364 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Then there are the perennials that should not be forgotten. With 

 what interest in the early springtime we look for the little germs bursting 

 through the leafy mold. The peony with its scarlet beans, the tulip 

 and the snowdrop, and the' old fashioned pinks that we so seldom see now 

 since the carnation has supplanted them— these flowering roots are con- 

 cealed now for a time with winter's kindly mantle which will soon dis- 

 appear and lo! our flowers will come forth again in all their beauty and 

 fragrance. 



1 need scarcely mention the annuals that we are all .so well acquainted 

 with, of every hue, fashion and color. The plain white petunia is such 

 a beautiful flower and so easily grown that it deserves attention. I 

 planted them beside the verandas, the doorsteps and other places, and 

 they scented the 3'ard with their fragrance. I shall watch in the early 

 spring for their coming again. The Drummond phlox and verbena, too, 

 are flne for the yai-d. Then the cannas and the callas, but I must not 

 linger to speak of others that come trooping up as if thej^ each one said, 

 "I, too, am worthy of mention." 



Dear friends, let us each one do what we can toward having these 

 beautiful children of the sunshine and rain about us, and let us kindly 

 distribute to those who have none as far as we have opportunity. 



Aaron W. Morgan: I certainly want to endorse all that has been said 

 on this subject. It is evident to any one who is interested in this line of 

 work that it exerts an influence which it is impossible to over estimate. 

 Twenty-two years ago, in the State of Illinois. I became a horticulturist, 

 a florist and a landscape gardener. Previous to that time I had mined 

 coal. For years and years I never saw anything of the beauties of nature, 

 except that now and then I would see an impression of a beautiful fern 

 between the slates. But I loved nature, and after a while I went to a 

 greenhouse and bought a beautiful plant. My knees were coming through 

 my clothes and my feet through my shoes at that time, and my wife 

 asked me why I had not bought clothes instead of flowers. But I loved 

 the flowers, and was not happy until I began to gi'ow them. It is said 

 that man should live under his own vine and fig tree. I was pleased with 

 the suggestion that we should not have small flower beds, but large, 

 generous ones, in fact, that the flowers should be planted almost by the 

 acre. Why should we do this? Not for ourselves alone, but to give to 

 our friends and to every wayfarer. What is better to give to a person 

 who is ill or shut up for any reason, than a beautiful bouquet? Often 

 that is i)etter for an invalid than a visit from the doctor. It seems to 

 me there is more money spent in Indianapolis for fruit and flowers than 

 for anything else in the market. And we are simply in the beginning 

 of the culture of fruits and flowers. If I had money today to invest I 

 would rather put it in fruit than to invest in any other department of 

 industry. I know of nothing better or more elevating than to go into a 



