Summer Meeting. 27 



RESPONSE. 



(President J. 0. Whitteu.) 



President Whitten responded on behalf of the Society, expressing 

 the pleasure of the members in meeting the hospitable and enterprising 

 fruit growers and citizens of the town, and in seeing the beautiful and 

 rich country to be developed. 



Prof. Whitten also gave an interesting and instructive exposition of 

 the advantages of Morgan county, comparisons with the limited re- 

 sources of foreign countries and advice as to methods and the spirit 

 which would bring grand results to the people of such a district. 



THE AESTHETIC AND MORAL IN HORTICULTURE. 



(By Rev. W. A. Briney of Warrensburg, Mo.) 



Aesthetics is the science of beauty and taste in nature and art, the 

 love and appreciation of the beautiful. The term moral is used here 

 to indicate the practical ethical truth which anything is designed or 

 fitted to teach. Horticulture is that branch of agriculture that deals 

 with the raising of fruits, vegetables and ornamental trees and plants. 

 Substituting these brief definitions for the terms used in the subject of 

 this address, we find that we are to discuss the love and appreciation of 

 the beautiful, and the practical ethical truth involved, in the cultivation 

 of fruits, flowers and vegetables. It may be said, however, that horti- 

 culture is not so simple a thing as the definition of its scope here in- 

 cluded may seem to indicate. It is really a science of great com- 

 plexity, embracing, as a glance at the programme prepared for this 

 meeting clearly indicates, problems of plant physiology, of breeding and 

 variation of plants under domestication ; of the life histories of in- 

 numerable organisms, such as insects, mites, bacteria and microscopic 

 fungi ; of the manufacture of tools and implements, baskets, barrels, 

 boxes, tins, jars and other packages, as well as problems of storage and 

 transportation. It is therefore apparent that the realm of horticulture 

 is exceedingly broad, and that it is not so free from the spirit of com- 

 mercialism as is generally supposed. The purpose of this address will 

 confine us, however, to some of the truths and beauties of the main 

 divisions of horticulture proper, such as floriculture, pomology and 

 the cultivsttton of garden vegetables and ornamental trees. 



