DECEMBER MEETING. 223 



Secretary Garlicld. — My work in tliis meeting I consider to bo to put together 

 the good things said, and place them before tlie people of Michigan in a way, if 

 possible, to aid in the general improvement of tlioso engaged in liorticnltural 

 pursuits, and I am in no way prc})ared to contribute to the primary fund. I 

 had hoped that our worthy president, in the absence of Mr. Gibson, would give 

 us some of his own tliouglits upon this to})ic. I know him to be a keen observer 

 of house plants and their treatment, and more than this to have had no small 

 amount of experience in caring for tlieni, therefore I hesitate to take from my 

 meagre savings when he has such a storehouse to go to. However, I will make 

 a remark or two upon one topic. I am in favor of fostering anything and 

 everything that will nuikc our homes more pleasant and enjoyable, and I believe 

 the work of this Society is not confined to assisting fruit-growers to make more 

 monev, but extends to methods of securing a greater amount of satisfied 

 happiness to all who may be willing to adopt into their households cuttings 

 from the great tree of horticulture, and by grantitig a little fostering care reap 

 a reward that can not bo measured by so clumsy a unit as the gold dollar. 



To sret the greatest amount of satisfaction out of a window garden one needs 

 to love the plants that compose it, and treat them with the same tenderness and 

 generosity that the pets of the household receive, and it is only by studying the 

 habits of each variety that one comes to know how to treat it with the right 

 kind of solicitude. AVhen I look into a house in which the window is filled with 

 well grown plants, I know two things about it ; some one there has a keen 

 appreciation of beautiful things and is willing to give heart to the care of one 

 of the most delicate attributes of the home. If this Society can by its influence 

 get the men and boys to appreciate the pleasure that can be obtained from the 

 cultivation of window plants it will do a great deal toward the genuine good 

 that may permeate our homes. 



One needs to have some measure of success in beginning anything of this 

 kind to encourage further endeavor, lience I recommend a plan which has 

 proved a success in my own homo from the very outset, and will give in detail 

 the plan of a little window garden in which my wife and I take a great deal of 

 delight. We thought to have an aquarium once, and had one made according 

 to the books, out of wood, glass, and putty. It was a very pretty thing, two 

 feet long, and ten inches wide, and perhaps fourteen inches in hight. But 

 when the water was put in preparatory to the transfer of tlic finny specimens, 

 no effort of ours could keep it inside the glass, and after various endeavors we 

 gave it up and concluded to utilize the "box" to some other end. In the 

 bottom of it was put four inches of soil made of three parts good mold, two 

 parts muck, and one part white sand. AVe bought a bell glass about seven 

 inches in diameter and ten inches high. Made a frame work of wood and wire, 

 placing the glass with open end upward therein and setting the whole in the 

 middle of our "aquarium.*' In the bell glass was placed a little water plant 

 lield down by pieces of gypsum, and then it was filled with water and a couple 

 of fish transferred to it. Several kinds of ferns and lycopods were placed in 

 the earth about the bell glass, and finally some glass fitted in above so as to 

 keep the case approximately air tight and still leave the bell glass open to the 

 air. The whole thing is a perfect success, and is really the most attractive 

 feuture of our household. The aquarium cost about five dollars and was a 

 failure. The window garden containing an aquarium, cost less than a dollar, 

 and is all we could ask for. The plants have not been watered in over a month, 

 and the water in the bell glass needs to be changed once every week. Requiring 



