328 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



xjhasers. Were woman taught naturally, what labor-saving appliances 



would leap from her brain to alleviate the drudgery of household 



duties ! 



So much for the physical heritage of food, clothing, shelter and 



transportation. What of the intellectual and moral — of truth, beauty 



and right? With rational instruction, how the intellectual and moral 



man feasts on nature from the cradle to the grave — "young Spring, 



bright Summer, Autumn with her solemn form, and Winter with her 



aged looks." How she touches every chord of our being into music ! 



What wonderful adaptations — light to the eye, sound to the ear, water 



to the fish, air to the bird ! What ministering to our every intellectual 



and moral power ! I stand in the depth of a pathless wood or on a 



boundless prairie, and nature pours her eloquence and music through 



every avenue of my soul. "The heavens declare the glory of God, 



and the flrmanent sheweth his handiwork." 



L. E. Wolfe, 



State Supt. Public Schools. 



, Hardy Peaches. 



If peaches were as hardy as apples, there is no fruit that would 

 pay the horticulturist as well as the peach. But from 10 to 15° below 

 zero will surely kill the fruit-buds. To improve the hardiness of the 

 trees, seeds of the hardiest varieties of both seedlings as well as bud- 

 ded varieties should be selected and planted out; when these come 

 into bearing, the choicest and hardiest kinds should be cared for and 

 the poor and most tender be cut out. Yellow and white varieties 

 could be grouped so as to make crossiog more sure. Each generation 

 would thus be an improvement and a step toward the object to be ob- 

 tained, and there should be no halt made, as there is no limit as to 

 what may be reached. 



If the several experiment stations would take hald of this and 

 make it a branch of their work, and then exchange seeds of their most 

 promisiugkind with one another, there is no telling what may be ac- 

 complished in a few generations, which would not require a very long 

 time, as the peach soon comes into fruiting. We older horticulturists 

 could not expect to reach the maximum of success, but it would en- 

 thuse our young men to take up the thread where we leave off, and the 

 same improvement can be made in the future as there has been niade 

 in the past, when our luscious peach is the offspring of the once bitter 

 almond. — G. F. Espenlaub, Rosedale, Kas. 



