208 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The beautiful, in art and nature, has a refining, elevating and puri- 

 fying influence upon our moral nature, and nowhere is it felt and real- 

 ized more than when watching buds swelling, leaves developing, petals 

 unfolding, fragrance floating upon the air — fruits of a thousand flavors 

 growing, maturing, ripening for the gratification of the appetite and the 

 multifarious tastes of the human race. Also in studying the wonder- 

 ful chemical processes in the laboratory of nature, as the components 

 of earth, air and water are converted into plant food producing all 

 flavors — the most delightful fragrance and painting fruits, flowers and 

 foliage, with tints and colors inimitable and unapproachable by the 

 finest pencils of the most celebrated artists. 



How our thoughts and hearts run outward and upward to " Our 

 Father in Heaven " in praise, thanksgiving and gratitude, for His loving 

 kindness in providing so profusely for the gratification of every desire 

 of our physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual natures — providing so 

 richly and abundantly for the comfort, health and happiness of His in- 

 telligent and immortal creatures, while they labor and toil among 

 thorns, thistles, weeds and worms, to produce such grand returns. 



In the midst of banks of flowers, oceans of fragrance and pyra- 

 mids of ambrosial fruits, dull indeed must be our perceptive, dead our 

 moral nature, and dwarfed our intellectuality, if we are not profited 

 beyond the price of rubies, the value of gold or the wealth of the 

 world. God pity him who only labors to "heap up riches, not know- 

 ing who shall scatter them,'' and then passes into the unknown, Tiaving 

 not the true riches that endure forever. How poor, indeed, will that 

 soul be which, engulfed in the maelstrom of wealth-gathering in this 

 world, has not been educated, purified and qualified by association 

 with the good, true and beautiful to enjoy the fruits growing beside 

 the river of the water of life which flows from beneath the throne of 

 God. 



Shall we not consider these moral influences as they, acting upon 

 ourselves, our boys and girls, qualify us for the purer and more holy 

 pleasures of a higher and better life, as a part of the profits of orchard- 

 ing, and place them to the credit side of the moral balance sheet of 

 life? 



What is the profit of Olden fruit farm in dollars and cents, great 

 as it is, compared with its moral influence on the citizens of the 

 Ozarks ? What shall it profit the members of that great country to 

 gain millions of dollars, and in that "great day" find themselves un- 

 qualified to cultivate an acquaintance with the gardener in the Paradise 

 of God? 



