and opportunities of 

 horticulture that it only needs a refined intelligence in its pursuit 

 to make it the companion of art, science and literature, as a 

 means of culture and refinement. 



Pantheism in Pagan mythology teaches that God is present in 

 all that lives. Science, in modern thought, has revealed a secret 

 that, if it does not teach ^the same thing, is very suggestive at 



