26 - Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



Napoleon I, while Emperor of France, was at one time on a 

 tour of inspection through the provinces, and stopping at a 

 village, a number of yonng people of both sexes presented him 

 and tlie Empress Josephine, some with cherries and some with 

 roses. 



"Here," remarked the Emperor, "are men who unite flowers 

 with fruits — the useful with the agreeable. They deserve to 

 succeed." 



We can readily imagine that it was near this season of the 

 year when cherries and roses were at the height of beauty and per- 

 fection, and when nature dons her most lovely attire, that these 

 horticulturists, j^easants who loved their Emperor and Empress, 

 brought their choicest and most beautiful productions, honestly 

 believing that these simple gifts were productive of more real 

 pleasure than would have been title deeds to furnished houses or 

 other costly presents bought wfth golden dollars. The "useful 

 with the agreeable," said the Emperor, and in those words we find 

 the basis for our argument in defence of our statement of the im- 

 portance of horticultural pursuits. 



The useful. Can we estimate the usefulness of fruits by the 

 money they bring ? We all answer no, never. In the first place, 

 before the fruit is grown even, with what agreeable pleasure 

 travelers over an open country view a well arranged orchard, grove 

 of forest or ornamental trees, or eten a bed of choice flowers care- 

 fully tended by the house-wife in the garden. What a contrast 

 between glich a home and one barren of- trees and flowers ? How 

 much easier we can imagine it would be to keeji the boys at home 

 upon the farm with trees and flowers planted near, tlian upon the 

 farm barren of everything but — *• hog and hominy." 



Then when the fruit ripens, the luscious berries, peaches, pears 

 and apples all in their season, can the pleasure given in picking 

 and eating, or the health-giving properties contained therein, be 

 measured by dollars and cents ? 



If, as claimed by many physiologists, man's nature is largely 

 formed from the food he eats, can not the horticulturist reasonably 

 expect that his vocation will tend largely to make men more 

 refined and noble ; in fact, as fruit becomes, as it is becoming, a 

 common and regular article of diet, that there will be fewer men 

 with — "bristles on their back" and other evidences of having 

 partaken largely of the nature of the hog. 



We doubt whether there is any avocation in life that is so wholly 

 unselfish, or looks forward to the usefulness and pleasure it will 



