THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



fruits, flowers and vegetables that are now so frequently held in cities, 

 and from the general discussions that have been so active in relation to 

 the high-living cost of recent years. 



This general movement toward country life has come at an opportune 

 time, when our cities are growing at a rapid rate and in many of them 

 population has become so congested that every winter finds increased de- 

 mand for charitable and philanthropic aid to be extended to thousands of 

 the dependent class. Increasing numbers are now annually found swelling 

 bread lines and filling charitable institutions, while in the country there 

 is a great dearth of labor, and much land is being unused because of want 

 of labor with which to work it. 



In New York State, in twenty years, from 1881, 14,000 farms were 

 practically abandoned, which meant a depreciation in the value of land 

 representing $168,000,000. Much of this land is now being sought and 

 taken up. The old houses and barns are being repaired, new orchards are 

 being planted, school houses that have been closed for want of children 

 to teach are now being opened again, and opportunity is broadening for 

 many with small capital and willing hands, to again acquire land and to 

 live in the enjoyment of independent homes. 



The school house in the country should be the center of every interest 

 of the community, — educational, social, religious and industrial. It should 

 have surrounding it ample land for the planting of trees, shrubs and 

 flowers. It should represent all that is attractive and beautiful in the 

 development of country homes, as a park in the city makes possible for 

 those, both with and without homes, an opportunity for pure air, for 

 some green sward, the grateful shade of trees and the beauty and per- 

 fume of shrubs and flowers. The needs of the present times are more of 

 the teaching of horticulture, as also of general agricultural subjects, in 

 our country schools, that a strong rural population may again, as in the 

 earlier history of our country, occupy the soil. 



Country life needs to be made not only more prosperous, but more 

 attractive, by beautifying to a greater extent the homes and the highways, 

 the church and school grounds, and country villages, through ornamental 

 tree-planting. This, together with improving the soil and making it pro- 

 ductive of larger income, will check the overgrowth of cities by giving 

 wider distribution of industries and population to rural sections. At the 

 present time, New York leads all other states in the union, with over 

 9,000,000 of population, fifty-two per cent, of which live within the limits 

 of Greater New York. Seventy-eight per cent, of the population of the 

 state live in cities of 25,000 or over, while but twenty-two per cent, live 

 on farms and in cities of less than 25.000. 



With the shortening up of many farm productions and with the 

 increasing importations of many foreign fruits and vegetables, thereby 

 adding to the high and oppressive cost of living to those in cities, the 

 vital importance of horticulture to the highest v/elfare of the entire nation 

 becomes significant. Its financial importance can scarcely be com])re- 



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