SUMMER MEETING AT BEOOKFIELD. 7 



department of human endeavor does the lamp of existence lead with 

 more kindly and certain light than in yours. Since the morning stars 

 sang together, and the earth was prepared for the habitation of man, 

 and he was given dominion over all created things, he has toiled and 

 sweat to wrest from nature her unwilling secrets. Step by step and 

 from generation to generation the investigation has gone on until, 

 to-day, it is necessary that the sciences should be divided and sub- 

 divided ; and in the science of the culture of the earth there are many 

 divisions. 



Sanitary science has done much to prolong the lives and increase 

 the happiness of the race, but not more than has been and is now being 

 done by associations such as yours, in giving to the people the result 

 of your investigation in regard to the best methods of tilling the soil 

 and the adaptation of certain products to soil and climate. In vege- 

 table, as in animal life, dangers seen and unseen lurk in the path that 

 leads to full fruition. No living thing can be found which has not its 

 enemy ever seeking to blight its life and usefulness. The revelations 

 of the microscope gave an impetus to scientific thought and investiga- 

 tion, and revealed the presence of enemies which, like the pestilence 

 that walked unseen at noonday, were doing their deadly work with the 

 stealth of the assassin. 



Like those who go down to the sea in ships, you commune with the 

 voice of nature, learning the lessons that she inculcates, listening to 

 the myriad-tongued trees, reading lessons in stones, finding books in 

 the running brooks, and, like Shakspeare's banished duke, good in 

 everything pertaining to the works of nature. 



The skill and ingenuity of man have resolved the human body into 

 its ultimate elements and analyzed his food supply, so that the remedy 

 for many of the ills of life is found more often in the skillful adaptation 

 of food than in the potions of the apothecary. The mental culture 

 necessary for the p/oduction of superior articles in the line of fruit or 

 vegetables is of no small moment, and is helpful in all relations of life. 

 It was doubtless with this thought in mind that the French statesman 

 gave utterance to the famous aphorism: "That the land which would 

 teem with abundance when tickled by the hoe of the freeman, would 

 shrink into baseness from the contaminating sweat of the slave." Ap- 

 proached with intelligence and skill, nature yields her treasures in fruit 

 and flowers to make glad the heart of man. You will remember that it 

 was in a garden that the human family first commenced business; and 

 I would here suggest the propriety of making Father Adam and Mother 

 Eve honorary members of this society, as the pioneer horticulturists of 

 all time. 



