INDIANA HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 307 



out of this old home of the past has grown for us the new home of today, 

 having its worlis of art, its high walls and lofty domes kissed by the 

 morning sun. The old landmarks are gone and we rest beneath their 

 shadows no more; yet we oft times wander, as it were, down the path 

 of that old home, while we drink in not only the beauty but the per- 

 fume of its long lost youth. 



Oh! could my tired feet once more 

 Be guided to the old home door. 

 And could I smell the mignonette, 

 Those weary years I might forget. 



Is it broadening too much the ordinary definition of artist to assume 

 that whoeA-er creates or produces— assisting and co-operating with nature — 

 out of the crude matter of the soil objects that add to the beauty of the 

 landscape, is an artist? The planting of a farm to flowers, vegetables, 

 fruit trees, shrubs, canes or plants adds to the beauty of the landscape. 

 How often have we admired the beauty of a plantation of fruit trees, such 

 as apples, pears, peaches, plums and cherries or the smaller fruits in rid- 

 ing bj'^ even in winter when they were denuded of foliage, flowers and 

 fruit; but how much more attractive they are when clothed with blos- 

 soms and foliage in May, or laden with fruit in summer and autumn. The 

 florists who, through years, centuries and ages, have increased the species 

 and varieties, adding immeasurably to their loveliness, have certainly con- 

 tributed to the beauty of the flower garden. Our great variety of double 

 flowers, with their numerous and varied forms, tints and colors, are the 

 work of man. The great number of species and varieties of fruits owe 

 their origin mainly to the efforts of man. Compare our most beautiful 

 apples, such as Sweet Bough, StrawbeiTy, Red Astrachan, Maiden Blush, 

 Grimes' Golden, King, Northern Spy, Wealthy and numerous others of our 

 own improved varieties with the primitive apple, if any such be found, 

 and you will see how much the hand of man has done in adding to their 

 beauty, to say nothing of the quality of the apple. How much the appear- 

 ance of our landscape was enhanced last fall by the orchards on every 

 farm bending under their burden of beautiful fruit. What an ornament to 

 the table a dish of our finest varieties affords. 



Consider the pear. Although not quite so remarkable for bright colors 

 as many varieties of the apple, yet no one can deny that a tree loaded 

 with any of our leading varieties, such as Bartlett, Clapp's li"'avorite or 

 Flemish Beauty, are a great improvement in color as well as flavor upon 

 the seedling. Then some of the varieties of the pear do not acquire their 

 coloring until picked and ripened by the skill of man. And what relation 

 has the peach to beauty? It is scarcely excelled by any other species of 

 fruit. Whether we consider the white fleshed varieties, with their creamy 

 skin changed to crimson by the rays of the sun, or the yellow fleshed, 

 which are deep yellow in the shade and dark crimson in the sun; whether 



