350 REPOKT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



and render it attractive to the young who are constantly seek- 

 ing occupation in the numerous walks of life ; and in the 

 second place, to make your business more profitable. To 

 further either or both of these objects, true science — knowl- 

 edge — must be applied to all your daily operations. I say 

 true science, because we want none of the bogus article. We 

 must recollect that while man is the interpreter of nature, 

 science is its right interpretation, and that it is the wrong 

 interpretation of Nature's truths that has brought true science 

 into such disrepute among many practical men. We cannot 

 each of us become proficient in all departments, and must, to 

 attain the greatest good, confine ourselves in a great measure 

 to specialties. Professor Gould has truly said that " an equal 

 culture in many directions is synonymous with superficiality 

 in all, and an 'Admirable Crichton' is to-day simply a ridicu- 

 lous object." 



Science means knowledge, and knowledge means power, and 

 to promote and advance the incipient Science of Horticulture 

 which we are engaged in, we must each of us bring the knowl- 

 edge gained in our several departments, and ofier it upon one 

 common altar for the common good. The man who receives 

 an apple tree from the nursery, and who plants and cultiyates 

 it without knowing anything of the insect enemies that are 

 likely to ruin it, will not stand the same chance of raising fine 

 fruit from that tree, as that man will, who, with the requisite 

 knowledge guards against catastrophe, by first examining the 

 young tree so as to destroy bark-lice, root-lice, or the eggs of 

 caterpillars that may be upon it ; who afterwards soaps it care- 

 fully, to prevent the borers, and eventually, when it comes into 

 bearing, properly sui-rounds its trunk with rags to entrap the 

 Apple- worm ; and the same argument applies to all other 

 kinds of knowledge necessary to the proper cultivation of such 

 a tree. 



" A little fire is quickly trodden out, 

 Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench," 



