154 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There are now on hand eight varieties of vegetables stored for winter use, 

 besides plums, pears, currants, peaches, grapes and other fruits, canned or pre- 

 served—enough to last the family until the coming season, or until strawberries 

 are ripe in spring. 



VALUE OF THE GARDEN. 



In face of these facts, there are many persons who will insist that a garden 

 does not pay. Not so the head of this household, who emphatically declares that 

 the value of the garden is beyond computation, and that since it has become a 

 feature in the financial economy of his home, the monthly meat and grocery bills 

 are not more than one-third of their former magnitude ; of course this includes the 

 products of the dairy and the poultry-house. Indeed, he goes so far as to assert 

 that from what he knows of the value of half an acre of ground judiciously cared 

 for and cnltivated, a family of six persons could live comfortably on the products 

 of five acres of ground, near a good market, if economy and business tact were 

 exercised. 



In concluding this paper I will give, by special request, a list of 12 best bed- 

 ding plants and 12 bast roses ; this must be given from my own point of view, and 

 may be open to criticism, as there are " many men of many minds " on all ques- 

 tions pertaining to horticulture, as on all other questions ; and where perfection is 

 yet far in the fuiure, no one may claim infallibility. 



The 12 b33t roses according to my experience are these : of Hybrid Teas, Bon 

 Saline, La France, Perle des Jardines and the Bride ; of Chinese and Bourbons, 

 Hermosa, Agrippina, Appoline and Madam Jean Sisley ; of Hybrid Perpetuals, 

 Paul Neron, Gen. Jacqueminot, American Beauty, and the White Baroness Roths- 

 child. The list omits many of my favorites, among which are the lovely Poljian- 

 theas, and climbing roses, which should be in every garden. Indeed, there are 

 many roses which are equally as good as those named here, and one can never have 

 too many, unless he has more than he can take care of, for they are, of all the floral 

 kingdom, the fairest and most fragrant creatures. Hear a fond lover caroling : 



' 'Sweetheart, my own sweetheart, send me a red, red rose; 

 Let its sabtle Iragrance thy tender thoughts disclose. 

 For roses, my darling, were planted above 

 And seat to this world as the emblems of love." 



I have often wondered if Thomas M.oore fully comprehended the touching 

 pathos contained in his undying song, " The Last Rose of Summer ; " he certainly 

 never heard our own gifted and universally mourned Emma Abbott sing it, and 

 thus he missed the most perfect blending conceivable of the souls of music and 

 poesy. Moore had a passion for roses ; they twine and clamber, glow and shed 

 their fragrance all through his poems, and it has proven true in his own case that : 



"You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, 

 But the scent of the roses will hang round it still. ' ' 



The following sonnet seems to have been written for some fair singer who 

 had sung " The Last Rose of Summer " as our beloved Emma used to sing it : 



"Th3 youQg r)83 which I gave thae, so dew/ aal bright. 

 Was the floweret most dear to the sweet bird at night, 

 Who oft by the moonlight o'er her blushes hath hung, 

 And thrilled every leaf with the wild lay he sung. 

 Oh, take thou this young rose, and let her life be 

 Prolonged by the breath she will borrow from thee; 

 For while o'er her bosom thy soft notes shall thrill, 

 She'll think the sweet night-bird is courting her still." 



