32 State Horticultural Society. 



who may wantonly or accidentally set fire to our orchards, or other- 

 wise destroy them, or any portion of them. I earnestly commend 

 these points to your serious consideration, and hope they will be 

 taken up by our committee on resolutions, or otherwise considered 

 by you in some proper way. A committee of careful, painstaking 

 fruit growers should devise a method of calculation and determin- 

 ation by which the cost of bringing an orchard to a given age, 

 and the worth of that orchard when so brought, can be known. 

 Something of unanimity here is greatly to be desired. Disputes 

 in such cases will be compromised much more frequently than 

 now. The other point, that of amending the law, is more difficult, 

 but something here, too, should be done. 



And now, fellow-members, I pray you for your kind and help- 

 ful co-operation. Let all speakers and readers speak out that they 

 may be heard. Attend every session. Be on time, that we may 

 commence with our program and keep up with it. I know of no 

 body of men and women I would more enjoy to have charge of my 

 funeral when the time comes, than the members of this Society; 

 but I say to you now, if you get there on time and find me late, go 

 ahead with the funeral anyhow. 



FLOWERS AND WEEDS. 



(Mrs. G. E. Dugan, Sedalia, Mo.) 



Flowers are the poetry, vegetables the prose and weeds the 

 crude material from which are evolved both the poetry and prose 

 of nature. 



Laziness and floriculture are quite as antagonistic as flowers 

 and weeds. No lazy person ever grows many flowers. Neither 

 can persons without a fine sense or appreciation for their loveli- 

 ness succeed with them. Cowper says : 



"Strength may wield the ponderous ,spade, 



May turn the clod and wheel the compost home, 



But elegance, chief grace the garden shows, 

 And most attractive is the fair result 



Of thought, the creature of a polished mind." 



Flowers are inclined to be arbitrary in their requirements; 

 the more delicate and sensitive a plant is, the more care and cul- 

 ture it demands. Persons who know nothing about growing flow- 

 ers seem to think that they thrive anywhere, and anyhow, for those 

 who do grow them. This is a mistake, as every gardener knows, 

 for he who would succeed in this work must be a persistent, pa- 



