338 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 



In these terse, emphatic words : 



Plant evergreens to shield your herds, 



Your orchards and your homes from cold. 



These beauteous trees outweigh your gold ; 



Enhance your pleasures every year. 



And when the close of life draws near. 



Your children's gratitude will fill 



Your hearts with the prophetic ' Peace, good will.' " 



— A. M. N. — From Wesiera Rural. 



FARMERS AND BOOKS. • 



The world teems with books on orchard management, and on 

 every other department of husbandry. Is it wise to spend a lot of 

 money on buying trees and planting an orchard, when a dollar is be- 

 grudged for some useful work on fruit culture ? The prejudice against 

 book-farming seldom voices itself nowadays; but it may be seen 

 plainly enough in the scarcity of good books on agriculture and horti- 

 culture in farmer's houses. It is the minority still who take a rural 

 paper. " Read and you will kaow," is as true about farming and gar- 

 dening as any other department of human knowledge. The accumu- 

 lated wisdom of ages on all subjects is embodied in good books and 

 scattered broadcast in useful periodicals. If a man shats and bars 

 bis doors against these, he metaphorically closes his windows to the 

 light of day, and must sit or walk in darkness — Cor. Rural Canadian. 



This is a race track 

 Rounded and smoothed with care, 

 Thronged with horses and people 

 Every day of the fair. 



o o o 

 These are the farmers' products. 

 Few and far between, 

 Viewed by reporters and committeemen, 

 Cared for by farmers green. ' 



— Stoiighton Sentinel. 



Here is a little piece of poetry that seems to me pretty good. 

 There is great deal of truth in it, if it is short. Just think what a differ- 

 ence theve is between bread and liquor, and yet both come from the 

 same thing. There are a great many other things that we meet with 

 in every day life that will produce good or bad results — just as we 

 choose : ' 



