408 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Our pioneer now clearly sees the way. He is no longer undecided, 

 but, in the hope that is, perhaps, the child of despair, he unhesita- 

 tingly calls into council the greatly abused tree agent, and the fol- 

 lowing season finds him with a four or five row windbreak of hardy 

 little evergreens just showing their verdant crowns above the drifted 

 snow on the north and west sides of the home. Luckily he heeds 

 the tree agent's advice to keep the stock fenced out, and for us to 

 prove that nature's frowns have changed to wreathing smiles for 

 this wise and thrifty student of her creation, it requires nothing 

 more than that we pay him a visit after five or six years have added 

 their growth to his fortress of protection and defence, and see for 

 ourselves how the shafts of King Blizzard now harmlessly bury 

 themselves in an unyielding buttress of pine and spruce. 



Now, at length, our wise pioneer (and what class of men are more 

 practically philosophical than the farmer?) takes time to stand still 

 for a moment and to draw a full breath. He has industriously 

 trudged up the steep and thorny path of the settler's experience, 

 and has found a broad ledge upon which he can rest for a while. 

 From this point he for almost the first time stops long enough to 

 look over the surroundings. Natural love of the beautiful, which in 

 the race for things more practical and necessary has lain perforce a 

 latent and dormant spark, finds chance to expand in this moment of 

 restful contentment, and, fired by thoughts of the successful at- 

 tempts already made, he begins to see the inherent beauty in all na- 

 ture's creations, and resolves to use his awakened sensibilities in the 

 adornment of his earthly habitation 



This is his duty as well as his privilege, and when, perchance, he 

 pays the nursery a visit in search of shrubs and trees with which 

 to beautify the farm home, he does not forget the lesson of the past, 

 but remembers the joy of anticipation he felt in that first year as he 

 looked out and saw the little spots of evergreen, bravely defiant of 

 the almost overwhelming sea of snow — and with mind running back 

 to his home where the inner ear catches the subdued purr of the 

 conquered wind among the resinous boughs, he does not forget that 

 the Great Mother, in all her goodness and generosity to men, has 

 given to the brave child of the north hardy creatures like them- 

 selves, beings full of strength and beauty, so that, in the winters of 

 adversity, he may not forget that the heart of the world still beats, 

 but always keeps his soul well filled with that evergreen content- 

 ment that can look with joy through the bleakness ot December 

 toward the never-failing springtime soon to return. 



Level Culture Best for Cabbage. — Cabbages grown on level 

 land, in Arkansas, produce 40 per cent greater yields than when 

 grown on ridges four inches high and 46 per cent greater than when 

 grown on ridges eight inches high. Level culture was decidedly 

 the best. In the same series of experiments cabbage plants set deep, 

 so that the bud was just level with the surface of the soil, produced 

 much larger yields than if set the same depth as the plants grew in 

 the hotbed. 



