442 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sacrificed at once as mere rubbish, and only by dint of hard fighting on the part of my 

 father, and the maintenance of the battle on my own part, have we preserved this 

 natural grouping of trees, a half mile in length, which to-day is the most beautiful 

 feature of our neighborhood. If all of the growth could have been preserved, nothing 

 could equal it in the way of adornment for a highway, for the satisfaction of the lover 

 of shade, the artist, the school children that daily pass it, or the stranger who might 

 visit our region. Scattered over the country everywhere we can find examples of how 

 beautiful the roadside could be adorned by the saving and continued protection of not 

 only the Oaks, Elms, Basswoods, Sycamores and other native trees that have sprung up 

 there, but also the preservation of the Dogwood, Hazel, Wild Roses, Winter Berries, 

 and Thorns, with here and there bunches of Asparagus that have grown up at their 

 roots, and form a rare mantel of embellishment; and then, if instead of pulling out 

 every snarl of climbers, there can be saved the Grape Vines, Virginia Creeper and Bit- 

 ter Sweet that have entwined themselves among the branches, and in many cases 

 almost cover, the trees, an added enjoyment can be given every lover of beauty who 

 passes by. Why must we allow the despoiler to have such sway throughout our 

 country ? Why can't our horticultural societies, which have claimed to have done so 

 much in the education of the people, allow this important matter to take a prominent 

 place in their methods of education ? 



Possibly I may err, but it seems to me that we are living far below our level of proper 

 influence if we, without a protest, allow in our public parks and even upon private 

 grounds, the monstrosities of forms created in trees and with plants and flowers to be 

 leading features of the improvements. 



What satisfaction can there be in so metamorphosing a vigorous growing tree, and 

 showing our control over its energies, as to make an elephant, bird or flsh out of its 

 transformed branches and foliage? There is no beauty in it, and no satisfaction, except 

 to illustrate how much grief a poor tree can bear. To me the operation seems as foolish 

 as that of pinching a Chinese woman's foot or crowding an .American woman's ribs, in 

 the interest of false notions of what is beautiful. It is a degradation of beautiful 

 things, to use them in the development of such unartistic elements of adornment; and 

 when park boards and distinguished foreign professionals make these monstrosities 

 leading features of their art. Nature is not mended, but sacrificed. 



In this connection I desire to mildly exhibit my dislike for the attention that florists 

 give to the exhibition of flowers upon metal forms. There are, without doubt, great 

 occasions in which formality is the leading factor, where the representations of various 

 material things can be made in flowers and be tolerated, but the display upon every 

 available opportunity of elaborate forms representing every thing from a ship at sea to 

 the gates of heaven, seems to me an utter degradation of the most delicate things Nature 

 produces. 



It is without question a commendable development of art to bring out a new form of 

 flower, or to add to the variety of tints in which a species may be shown. This is the 

 utilization of Nature's law under the control of men, who have learned how to interpret 

 them in such a way as to add to the beautiful things in the world. But to take these 

 delicate creations of Nature and mass them, so as to eliminate their individuality, into 

 the forms that illustrate at most a little mechanical genius, has not the semblance of 

 art in it. A graceful arrangement of flowers, taking advantage of the laws of appro- 

 priate combinations of color and form, is a form of artistic work eminently desirable to 

 develop and magnify; but the average florist's hand bouquet made in precise geometri- 

 cal lines, with flowers having scrimped stems pieced out with tooth picks; or the mar- 

 riage bell remarkable simply for the number of white carnations used in covering its 

 framework; or the funeral pillow, the creation of which is suggestive of nothing to 

 relieve pain or soften sorrow; the floral representation of the beautiful gate's ajar, or 

 gate wide open, are not symbols of a highly developed taste in artistic effects. We can 

 afford to reduce them, by our influence and example, to their lowest terms, and develop 

 a wider employment of rare floral forms for their own sake, as accompaniments of joy 

 and sorrow, and in the adoi-nment of the person, as well as the places that we wish to 

 beautify. 



I have another article or two to hang on my line, and if you do not deem it improper, 

 I desire to mildly criticise the efforts of those good people who think to add to the 

 attractiveness of their exhibits of fruits and vegetables by devoting a good deal of time 

 to "shining them up." There is nothing that renders the apple, or peach, or pear, and 

 especially the plum and grape, so particularly attractive, as the native bloom that adorns 

 its surface. It is quieting to the eye, it adds dignity and modesty to the fruit displayed, 

 it is a serious loss to remove it. W^hy do we tolerate in exhibitors the habit of removing 

 -Nature's delicate adornment of our fruits? 



The most noticeable feature in that magnificent display of grapes made by the state of 



