42 Second Anntjal Report 



Sure 'tis the farmer's home. All sweet content, 



All peaceful heavenly influences meet 



To purify,, enrich and make it sweet, 



Within, without, around it and above. 



Good thoughts, blessed angels, peace and love. 



"HORTICULTURE AS COMPARED WITH OTHER 



PROFESSIONS." 



PROF. L. H. BAILEY, ITHACA, N. Y. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen — 



I have much hesitation in making my maiden speech in 

 Vermont. From my earliest recollection the subject that was 

 most talked about at the family fireside was Vermont ; all things 

 that were true and of good report came from old Vermont. So 

 in my youth Vermont came to be associated with all things 

 that were worthy of emulation, and I looked upon it with a sort 

 of sacredness which I don't care about defiling by trying to make 

 a speech in it. 



It is a great pleasure to me to be with you, because you 

 are a young horticultural society — only ten years old — and be- 

 cause you are trying to promulgate all these horticultural ideas, 

 both new ideas and old ones. If a society like this continues to 

 hold its meetings, even though at first not very large, the final 

 resvilts will prove to be a great educational influence on the 

 agricultural interests in general, as well as to those of horti- 

 culture in particular. 



What Professor Stuart, your Secretary, had in mind when 

 he asked me to speak to you on the subject, "Horticulture as 

 Compared with Other Professions," I do not know ; what I 

 have in mind you don't know and you never will find out. If I 

 were to illustrate the subject as lucidly as I should like, instead 

 of giving a theoretical talk as to the comparative outlook in 

 horticulture as compared with other occupations, I should cite 

 you actual cases of men and women who have gone into horti- 

 cultural pursuits and have made a success, as they measure 

 success in life. 



Perhaps you feel that a professor is not the one to speak 

 to you about the relative merits of different vocations as a means 

 of making a living, because he himself is not a practical man. 

 I should deny the allegation, of course,, in regard to myself. 

 But even though that allegation were measurably true, never- 

 theless, I should say the professor is the one man to talk to 

 you about the practical value of some of these agricultural voca- 



