305 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



alertness of mind and body induced by the city life, may, de- 

 spite the confusion and distraction incident to them, well be de- 

 sired by the country woman. It was the monotony of country 

 life which brought the woman of the New York tenements who 

 had been helped to work and self support outside of the city, 

 back to her old haunts with the remark : "People is more com- 

 pany than stumps." 



The country home has nevertheless as great a variety as any 

 other. In the open air life the successive seasons bring infinitely 

 more change than to those who observe them only in streets and 

 parks. The buds and blades of spring, the glory of summer foli- 

 age, the splendor of autumn's coloring, the radiance of winter's 

 snows, the changing sky and ever varying atmosphere are fully 

 revealed only in the country. Elizabeth may have her delight the 

 seasons round in her Amercan garden and farm. If she has add- 

 ed to her constant observation a closer knowledge of the liv- 

 ing things about her, she is doubly happy. A retired farmer of 

 my acquaintance is more interesting than any learned lecturer 

 I know for a companion in a walk, for long ago in his daily walks 

 about a farm he learned the names and habits of all the plants and 

 living things which one meets. He has added to his own en- 

 joyment and that of others also, by associating with these things 

 the words of great poets and thinkers. How such association en- 

 riches humdrum life ! When we thus add to our experience that 

 of others, the trees are to us not only beautiful as oaks or maples but 

 even in winter "the boughs which shake against the cold" be- 

 come a part of the cathedral dome of the air, and we see them, 

 as did Shakespeare, as 



"Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang." 



Ruskin's suggestive studies make us see the beauty which 

 air gives to the world, see the delicate curves and gradations of 

 color in every cloud, yes, see with him the glory of the muddy 

 pool by the road-side, for he says that this poor has as much 

 landscape in it as about it. "It has a heart like ourselves, and 

 in the bottom of it there are boughs of the tall trees, and the 

 blades of the shaking grass and all manner of variable pleasant 

 light out of the sky." "Even in the gutter if you will look deep 

 enough you may see the dark serious blue of a far-off sky and the 

 passing of pure clouds." 



This noble association of great thoughts with daily sights is 

 within the power of all of us and gives culture with its pleasure. 

 Some one has recently pronounced as most interesting and many- 

 sided a woman whose mind is stored with the fairest thoughts of 



