420 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



shimmering and flashing in the sunlight, dressed in royal robes 

 of silver and sapphire ! The owner would not take $ioo for it. But 

 your nurseryman will furnish you a small one with as fine a color 

 for $2.00, and you plant it, and $98.00 worth of silver will spread out 

 on those branches. Why, you can just plant money and have it 

 grow. 



On the famous estate of H. H. Hunnewell, at Wellesley, Mass., 

 my attention was drawn to the most beautiful tree in the whole col- 

 lection. It came from England and had a high sounding name, and 

 it cost a large sum of money. I saw at a glance that it was simply 

 the blue type of the concolor fir — our old friend from the Rockies. 

 I had handled them by the thousand. Ultimately this tree will sur- 

 pass the pungens. Would the owner sell that specimen for $200.00? 

 No ! he would not look at it, and would think himself insulted by the 

 offer. Two dollars will buy a nice three-foot tree of that type, and 

 there you have a lot of cash growing again. 



I saw a Japan tree lilac thirty inches around three feet from the 

 ground, and thirty feet high, with great spikes of glorious flowers 

 looking at you from those leafy coverts. Would $100.00 buy it? 

 But you can buy a nice one for $1.00, and it will grow to be of the 

 same size. 



I have a farmer friend in Nebraska. He is a Swede. I wrote 

 him up as a German, and he went for me. Well, if I was a German 

 I would be glad of it. If I was a Swede I would bless the land of 

 Gustavus Adolphus. I have revolutionary blood throbbing in my 

 veins, and I am thankful for that. Well, sixteen years ago my 

 friend laid out $50.00 for paeonies, and he got some fine ones, and 

 then he raised a couple oi fine ones from seed himself, and they 

 stand up with some of our best imported ones, and they now sell 

 at 50 cents wholesale. I go 100 miles to see his collection. They are 

 almost as fine as my own. Well, you ought tO' see that front yard. 

 It would almost do for a portal to paradise, and he is now selling 

 every year over $1,000 from that two acres, and every fall he has to 

 shut down before the season is half over. He gets more cash out 

 of his front yard and those flowers than from the rest of the farm. 

 They are far ahead of corn and potatoes. 



I know I could take two acres from many a western farm and 

 get as much out of it a year as many a farmer does from his 160. 



So plant wealth where it will grow, and how it will increase the 

 value of the home ! Take two farms ; one has a hog lot in the front 

 yard, and the other is: fitted up with the highest taste and art. He 

 is a poor farmer indeed who cannot add $1,060 or more to the farm 

 value by adorning his grounds. Why not draw on all the sources of 

 wealth instead of taking that everlasting lubber lift on wheat? 



I have a friend who is a deacon in the church. I hope he will 

 go to heaven when he dies. He is worth about $100,000. His cattle 

 pens come up within a few feet of the door. And oh, the flies ! the 

 flies ! I said to him, "Why don't you please your wife and move that 

 fence back and plant the yard to trees and flowers? It is a good 

 rich piece of ground, and it would add to your enjoyment and to the 

 value of your farm." 



"Oh," said he, "I am not interested in those things." 



