Miscellaneous, 233 



of theory and practice. If these same young people who are running to 

 the cities for work would study the profession of horticulture at the col- 

 leges devoted to such courses and apply the theories taught there to 

 practical work upon their home farms, their compensation would be more 

 sure and they would add to that health and wisdom — a broadening of the 

 mind and that contentment that is great riches. The happiest lives are 

 the busiest ones. Everybody knows how rapidly the time flies when there 

 is much to be done and only a given time in which to do it. It brings 

 out all the metal in a man when necessity requires him to invent some 

 shorter way to accomplish a piece of work than that to which he has been 

 accustomed. Many farmers do their work in the hardest way, and it is 

 this kind of discouraging hard work that drives the young people from 

 the farms. More thought, more wisdom, is what men need. Why far- 

 mers set so low a valuation upon their calling is past finding out. In 

 sacred history, immediately after the creation of man, we read "and the 

 Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden ; and there He put the man 

 whom he had formed and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow 

 every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." And so man- 

 kind began to fulfill the divine command and subdue the earth. We also 

 read that the Egyptians were gardeners and that they looked upon the 

 children of Israel as a lower caste, who were sent to dwell among them, 

 as they were shepherds. So the Israelites had to go to the land of Goshen. 

 But in the course of time they became gardeners, learning the art from 

 the Egyptians, as they advanced in refinement and progressed in civili- 

 zation. In tlie history of the Jews horticulture is frequently alluded to, 

 and when they were carried into captivity they were commanded not to 

 forget their original occupation. 



Classic history is full of the history of horticulture. The earliest 

 writers gave much advice upon the subject. Some of it equal to the wis- 

 dom of our own horticultural societies. 



These and hundreds of others, of all ages, have told us of the delights 

 of country life — have taught us how to be happy without the excitement 

 of the city. And now I close with a quotation from a poet who has told 

 us that the rural population is the true source of the safety, honor and 

 welfare of the nation. 



Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, 

 Where wealth accumulates and men decay; 

 Princes and lords may flourish or may fade— 

 A breath can make them as a breath has made, 

 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 

 When once destroyed can never be supplied. 



—Farm Folks, Kansas Oity, Mo. 



