Summer Meeting. • 37 



''it 



and a dozen packets of annuals, you may have a garden that will be a 

 delight to everyone who sees it. 



Only a little energy, a tew dollars in cash, and a determination to 

 make plants grow, and almost anyone can have a garden, not only to en- 

 joy himself, but to leave as a heritage to coming generations. What 

 worthier ambition could one have than this ? 



Then plant sweet flowers ! Hardy flowers, 



That will grow and bloom from year to year ; 

 Grow and bloom when these hearts of ours, 

 True hearts, that loved them, are not here. 



HORTICULTURE A BUSINESS, SUCCESS ITS AIM. 



(Prof. H. B. ^IcAfee— Park College, Parkville, >Io.) 



An agriculturist has been defined as a sort of farmer with no cal- 

 louses on his hand. The same superficial view might consider the life 

 of a horticulturist one continued picnic. Horticulture is undoubtedly a 

 fascinating occupation ; but for most of us its fascination depends, in 

 some measure at least, upon our success from a financial standpoint. 

 There are a few devotees of science who find sufficient compensation 

 in the joy of studying nature's laws, but most of us are not satisfied until 

 we have succeeded in transmuting our knowledge of nature's laws into 

 the coin of the realm. Horticulture is a business and success is its aim. 

 I would not be understood as stating that money and money alone is 

 the goal of the liorticulturist — such a statement would prove me out of 

 harmony with the noble men and women who have constituted the ad- 

 vance guard in fruit growing in our grand state. They are men at whose 

 feet I delight to sit and from whom some of my most valuable lessons have 

 been learned. Success has crowned their efiforts. They have not all 

 gotten rich, but they have laid the foundation of one of the greatest 

 industries of our state and the public is richer for their services. 



The man to wliom fruit raising is a mere pastime is a peril to the 

 business. How- many voung aspirants for success in this field have been 

 hopelessly swamped and finally discouraged by trying to follow the ad- 

 vice of such people. Thev break into our papers with wonderful theories 

 and startling results of so-called careful experiments, all of which are 

 valueless and misleading. They are not all as wild as the editor who 

 wrote elaborate instructions for the planting of the seed and the cultiva- 

 tion of an oyster bed, but generally they are as innocent of any valuable 

 knowledge of the subject treated. A careful student always looks first 

 at the title page of a book to learn the author's name; so a wise student 

 of the problems of horticulture will first ask for the credentials of the 



