COUNTY REPORTS. 351 



useful maize, or corn. It is self-evident that we ought to have a national flower. 

 Almost all other countries have one, that time and associations have endeared and 

 made conspicuous. Wbich shall it be, grace and beauty, or utility and strength? 

 Something to please the eye or tickle the palate? I vote for the golden-rod, even 

 though it has a coarse leaf and somewhat the reputation of being only a weed. 

 Yet no wild flow^er from June to November is more frequently gathered by young 

 and old for personal adornment or as a rare flower. And it is undoubtedly the 

 beet known and loved of any wild flower on the continent. 



"Oh, not in the morning of* April or May, 



When the young light lies faint on the sod. 

 And the wild flower blooms for half of a day, 



Not then comes the golden-rod. 



t But when the bright year has grown vivid and bold 



With its utmost of beauty and strength, 

 Then it leaps into life and its banners unfold 

 Along all the land's green length . 



It is born in the glow of a great high noon, 



It is wrought of a bit of the sun ; 

 Its being is set to a golden tune, 



In a golden summer begun. 



Kg cliff is too high for its resolute foot, 



No meadow too bare or too low ; 

 It asks but the space for its fearless root. 



And the right to be glad and to grow. 



It delights in the loneliest waste of the moor. 



And mocks at the rain and the gust ; 

 It belongs to the people; it blooms for the poor; 



It thrives in the roadside dust. 



It endures though September wax chill and unkind; 



It lau?hs on the brink of the crag, 

 Nor blanches when forests burn, while in the wind, 



Though dying, it holds up its flag ! 



Its bloom knows no stint, its gold no alloy, 



And we claim it forever as ours ; 

 God's symbol of freedom and world-wide joy, 



America's flower of flowers. ' ' 



THE VALUE OF HORTICULTURE. 



BY E. D. PABCE. 



The questions that have been assigned to me as the foundation of a few 

 remarks, on this most interesting and pleasant occasion, are, "The value of Horti- 

 culture, and the necessity of its intelligent study by those interested in its pursuit." 



At flrst I was at a loss to know why I was selected to speak on these questions ; 

 until it occurred to me that perhaps it was because I knew less about them than 

 many of you here, who have devoted years to the investigation of their various 

 phases, and that I would, as a matter of necessity, feel moat keenly the importance 

 of a more thorough knowledge of this grand and noble pursuit of Horticulture, and 

 would speak from a personal standpoint. In these days of deep and earnest 

 research into the hidden myteries of nature, and the wide range of subjects that 

 invite study and careful investigation, it is hardly possible for a man in the ordi- 

 nary walks of life to become thoroughly acquainted with a particular industry, 

 unless he devotes himself to it with the purpose of mastering it in all its details. 



