4S STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



■glad to 54et awav. On tlie othci' liand, liomes aie ])assed which are beau- 

 .tiful, not alone physicallj' beautiful, but beautiful in their influences. 



The beneficial and ennobling inliuences which emanate from a true 

 home are worthy of our best efforts; for it is within the home and during 

 the years of childhood that a trend is given to character which the care 

 and toil and trial of later years can never wholly efface. Whatever else 

 may be neglected, don't fail of making the home "home-like." A place 

 where one may but work, eat and sleep is not a "home." 



I am impressed with the belief that the strength of our nation lies not 

 in its army and its navy — though justly proud Ave are of their recent 

 brilliant achievements — neither is its strength found in its wealth nor 

 in its wisdom, but within its loj-al, Christian homes is found the principal 

 source of our nation's real strength. And those homes are very largely 

 farm-homes, dotting thickly the landscape all over this fair land. 



Let us strive, then, to make our home such that it may contribute its 

 share to our nation's strength; to our country's highest good, and that it 

 may give to its inmates the rich blessings of a loyal. Christian home. 



But it is to the wife and mother that the home is indebted for that 

 which is beyond price and ready computation. To her the duty is allotted 

 of ])roviding those innumerable little comforts and conveniences of the 

 liome — little? — yet all important because of their influence and bearing 

 ui>on the real happiness of its inmates. Her refining influence endows 

 with blessings the home, such as words cannot ex])ress. 



Then make the home such that memories of it will come to bless the 

 gray-haired child of later years, causing the joyous exclamation, "It was 

 the dearest place on earth to me, my childhood's happy home." 



Make home such, that from it sacred precincts shall go forth grand 

 men and noble women — Christian men and Christian women — to do vali- 

 4int service in life's battles. This is the possibility of farm-life. This is 

 the sacred dutv of the farmer-home. 



RUKAL EMBELLISHMENT. 



AV. W'. TRACY, DETROIT. 



Among all the elements of life there is none with more potentiality of 

 happiness than the sense of beauty. This is jjroved by the fact that ever 

 since the edict went forth that man should live by the sweat of his brow 

 a large proportion of human labor over and above that which is neces- 

 sary to supply man's mere physical wants of food and shelter has been 

 expended to in some way please the eye. This is not an over-dressed 

 audience, it is not a particularly ornate room, but a large share of the 

 labor, the results of which are before you at this moment, could have 

 been saved had we utterly disregarded appearances. 



To go farther, look out into the world in which we live, and we would 

 find that from the blade of grass, or the flake of snow, to the stars above 

 our head, some part, and often a large proportion, of the thought, of the 

 labor, of the power used to create them was expended for the sake of 

 beauty. Would not this be a dreary world if every ])lant and tree were 

 clothed with leaves exactly alike? I fancy a single glance at such a 

 world would convince the most pi':actic.al man tliat beauty has a large 



