18 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



beauty impels him to a love of the beautifull in personal life and 

 character. 



There seems to be a close linking of characteristics between trees, 

 plants and people, similar laws of growth and development appear to 

 govern. The suppleness and pliability of the sappling and its response 

 to early training, pictures largely the lements so marked in the first years 

 of human life. The gaining of strength and growth with the reaching 

 out of twig and limb reflects the developing processes ever going on in the 

 expansion of our own personalities, and the maturing and gaining of more 

 rigidity of character, with the ability to shelter and protect, is the 

 counterpart of the disposition of the well grown and trained man or 

 woman. 



The same law of similarity seems to run through many phases 

 of growth in the natural kingdom. It may be bordering on that 

 which is of a metaphysical nature, but whatever may have been the pro- 

 cesses by which men and plants have reached their present stage of 

 development, there is a wonderful affinity existing between them, and as 

 we submit this idea to a more acute analysis we discover they were made 

 for each other and that our higher instincts whether innate or acquired 

 find, in consorting with that which we commonly refer to as the natural 

 world, a supreme gratification to a very apparent demand of the superior 

 part of our being, and the finer the quality of our personal appreciation, 

 whether of an aesthetic or scientific character, the deeper our personal 

 pleasure. 



There is another side of our subject that is interesting to note. 

 Those of us who have for a lengthy period sojourned in Nebraska, cannot 

 help having noticed the influence that Horticulture and tree planting in 

 general has had upon not merely the personal life of our people but upon 

 its development along a higher plane, if I may be permitted to so desig- 

 nate it, of their material life. Whilst receiving benefits of the higher 

 order it is well for us to think for a moment or two of the immense 

 material result that the planting, both of forest and fruit trees has had, 

 and perhaps nowhere in our country is there better opportunity for ag- 

 gressive work in the forestry than in this state. Notable leaders in the 

 membership of this society for many years have preached both by ex- 

 ample and precept the importance of Forestry and Arbor-culture and, as 

 a direct result, blessings of untold value have followed. The trees they 

 planted and those whom they inspired to become planters have both given 

 rich result. 



A few weeks ago it was my great pleasure to make a visit to Arbor 

 Lodge. As one thinks of the log house that was the first habitation of the 

 illustrious Morton, and of the scheme of beauty that was evolved from 

 his striking personality, what a full tide it was that ebbed and floWed 

 between him and his surroundings. As I stood in the shadow of the 

 splendid memorial erected to his memory, nestling amongst the trees he 

 had planted and whose companionship he had cherished, with uncovered 



