HORTICULTURE FOR THE PEOPLE. 495 



which ifc gives to the attractions of home, — the delight in the labors of propa- 

 gation, planting, prnning, and cnlture,--the pleasure in watching the swelling 

 buds of spring, the bursting and opening of blossoms, the growth aud devel- 

 opment of fruit, the grandeur of nature's foliage and bloom, — all these can 

 never be secured by him who neglects the scientific and practical lessons which 

 this art confers on its votaries. I do not say that the culture of the garden 

 can fill the complete measure of all that we need of the present life, nor supply 

 what the Cliristian religion only can give, but it can add to and increase them. 

 Christianity itself is like the great and glorious edifice, perfect in form and 

 symmetry; horticulture can entwine its spotless columns with wreaths of 

 beauty, and thus became a valuable aid and auxiliary to the greatest of all 

 benefiictions to the human race. 



COi>rCLUSIOK — MICHIGAlSr's ADVANTAGES. 



In concluding these remarks, I desire to congratulate the Michigan Pomo- 

 logical Society on the wide opportunity which lies before it, in possessing one 

 of the finest horticultural fields of the whole Union, and in the gratifying- 

 progress it has already made. The Agricultural College of the State has long- 

 stood in the front rank of the most efficient institutions of the kind in the 

 world, and the labors of its able professors have been attended with eminent 

 success ; and with both these institutions, and similar ones, conducted as they 

 are with life and energy, I enjoy the confident hope of seeing the State emi- 

 nently prosperous in all the arts pertaining to the culture of the soil. And if 

 I should presume to make any suggestions for your future guidance, I would 

 especially name the patriotic labor of a wide diffusion of horticultural taste 

 among the people ; the encouragement of the most perfect systems of cultiva- 

 tion, and the selection of the best things which modern pomology and horti- 

 culture have given. For home and family use, we want nothing of an inferior 

 character; and for profit in market, the finest fruit, raised with the best skill, 

 selected aud thinned out to leave only the best specimens, and put up and 

 packed in the neatest aud most perfect manner, will command high prices and 

 ready sales, when car loads of ordinary fruit can find no purchasers. Plant 

 abundantly of long keepers, — plant sparingly of perishable sorts, — place before 

 your people the best and latest intelligence on the subject, — encourage them in 

 a thorough practical test of every question connected with it, — and I have no 

 doubt that Michigan will stand among tlie foremost in what Lord Bacon 

 regarded as the great and crowning art of civilization. 



