WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY. 18 1 



Monroe county, N. Y., had grown large quantities of the Duchess pear as 

 dwarfs and had succeeded perhaps better than any other man in the United 

 States. Mr. Yomans had used large amounts of ashes, bone-dust, and barn- 

 yard manure, with other fertilizers. He probably used more fertilizing ma- 

 terial than any other grower in that state, and had received larger returns 

 than any man within his knowledge. Yomans practiced cutting back his pear 

 trees annually, leaving only three or four buds of the previous year's growth. 

 The pears were all first-class fruit and sold in the New York market for 

 almost fabulous prices. 



Wednesday Evening Session. 



The Secretary read a paper by Mrs. G. H. La Fleur, of Allegan, on 



THE DUTY OF HORTICULTURISTS IN THE ORNAMENTATION OF PARKS 



AND PUBLIC SCHOOL GROUNDS. 



The history of mankind may be divided into periods or cycles of time, each 

 producing types peculiar to themselves, differing somewhat from any that 

 preceded them. Each has left traces of its character, in relics or letters. 

 They have stamped their impress, one by one, upon the pages of the book 

 which chronicled the events connected with their coming and going, their 

 advances and retreats, their victories and defeats, during the ages in which 

 mind has struggled for the mastery over matter. The footprints of these 

 departed men, on the road over which they have traveled, have been, in the 

 main, toward the light which was thrown upon them from a source of wisdom 

 superior to their own, warming and causing to germinate and grow the seeds 

 of knowledge, which is one of the distinguishing characteristics between man 

 and the lower animals. 



The temples, mosques, cathedrals, and monasteries of the past, convey to 

 the mind something of the character of those who reared them. Churches, 

 schools, and colleges are only the outgrowth of the people who constructed 

 and maintain them, and they will remain to testify of the thoughts, senti- 

 ments, and incentives, which governed those who pass by in a given period of 

 time upon the calendar of ages. These inanimate things did not make men 

 what they were, but are the results of their condition at the time of their 

 existence — only the external expression of the unseen man. 



It follows, then, that the people of any age may be ambitious to leave be- 

 hind them work that will mark the highest degree of moral and intellectual 

 growth to which they can attain. The occupations in which men engage have 

 much to do in forming their habits and directing their thoughts. In looking 

 back over the history of nations we find that where agriculture has engaged 

 the attention of the masses, and its interests have been protected, the people 

 were prosperous and contented, and developed the best traits belonging to 

 man. By their labor forests have been cleared, roads made, communities 

 formed, and homes builded up. A pastoral people are a permanent people. 

 They become attached to their surroundings, and with this sentiment comes 

 the desire to improve and beautify the homes where they expect to live and 

 educate their children. They live nearer to and see more of nature than the 



