408 , State Ilortlculturcd Society. 



attach more importance to the value of ornamental gardening and horti- 

 culture than the average farmer. 



Ornamental horticulture need not be a waste, either. It is possible 

 to combine with it profitable work that more than pays for the outlay of 

 time, money and labor. Thus in some places there is a demand for cut 

 flowers, so that the farmer who raises plenty of fine specimens in the front 

 garden can sell them at a fair price. But flowers are not the only orna- 

 ments. Many of our fiuit trees present pretty sights at all seasons of the 

 year. "What is handsomer than a garden of fruit trees in the blossom 

 season, or again when the fruits are ripening? Such a sight is admired 

 by anybody. Even vines lend attraction to the place. 



The taste in arranging these fruit trees will decide the value of the 

 ornamentation. If one has an eye for the beautiful he will cover up ugly 

 spots in the landscape, and arrange his trees so as to intensify any par- 

 ticular bright place. Il costs no more to do this than to plant the trees 

 and vines in a haphazard way. The house and barns can be changed 

 materially by training a few vines, flowers and shrubbery around them. 

 It may not be possible to find a money market for the fruits thus raised, 

 but they will supply, the table with something that is always desirable, 

 and that is not alwavs the case on everv farm. — -James Ridgwav, Wis- 

 cousin. Am. Cultivator. 



A^ AUTHOK'S FLORAL IXFxVTUATIOX. 



In "Gloria Mundi," the late Harold Frederick's late novel, which 

 appeared soon after his death, there occurs the following curious auto- 

 biographical confession as to the writer's cultivation of flowers: "I wish 

 I had the courage to give it up altogether. It murders my work. I 

 spend sometimes whole hours in my greenhouse when I ought to be doing 

 other things. The worst of it is that I realize perfectly the criminal 

 waste of time — and still I persist in it. There is something quite mysterious 

 about plants — especially if you have grown them yourself. You can go 

 and stand amono- them bv the hour, and hiok from one tn another, with 

 your mind entirely closed to thoughts of any descriptiou. I used to as- 

 sume that this mental re>;t had a rccuiiorative value, but a> I aet older I 



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