156 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



Evening Session. 



The Board reassembled at 1\ o'clock, to listen to a lecture 

 by Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney. The audience was a very large one, 

 and the speaker was heard with manifest interest and pleasure. 



THE HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 



BY MRS. EDSAH D. CHENEY. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — I do not come before you to-night 

 as an expert to give you any information as to the details of the 

 noble science of agriculture, but only to present it to you in its 

 relation to the great subject which is engaging all thoughtful 

 minds in our community, — the education, employment and 

 condition of women. I do not hope to give you any new facts, 

 but only, if possible, to quicken and animate your thoughts, so 

 that you may see the wide vista of usefulness and blessing 

 which opens before us in the extension of this healthful pursuit 

 to thousands whom custom, prejudice and inattention have 

 hitherto kept from it. 



Neither can I claim the charm of novelty for my subject. It 

 is no new idea that women should till the ground and engage 

 in all the varied duties of horticultural life. In the sober 

 prose of fact, we find her in savage life bearing all the hard 

 work of providing for the nourishment of the family. You 

 remember the pathetic song of the negroes over Mungo Park — 



" We pity the poor white man ; 

 He has no mother to bring him food, 

 No wife to grind him corn." 



The pleasures of the chase, the excitements of war belong 

 mainly to man ; but woman does all the hard work. It is a 

 great step in civilization when man begins to share her labors, 

 and work is put upon a footing of honor. 



In the inspired realm of poetry we find woman the helper in 

 the field and the garden. The great poet, John Milton, all 

 whose sins towards womankind may be forgotten in the large 

 and beautiful vision he has given of our first mother, makes 

 Adam cordially extend his invitation to her — 



" To prune these growing plants and tend these flowers, 

 Which were it toilsome, yet with thee were sweet." 



