SUMMER MEETING AT LOUISIANA. 115 



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are beautiful to see and good for food. Why, I can remember but a few 

 years ago my father had a little nursery for his own use and his neigh- 

 bors good, and he had to spend hours showing and telling others how 

 to plant, to prune and gather, and with tomorrow the same old story 

 had to be repeated. Now we have this literature of the very best at 

 our command. Men of thought and culture are giving us the benefit 

 of their labors. In our own state an able paper. The Eural World, is 

 laboring successfully, and if you are not benefited the fault lieth at 

 your own door. The enquiry arises why may not our state exceed 

 what others yet have done : and become the garden spot of the uni- 

 verse and our homes the model homes of the world '? Our nurseries are 

 at our doors. In every part of our state they are rearing themselves in 

 our midst and extending helping hands. But two miles west of our 

 city stands, and I beg^ pardon for individualizing-, the Stark Nurseries, 

 the pride of the county, from which we can get every tree that is good 

 for food and fair to see. Beginning in the year 35 and descending 

 from father to son and son's son in these long years they have been 

 gathering strength, and force^ and utility until now they stand in.their 

 manhood wrapped in the glory of success, a thing of beauty and a joy 

 forever. There grows the tree that is fair to see and good to eat. The 

 roses red and berries bright. The grapes outrivaling the far-famed 

 eschol bunch. There grows the apple, the peach, the pear, the plum. 

 From this garden spot, and others like unto it, we can beautify our 

 home, raise the health-giving fruits, and cause them to blossom and 

 bloom. We can collect around them all that is attractive, and make 

 for our children the fairest picture that was ever drawn by artist's hand. 

 Mrs. Hemans, with her loving pen, has paid a lasting tribute to the 

 homes of England — the royal homes, the palatial homes, the cottage 

 homes, and even the. cot upon the heath. Sir Walter Scott, with a pen 

 of tire, has painted the border chieftain's home — the castled wall, the 

 donjon tower, the mailed warrior, the bugle's hurried call to arms. 

 Burns, the ])low boy poet, in his love lays has shown as much of Scot- 

 land's home life; and the sons of -Ireland, in their songs, all the while 

 tell us of home and the shamrock in Erin's green isle, and from over 

 the seas we hear of Bingen, sweet Bingen on the Ehine, and of the 

 Tiber — ^the Koman's god — the Nile, Egypt's acknowledged supporter. 

 But home on the Danube, the classic Tiber, the swelling Nile, the re- 

 nowned Thames is not what it is here on the banks of the Hudson, the 

 Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri. There', the feudal system cramps, and 

 binds, and crushes. Royalty holds the reins. Wandering tribes at 

 times roam the country, spreading destruction. Even where the old 



