316 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



theory of life verified, but in the decay and decomposition of 

 vegetable life, that still better results may follow. It is only 

 when the great forests give way to the woodman's ax, and the 

 great prairies submit to the husbandman's plough, and the life 

 that for so many centuries has held control becomes extinct, and 

 a new life follows, fed bv the results that have ffone before, di- 

 rected by the skill and industry of man, that we get the best 

 results of mother earth's productiveness. In our judgment, in 

 contradiction of the theory of Mr. Mill, all this preying each 

 upon the other are only methods of change that work out higher 

 and better results, and that in their production are full of wise 

 beneficence, necessary in the design of the all- wise creative 

 power. The pessimist's mistake is when he looks upon these 

 changes in a pessimistic way, judging the change as the end of 

 a particular form, and not as it relates to the whole, of which 

 that particular form is only a part; we see how this is in the life 

 of man ; each preceding generation is the pioneer of an advance 

 for the generations to follow. The present is what it is, because 

 of the past; the product of all that has been before. Thus the 

 value of life extends beyond the present, and if we attempt to 

 estimate its best value by the present of any age, as some do, we 

 find it counts for an unknown quantity. 



The compensation of the present is largely in its occupa- 

 tion. If our farmers could realize this, and look for compensa- 

 tion, in some degree at least, in the occupation and satisfaction 

 that a study of nature would bring, they would not only add 

 largely to their stock of knowledge for practical use, but would 

 find in their occupations an interest and attractiveness that oth- 

 erwise they would never experience or know. Their days and 

 their labor are filled with opportunities. Take, for instance, a 

 habit of observation of the birds of our locality; how few are 

 there of those engaged in horticulture who know of the value 

 and importance of these songsters and busy workers in our gar- 

 dens and orchards. Perhaps but few of our farmers know 

 "whether it pays better to spend time in killing them, to save the 

 fruit they eat, or to protect them, that they may increase and 

 multiply, to destroy the bugs, insects and worms that prey upon 



