152 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



"Oh what are you doing, old man?" he cried 



"And why do you dig in the earth so deep?'' 

 "I am planting a tree," the man replied, 



"I fashion a place which its life wiU keep." 

 "And what is the tree which you plant, old man? 



And why is it put by the wayside here?'- 

 "'Tis an apple tree, as I plant I plan 

 It may some weary traveller cheer." 



"Ha! Ha'" and the child laughed merrier yet, 



"Ere it blossoms once you'll be dead "and gone.". 

 "All yes," he answered, "life's sun will set. 

 But life's good deeds will live on and on. 

 I may not know when it blossoms fair; 



Its ripened fruit I may never see; 

 And others its bloom and its fruit may share 

 With never a kindly thought of me. 



"There may be those who will turn aside 



In its cooling shade for a while to rest. 

 They will never know how my strength was tried 



As over its roots the damp earth I pressed. 

 I am old I know, and feeble and bent. 



In life's great trimnphs I may not be. 

 But I plant this tree and am quite content 



It is something done for posterity." 



Has the fruit tree any special value? In the Mosaic law there is a paragraph expressly 

 forbidding the cutting down of a fruit tree to employ it in the siege of a city, "for the 

 tree of the field is man's life." "Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not 

 trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down and thou shalt build bulwarks 

 against the city that maketh war with thee." — And God was the law maker. 



There are many things in life typical of the tree, the blossom, the fruit, and perhaps 

 none more so than are to be found within the home. In the home nursery, under the 

 direction of the heavenly gardener, the wise horticulturist, the creator of beautiful ideals, 

 may be developed the human trees which will bless the dwellers of earth with a bloom 

 and fruitage beyond compare. 



In the home nursery 

 "Thoughts are the roots 

 Words are the blossoms 

 Deeds are the fruits." 



Thoughts are the roots, and as many times the growth of a transplanted tree is the better 

 secured if some of the home soil is left on its roots, so the influences and impressions of 

 home left on the thought roots of the human tree will insure a better development when 

 it is planted in a new place. 



Deep in the heart there are hidden 

 Motives which rule and control. 

 Giving new life as they govern 

 These are the 1-oots of the soul. 

 Nearer the surface, scarce covered, 

 Impulses many we find, 

 Swiftly inciting to action. 

 These are the fibres of mind. 



Words are the blossoms, how many trees bear beautiful blossoms whose fruitage is 

 imperfect and undesirable. So too, we find many human trees whose word-bloom seems 

 complete and charming, but only words, words, words, tending to a fruition of failure 

 and disappointment, but 



Out of the hearts great abundance 



Cometh the words which we speak; 



Words which should waken ambition. 



Words which should never be weak; 



Words which should ever be forceful 



Power and fruitage to find; 



Crowning our lives with their beauty; 



These are the blossoms of mind. 



