172 STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



Again, there are other features which afford the best test of good judgment, 

 refined taste and skilled management; I refer to such things a8 the asparagus bed 

 and the horse-radish. The first requires a degree of skill in planting and cultivat- 

 ing at first, but once well established, affords an annual supply of rich, wholesome 

 and nourishing food very early in the season, and a dish simply unequaled in the 

 hands of the good housewife. 



The great beauty of the kitchen garden consists in its being a mw/^Mm in 

 parvo ( much in little ). I have found mine an unending source of pleasure and sug- 

 gestions ; and in it have spent very happily many of the spare moments afforded in 

 the raising of a family of seven boys and the care of a large house. Indeed, it has 

 been about the only discipline my boys have had, and I believe that the rod might 

 be systematically spared and work in the garden substituted, not, however, as 

 punishment, but to teach them to love work. Add to this, motherly words en- 

 nobling work, characterizing its utility and the pleasure derived from it, and I 

 warrant Satan would find fewer idle brains in which to concoct mischief. If I 

 were beginning with my brood, I should religiously lead them into the garden. 



The problem constantly presented to us is, how to make every corner bring^ 

 forth its due share ; it is marvelous indeed how much old mother earth will yield if 

 she is tickled in the right way. Ju?t at this season lay on a thick warm coat from 

 the barn-yard ; then in the early spring dress her down and put her in shape, both 

 for appearance and for business, and your table will be supplied bountifully with 

 the best and certainly with the most healthful end appetizing of food all the year 

 round. Now is the time, long before work can be done in the open ground, to 

 make hot beds to bring forward your plants ready for work so soon as Jack Frost 

 Is out of the way and the garden in working condition. 



It has been said that of all fools an old man in love is the greatest, but I have 

 been in love with my garden always, and am willing to admit that the intensity of 

 that love increases year by year. It grows to be a passion, but pure and unselfish, 

 and the returns have been too tangible to warrant any one in classifying me with 

 the ancient love referred to. Lord Bacon said of gardens : " Without them build- 

 ings and palaces are but gross handiworks, and a man shall ever see that when 

 ages grow to civility and elegance, men come to build stately sooner than to 

 garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection;" and so I hold that it 

 is a perfection toward which every nineteenth century woman might aim with no 

 fear of soiling her Christianity, or in any sense detracting from her true woman- 

 hood. 



Thursday, Dec. 7, 2 p. m. 



The following letters were read, and a collection of $12 was taken 



up at the request of the editor of Coleman's Rural World for D. J» 



Bissell of College Springp, Iowa : 



St. Lcfuis, Mo., Dec. 6, 1893. 

 Hon. L. a. Goodman, Secretary : 



My Dear Sir— It has come to my knowledge that the venerable D. J. Bissell is 

 in sore strait ; sick, without money or any means of securing food, shelter, medical 

 attendance or other assistance needed by a man nearly 90 years of age; helpless, 

 childless and incurably afflicted. 



He has done much for the farmers and fruit-growers of the country in his long 

 and practical life, and I beg very respectfully to ask that ere your meeting dispersea 



