410 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



far more beautiful than all the rest. In it grew a variety of fine 

 fruit and beautiful flowers. While leaning 1 over the fence I was 

 accosted by a passer-by, who inquired how Deacon Clark was, I 

 replied that I was a stranger there. He said Mr. C. lived in the 

 house adjoining that garden, and was very sick. While waiting 

 for the boat to return home, I walked out into the cemetery. 

 There were mounds overgrown with weeds and briars, with noth- 

 ing to tell whose remains had been lain beneath. There were 

 some, at the head and feet of which were stones with the names 

 and ages of those upon them, in whose remembrance they had 

 been placed there. Upon other stones were lines of sacred poetry 

 expressive of the feelings of those who had been left behind. 

 Others displayed rich and costly slabs and monuments marking the 

 spot where rested the remains of some loved one. There was also 

 the soldiers' monument, upon which were chiseled the names of 

 the honored dead. Clouding them all, was a sadness which made 

 me feel, Oh ! how lonely is death ! I could not tell which caused 

 the saddest feelings, the unmarked mounds overgrown with weeds 

 and briars, the lonely grave, the cold white marble or the soldiers' 

 monument; but as I moved about I came upon one bright spot; 

 it was like an oasis in a desert. Upon a smooth white marble I 

 read the name " Clark," with the name and age of a deceased 

 daughter. This spot was surrounded with flowers of various 

 kinds. Their beauty and appropriateness dispelled all sadness; 

 and while I stood there my thoughts followed the spirit of the one 

 in whose remembrance that spot had been decorated, up into that 

 garden where perennial flowers ever grow, in the midst of vines 

 and trees bearing delicious fruit Such is the influence of flowers. 

 This Board since its organization, by its efficiency and the good 

 management of its Secretary, has done much to encourage the 

 cultivation of fruit and flowers as well as to encourage scientific 

 agriculture, and have added much to the wealth, the prosperity 

 and beauty of the State, and if the Legislature will give it the 

 encouragement it deserves, it will do much to bring about the day 

 when the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways 

 smooth, and when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, 

 and when briars and thorns shall give placbto the box and myrtle, 

 and when all the land shall again bloom as the Garden of Eden, 

 and when man shall find his happiness in being useful to others. 



