54 , NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



deposited in tbese centers. Sometimes I think if it tiad not been for th« 

 natural amility of the rural surroundings to perpetuate and keep alive 

 the loftier sentiments of the race, the cities and towns of our lands would 

 have gone to the dogs. Recent years have developed the idea that the 

 country is not merely to be looked upon as the breeding ground to furnisti 

 the gireat centers with the stalwart life of muscle and brain, but that it 

 is the true home and natural habitat of refinement and culture. That 

 in the home suri'ounded in the distance with fields of waving grain, maize 

 and beautiful meadows scattered over with sleek and graoeful stock, and 

 it may be nestling beneath some sheltered nook adorned with trees of 

 varied hues and style of growth, in such a rose-embowered home the for- 

 tunate owner lives, with the birds singing their songs of praise and con- 

 tentment. It is amidst such surroundings that life has the fullest pro- 

 vision made for expansion. The motive power for material ability being 

 thus multiplied and intensified, personal character and attainment cannot 

 help being stimulated and improved. It may seem somewhat paradoxical 

 to say that out of the sentimental comes that which gives the greatest 

 material ability and yet it is by our material surroundings that the senti- 

 mental side of us is strengthened. I fully believe that the man who is 

 surrounded with an environment such as I have just described will suc- 

 ceed in a material sense much more than the man who is content to allow 

 his hogs and cattle to run up close of his front door. The person who 

 loves order and who intelligently observes the wonderful arrangement 

 of oaider in the natural world, becomes orderly in his daily life. The man 

 who loves beauty and symmetry and who revels in the fragrance of God's 

 laboratory will be likely to exude a sweetness in his intercourse with 

 his family and fellowmen and show a certain symmetry of life and char- 

 acter, and, as the ever and inevitable developing plan of life goes on, his 

 conception of life and its meaning, together with his individual responsi- 

 bility, will be very likely to impress him deeply. 



For many years, in fact, almost since I was able to think and ob- 

 serve, the personality of the tree and flower lover has left a deep im- 

 pression upon me, and often when I have come into meetings similar to 

 this , and met in a more individual way people whom w« might generalize 

 under the term Horticulturist, I ^have felt a standing-out of their person- 

 alities. There is an indefinable something that is always most attract- 

 ive about them. 



Well do I remember, in the village where I was born, an old lady 

 who was passionately fond of gardens and flowers. She had a very large 

 old-fashioned flower garden. Oh, the loveliness and sweetness of that 

 old garden! Beauty everywhere. . No nook or corner but what held hid- 

 den away some choice plant, flower or fern. Nearly always was the dear 

 old woman to be found amongst her beloved flowers. I can see her now, 

 although many years have gone by, with her big garden hat covering her 

 sweet, shining face, tottering here and there, giving care to this flower 

 or to that plant with a tender solicitude as if they were her children. If 



