COUNTY REPORTS. 341 



For months our winter landscape has been bare and naked, and now as the 

 spring sun has warmed the soil aod called from her bosom the life that she so ten- 

 derly protected from cold and sleet and snow, we begin to long for the buds and 

 blossoms of the early spring. And to those who have been closely confined to the 

 house during the winter months, the cultivation of flowers in the yard serves a 

 double purpose. It gives health, vigor and strength to the individual, by means 

 of requiring exercise in the open air. Then it furnishes food for the mind, as the 

 nature and kinds of soil must be studied in connection with the nature and kinds 

 of plants. 



It is a pleasure to be enjoyed nlike by the rich and the poor. It matters not how 

 humble the home, laste, culture and refinement may be exhibited in window and 

 garden. Refinement and education, though accompanied by poverty, command 

 the respect of the intelligent and better class of society. Those possessed of these 

 accomplishments must necessarily re more successful in dealing with the intricate 

 affairs of life than others not so fortunate. 



If there is one characteristic of the individual who loves flowers and enjoys 

 their cultivation that is more clearly perceptible than any other, it is unselfishness. 



I once heard a lady, who spends much time with her flowers, say that when 

 she took her friends to look at them, the brightest and prettiest always seemed to 

 say ' 'pick me," and she picked them. 



Thus we find them cheering the sick-room, soothing the sorrows of the be- 

 reaved, giving hope to the despondent, and even adding joy and mirth to the gay 

 and thoughtless. 



"Scatter flowers everywhere, for though voiceless they appeal most eloquently 

 to that which is best in man." 



' 'To him who In the love of Nature holds 

 CommTiiiion with her Tisible forms, she speaks 

 A various language ; for his gayer hours 

 She has a voice of gladness, and a smile 

 And eloquence of beauty, and she glides 

 Into hisdarlier musings, with a mild 

 And healing sympathy, that steals away 

 Their sharpness, ere he is aware." 



WHAT IS WOMAN'S PLi.CE IN MAKING HAPPY AMERICAN HOMES? 



This is the question for our discussion to-day. I feel myself inadtquate to 

 open so important a discussion, and fear T can offer little new as to woman's work 

 in the home. It requires a great deal of thought, study, experience and observa- 

 tion to discuss so complex a question intelligently. Indeed and in truth there 

 seem so many duties incumbent on the average woman in the making of the home, 

 that the very thought seems wearisome. 



And what is the typical American home? American homes we see all around 

 us, as varied as the flowers that spring up to brighten the prairie in the sprirg- 

 time. Some costly structures, beautiful in architecture, elegant in appointment, 

 with all the modern improvements for the comfort and convenience of the house- 

 hold, with sanitary regulations the best that modern science can contrive, fur- 

 nished with all the elegance of furniture, luxurious and restful, that one might 

 well be fearful of forgetting life's earnest duties ; portieres and throws, harmonious 

 in coloring; books, pictures and bric-a-brac, rare exotic floweis to perfume the 

 air and brighten with their coloring— everything that betokens elegant ease for 

 some one and weary hours of toil for others. 



