212 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



beautiful, thereby elevating and attracting them through the mighty- 

 works of nature to nature's God. 



See to it therefore, that your children, who soon must enter upon 

 the stage of real life and there play a part, receive a wise and useful 

 education. Teach them that labor is not degrading, but elevating. 

 That in this great land of ours, reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 from the lakes to the Gulf, embracing all classes of soil and climate, a 

 land capable of producing and supplying all human wants, that there is 

 room for all and millions to come, and that all who will but do their 

 duty, may have a home and plenty. There is no need complaining of 

 hard times while yet millions of rich acres of land are unoccupied and 

 uncultivated. Teach them to plow deep and often, and be sure and 

 plant plenty of Ben Davis apples, and rich will be their reward, for the 

 Lord helps him who helps himself. 



Teach them to love home and country, and that the greatest bles- 

 sing to mankind is to have a cheerful and pleasant home. In short, 

 teach them to use common sense, and to live after nature and nature's 

 laws, which are unerring and wiser than all, and it needs not a prophet's 

 foresight to fortell that their fireside will be cheerful and happy, and 

 their lives spent usefully. And when the evening of life has come, and 

 the dark curtain of death closes your life's last scene, it will be with 

 the knowledge and satisfaction that you have done your duty and the 

 world has been made better by your life in it, and you will continue to 

 live and be cherished in memory long after your ashes are mingled 

 with the clay. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Murry — We adopted the plan last year of meeting on arbor day 

 and encouraging the young people to bring a tree and plant it. We 

 have our grounds full of trees. Last year being dry, some of them 

 perished. I think our school grounds should be enlarged with a view 

 to the growing of flowers a,nd other plants while lands are cheap and 

 accessible. The young should be brought up among trees, flowers and 

 everything beautiful. 



Mr. President — This society has set on foot the ornamentation of 

 school grounds. Mr. Kern, the landscape gardener took upon himself 

 the laying out of the work and directing how it should be done at 

 Warrensburg, and the nursery men of Missouri, Iowa and Kansas con- 

 tributed trees and plants so freely that we could not accept them all* 

 Our local society ornamented their grounds last spring. I think it 

 would be well if this cociety would adopt some resolution asking our 



