340 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and '91 strawberry growers received such low prices and met with so 

 many losses that many of them have quit and the others have reduced 

 their acreage very much, so that there is now only a very small amount 

 raised as compared with two, three and four years ago. The season 

 has been unfavorable to the growth of strawberries. The rows are 

 mostly narrow, with plenty of " skips," but the plants look well, and 

 with favorable weather in the spring, will probably produce a good 

 crop that will sell at fair prices. 



Apples, peaches, pears and cherries are believed to be in good 

 condition, except some apple orchards seem to be on the decline. 



Our members obtained their box and crate wood, as usual, last 

 spring, through the Society, direct from the factory in car lots, and at 

 the very lowest prices obtainable for tirst class material. A great deal 

 of money has been saved here by this practice, which has done more 

 than any other one thing to keep up our Society. We use the wine- 

 measure quart, for the reapon that it is used by parties with whom we 

 come in competition, and sells for the same on the market as a dry- 

 measure quart. 



Enclosed find papers read at our meetings. 



Eespectfully submitted. 



Z. T. Russell, Secretary. 



THE CULTIVATION OF FLOWERS. 



MRS. 8. 8. RILKY. 



[Read at April meeting of Jasper County Horticultural Society.] 



While every human mind i8 8o created as to be susceptible to emotions of 

 beauty, yet the objects by wliicb they are occasioned are not always the same. 

 The intellectual and the sensitive, as well as the material world, are calculated to 

 awake the most pleasing sensations, and lift the soul to the highest contemplation 

 of the infinite mind. 



In considering the subject before us, we are inclined to turn our thoughts for 

 a moment to the intellectual nature that needs growth and development, that it 

 may enjoy the beauties which Nature so generously presents to us. 



Perhaps the greatest natural flower-garden in the world is to be found in our 

 western states and territories, over which the Indian has wandered for centuries. 

 Yet we have no evidence that the savage mind became more docile, or that the 

 delicate fragrance or the beautiful petals of a single flower ever created a happy 

 feeling, or lifted his soul to think of the Great Being in any way only that He 

 would lead them into the happy hunting grounds. 



It is the cultivation of mind and soul that opens within us those fountains of 

 pleasure that so many of us enjoy as we contemplate the beauties of nature. We 

 are glad to know that the study of botany is introduced orally into the primary 

 departments of our schools ; also that house-plants are cared for and made to grow 

 in our school windows. Fowderly said, "Show me a man or woman who takes 

 delight in growing or even in talking of flowers, and* I will show you a man or 

 woman who will not knowingly injure any other man or woman." 



