MISCELLANEOUS I'APERS. 375 



hand, but will venture the assertion, that but few horticulturists are ever 

 found behind prison bars. Idleness is generally the author of crime. 

 No horticulturist will ever be successful except through the free exer- 

 cise of brain and muscle. Success to all horticultural societies ! may 

 they continue to grow and increase until their social influence is felt 

 throughout the length and breadth of our country. 



I believe I can truthfully say that some of the happiest hours of my 

 life have been spent in meetings of horticultural societies. When the 

 angel reaper — death — shall come to summons me across the dark river, 

 let no ceremonial rites be performed over my grave. But beneath the 

 spreading branches of some grand old subject in Pomona's realm, sur- 

 rounded by veteran horticulturists with whom I have labored long, let 

 my last resting place be covered with the sweet symbols of love from 

 Flora's hands. 



HORTICULTURE AS AN EDUCATOR. 



BY J. A. KENNEDY. 



Horticulture embraces in its common usage, Pomology, or fruit cul- 

 ture and Flora culture. Its territory is included in the vegetable king- 

 dom. Its book of science Botany ; its paternity, nature and nature's 

 great author. Its lessons, purely elevating. 



Nature has her teachers as well as her books, and to the careful, 

 attentive student who can find books in brooks, teachers in rocks, lessons 

 in leaves and music in everything, there is practical and useful informa- 

 tion in the pursuit and investigation of the vegetable kingdom, in all its 

 wide range and numerous divisions, and especially in the cultivation of, 

 and familiarity with fruits and flowers, as well as the products of the gar- 

 den and the field. 



