THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



they work. From the tradesman, merchant or broker, whose daily work 

 and thought are given up to the one purpose of money-making as the chief 

 and only object of life, the community often gets but little more of real 

 help or benefit from the business in which they are engaged, than from 

 the miner or the factory worker. 



In horticulture, however, what a vast difference is recognized in the 

 influence that is reflected upon those who are engaged in it, and in its 

 benefits to both the workers who are engaged in the industry, and to the 

 community in which the work is carried on. 



To a community, the educational value of horticulture cannot be esti- 

 mated. It leads into the most interesting fields of scientific knowledge; 

 it deals with, and brings its followers into close touch with the workings 

 of the laws of nature. It is constantly dealing with the most fascinating 

 and beautiful things in life; it cultivates the best thought and finest sen- 

 timent; it makes for the best in human character; its work and influence 

 pervade the entire community and stamps itself on the character and 

 life therein. It interests equally the old and the young; it is intimately 

 connected with the soil, while it is equally linked with the atmosphere 

 above for its most perfect life. It is as many-sided in its marvelous 

 beauty and changing manifestations of life, from the putting forth 

 of buds, blossoms and foliage, to the final perfection of fruit, as are 

 the changing forms of a kaleidoscope. 



An industry that has such a wealth and breadth of scope in its work, 

 with ramifications that call for such a wide variety of knowledge, cannot 

 be but attractive in its nature, and naturally draws to it those who repre- 

 sent the best in life. In educational influence there is no association 

 equal to that of living things. When an apparently lif-eless seed is planted 

 in what to many may seem only inanimate, lifeless soil, it requires 

 some measure of faith to believe that it will take on active life, grow 

 into a thing of beauty, and become a necessary connecting link in the 

 continuance and support of all life. It is not until we have observed the 

 delicate, tiny stem of a plant pushing out of, and up from, a small seed 

 in the soil, struggling against a hard crust of earth in its attempt to get 

 into the world above, breaking and lifting bodily a piece of it more than 

 ten times its own weight, that faith is strengthened in the possibilities 

 of a successful struggle for existence under extreme difficulties. 



The educational value of horticulture, in its relation to the com- 

 munity, has not been fully estimated or understood. It is only within the 

 past decade that there has been an active awakening to this fact, and a 

 fuller appreciation of horticultural study and work as an educational 

 force of great value. One of the chief reasons for the more recent and 

 universal interest in this country-life movement, in which there is a 

 marked tendency of many in cities to go out to the land, may be found 

 in our educational system. It has very largely failed to make known to 

 young people during their school period, at the time when their tastes 

 and impulses are most readily influenced and directed, the great pleasure 



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