ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 209 



branches of study, etc., yet we find nmcli needed knowledge and use- 

 ful education neglected and overlooked. I refer to- practical knowl- 

 edge of horticulture, tioriculture and ornamentation of home, public 

 grounds, and especially school yards. 



This subject, in connection with our free schools, may appear to 

 many of you unimportant, but after due consideration you will realize 

 its value. It is needless for me to demonstrate to you the refining and 

 elevating influence ornamental floriculture and horticulture imparts to 

 the human minds, together with its beneficent and healthful exercise 

 and pleasure it gives us. That this is true we find demonstrated in the 

 fact that some of our greatest minds find pleasure, lecreation and rest 

 in rural pursuits. 



Not long since I read some European correspondence describing 

 how Count Yon Moltke (the greatest living military mind of Europe) 

 spends his time. Among other things the writer says : " The general 

 loves his little farm, and spends his morning hours in supervising his 

 laborers. After this he attends in person to his garden and nursery, 

 especially to the latter, which he musters as strictly as if the young 

 saplings were a regiment of recruits. He prunes thera carefully with 

 his own hands. It is one of the silent soldier's most prominent char- 

 acteristics, that he hates all that is incompetent — all that is unfitted to 

 its task and purpose." 



"Surrounded with all that wealth, title and national prominence can 

 bestow, yet we see that this master mind of the great Field Marshal 

 finds untold pleasure, satisfaction and rest in his personal attention to 

 training of trees, shrubs and flowers at his quiet country home." 



The love for the beautiful seems to have been implanted by the 

 allwise Creator in every human breast ; wherever mankind is found, 

 regardless of race or condition, we find expressions for the beautiful. 

 13ut the higher the civilization the more refined and cultivated the 

 taste for nature's beauty. We may more fully realize this when we 

 listen to the reading of such grand productions as the paper read last 

 night by our friend Laughlin on "The Ked Oaks of the Loess Hills." 

 What mighty ideas and thoughts of the sublime are presented to us, 

 showing how nature every where'"is grand and elevating; what inex- 

 haustible fields of knowledge and charming beauty and the universal 

 presence of an Almighty Creator, may we discover in nature. Even a 

 l>lade of grass or the smallest flowers, when viewed under the micro- 

 scope, reveal to us a system of beauty and symmetrical forms, and we 

 may fully comprehend "that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 

 like one of these." 

 H. K. — 14 



