90 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



there are other benefits to be derived from the cultivation of a garden, 

 besides the profit and the health which the work brings. It will culti- 

 vate the domestic virtues. One of the chief duties of man is to provide a 

 home and to provide for the home. The growing of products for his table 

 with his own hands stimulates the domestic feelings. The man who 

 sits in his office or study from morning until night, day in and day out, 

 allowing his wife or domestics to have all the care of providing for the 

 home, even at his expense, loses his opportunity and fails to cultivate that 

 home attachment and care essential to his domestic happiness. In this 

 way, many a man's love of home has degenerated into cold indifference, 

 unnatural relations, and finally into misery. 



How blessed that home where, when the autumn leaves indicate the 

 coming winter, ample provisions have been made — where the cellar is 

 full of vegetables and fruit, with potatoes, turnips and cabbages; apples, 

 preserves, and pickles; shelves full of canned goods, and the bin full of 

 coal, and everything in readiness for the coming severity! How much 

 better this than where everything is provided only from hand to mouth! 

 And this is most likely the case with many homes where there is no gar- 

 den or orchard. In which of these homes is happiness most likely ta 

 dwell? 



Horticulture furnishes a wide field for observation and experiment. 

 Both in the theory and practice of the art there is sufficient opportunity 

 to engage every power of the mind. The study of nature, and especially 

 the mysteries of plant life, are sufficiently interesting to combine pleasure 

 with labor. Horticulture is both a science and an art. A science, 

 because its principles are well established and its facts are thoroughly 

 classified; an art, because its practice has reached a very high state of 

 perfection. As a science it deals with the nature and composition of the 

 various soils and the nature and growth of plants. It involves a knowl- 

 edge of the adaptability of the various plants to the different soils. To 

 be successful in horticulture, it is highly essential that one should under- 

 stand how and when to plant, how to graft, bud, and transplant. There 

 seems to be no limit to what can be accomplished by means of forcing and 

 fertilization. 



Hybridization is a very interesting process. Some of the most impor- 

 tant results, and many of the gardener's greatest triumphs, have been 

 obtained by hybridization. The object of this process is to obtain varie- 

 ties exhibiting improvements in vigor, size, shape, color, hardihood, and 

 fruitfulness. Some gardeners have obtained phenomenal results in this 

 line. Our townsman, Mr. Smith, has gained a world-wide fame in pro- 

 ducing the finest varieties of the Japanese national flower, the chrysan- 

 themum. He has not only acquired a reputation for himself, but we, as 

 citizens of Adrian, all take pride in sharing the glory of his triumphs. 



Pruning is another very important operation. Its object is to improve 

 form and size and increase productiveness. Pruning and dwarfing 

 for ornamentation afford a wide scope for the exercise of taste in the art 

 of developing symmetry and forms of beauty. What is more attractive 

 than a fine lawii, with trees, shrubs, and hedges artistically trimmed? A 

 man of taste can certainly find no greater source of enjoyment than iu 

 spending his leisure hours recreating amid the beautiful foliage of his 

 own planting and pruning. This blessed privilege is open to every man. 



