SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 253 



On the outside and along the fence there is often some good space for 

 grapes, currants and other small fruits. Thus by a little practice and experi- 

 ence the best and most fitting place would soon be found out for everything. 

 One great thing in this connection is to take advantage of all vacant space, 

 even the outside of the house and other buildiugs might be made available for 

 growing fruit trees in the same way as on a wall. 



I was the more impressed with the importance and the practicability of this 

 cottage gardening, from a circumstance that occurred with me this last fall 

 when, in passing along one of our streets, a lady called me to look at her Nor- 

 way spruce hedge, the trees of which her husband had from me about four 

 years ago. It was doing well but needed a little pruning up and putting into 

 a proper form. She had some nice flowers on the front of the lot of various 

 sorts, and at the back part along the side of the hedge she showed me her 

 vegetable garden of nearly, I think, two rods square, from which, through 

 the course of the summer, she had had some good vegetables of the various 

 sorts; and here she pointed me to several rows of very fine table beets. After 

 highly commending them as being very fine, I said, "you ought to show some 

 of these at our county fair which occurs in about ten days." She said she had 

 not thought of such a thing and feared she would have very little chance to 

 gain a prize against such a great competition. The next time I saw this lady 

 was at the fair where she met me with warm compliments that in taking my 

 advice she had been awarded the first prize for the best table beets. 



I have no doubt therefore that this little mark of success will greatly stimu- 

 late this lady to cultivate her little plot with renewed exertion, and will tend at 

 the same time to be an inducement to others to follow her example. There is 

 no doubt that to keep a place in the way I have mentioned would require a 

 considerable amount of labor, and also some expense, but a good deal of all 

 such work through the course of the spring and summer could be performed 

 in the mornings and evenings by a workingman and through the course of the 

 day the other members of the family could do the weeding and a good deal of 

 the lighter work. 



There is always a certain pleasure as we look upon anything we have 

 planted, cultivated and trained into a certain shape and then look upon it in a 

 perfect state; the fruits and vegetables thus raised will be all the more 

 esteemed because they have been grown under our own skill and watchful care, 

 so that instead of accounting it a toil it will soon come to be esteemed as one 

 of our greatest pleasures. 



There is often a difficulty in the introducing of any new thing, and the more 

 so in this case, as most of the parties in this relation are not skilled in horti- 

 culture. I think, therefore, it might be well for some of our more experienced 

 fruit growers to make an experiment on a certain scale to show that it can be 

 done, and the proper way to do it. 



All are agreed upon the beneficial effect of the interior of a pleasant and 

 tasteful home, with books, pictures and other like attractions so pleasing to 

 both old and young, and why not the same on the outside surroundings with the 

 various specimens of nature and art and with a standing picture of many of 

 the finest fruits. 



This subject also recommends itself as a sort of educator to our children and 

 others. The cultivation of flowers and fruit is always in near association. 

 We have had previous to this several articles brought before this society recom- 

 mending the cultivation of flowers on our public school grounds as an educator, 



