234 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



prospective benefits to commerce and agriculture, and the interest of this 

 Society in availing itself of the opportunity to keep posted in the progress 

 of the Signal Service. 



Dr. Hollowbush favored the objects of the communication, and 

 moved that a committee of correspondence be appointed. The President 

 announced the committee as follows : B. Whitaker, Dr. Hollowbush, and 

 Dr. Hay. 



President Hammond then invited Dr. LeBaron to address the 

 Society upon such topics related to horticulture, and the insects infesting 

 fruits and the crops, as he deemed would be of most interest. Dr. Le- 

 Baron responded in the following address : 



" It is the nature of horticulture to draw into its ranks people of culture and refine- 

 ment. Many men who are now in the midst of the whirlpool of political ambition or 

 mercantile speculations, look forward to the time when they shall retire from this tur- 

 moil and excitement, and spend more peaceful days and more quiet nights, amidst the 

 more simple and healthful influences of nature. Happy will it be for them, should this 

 time ever arrive, if in the meantime they have not lost the capacity of enjoying these 

 natural and innocent pleasures. 



" I do not mean to be guilty of the folly of maintaining that the life of the horticul- 

 turist is all luxury and romance. He must often expose himself to the midday sun; he 

 must follow the plow and shovel manure. There is a great deal of rough and coarse 

 work that underlies and precedes the rich and beautiful fruitage. But the work is health- 

 ful, and the fruits are the most refined and exalted of nature's products. 



" It has often been remarked that it is difficult to conceive that he can be a bad 

 man who takes pleasure in the cultivation of fruits and flowers. The selfish rich man 

 may indeed take pride in having a fine garden, and he may spend much money in 

 having it kept in order; but I do not call this man a horticulturist. He may take pride 

 in walking through his garden and showing it to his visitors, but he does not take plea- 

 sure in living and working in it. If his mind is intent on low and selfish aims, he will 

 be likely to leave his garden, or retire to its remotest and darkest corner. It is related 

 that when Nero was plotting the destruction of the greatest and best of the Roman 

 citizens, he walked through his garden, not to admire its beauty, but to indicate his 

 wicked purpose, by knocking oft' with his cane the heads of the tallest poppies. 



" In the lieautiful allegory of the garden of Eden, our first parents are represented, in 

 their primeval innocence, as being surrounded by fruits of every kind, and these seem 

 to have constituted their only food, and it was the unadulterated juice of the grape 

 which the Great Teacher promised to those who should become his guests in the Pa- 

 ternal Mansion. 



" The views above expressed will be corroborated, if we look for a moment to the 

 class of men who have taken the lead in the horticulture of this State. I know it is 

 invidious to call names, and I do not intend by so doing to shock the modesty of any 

 here present; but if, without off'ence, I may mention such veterans in the service as 

 Elmer Baldwin, of La Salle; Arthur Bryant, of Princeton; Lewis Ellsworth, of Naper- 

 ville ; J. B. Turner, of Jacksonville; judge Brown, of Villa Ridge; and the venerable 

 Smiley Shepherd, of Hennepin, men whom to name is to honor, I know you will all 

 feel proud of your calling, and emulous of holding an honorable place in it. 



" But perhaps you will say to me, we know that flowers are beautiful and fruits' luxu- 

 rious, but how is it with your own department, entomology ? You certainly will not 

 claim that there is any beauty or utility in bugs. Yes, insects, too, have their beautiful, 

 and useful, and even their poetical aspects. Many beetles vie with the most costly gems 

 in the splendor of their coloring; and the butterflies, if not more lovely, are more 

 elaborately beautiful than the lily or the rose. Then, as respects utility, our attention 

 is so frequently and painfully called to the damages done by insects, that we are in 

 danger of losing sight of the benefits which, directly or indirectly, we receive from them. 



