298 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



that have been founded for thirty to forty years or more look just 

 as they did thirty or forty years ago. There is no reason for such 

 a condition of things. In a httle village in Kansas where there are 

 but sixty-five voters there is one of the most perfect organizations 

 to be found in the west. It was all brought about by the influence 

 of one man. In 1891 that man planted himself on the naked prairie. 

 There was not a tree or shrub in sight. Today it is one of the most 

 beautiful places in the country. I refer to Bluff City, Kansas. 

 Every house is surrounded by a neat fence, every house has beauti- 

 ful trees around it. and it is surprising how the trees have grown in 

 the short time they have been planted, — and I was told that every 

 owner of a house had a lawn mower. It is situated in the midst of 

 some 50,000 acres of wheat, and at the regular band concerts in the 

 park the farmers from all around drive in and enjoy themselves. 

 Bluff City is a practical example of what one or two leading spirits 

 can do in a community to bring about ideal results, and it does not 

 take many years to do it either. Is it not to be believed that children 

 raised under such circumstances and surroundings make better men 

 and women than those others who live in this state and the Dakotas ? 

 I believe that we in the west should go to work today, — every one 

 of you should go home and organize in your towns and villages im- 

 provement associations. (Applause.) The lady who spoke about the 

 school grounds here has a very high standard, there is no doubt 

 about that, and it seems as though we could hardly ever reach it. 

 but you can if you begin where you should. You have got to begin, 

 as one gentleman said, by educating the children, not the parents of 

 the children. One man said today, in speaking of planting trees on 

 school house grounds, that after the trees were planted the neigh- 

 bors would destroy them. Such a thing cannot happen in that little 

 village in Kansas. In a little city in Missouri the superintendent of 

 the school makes that one of the important points, one of the great 

 studies, nature study. The teachers are obliged to take their schools 

 into the woods, and those children are taught to know the trees and 

 shrubs that are growing there. There are children in Minnesota 

 who never saw a tree ; especially are there such in the Dakotas. I 

 owned a farm in Dakota myself, and I know acres and acres of coun- 

 try like that ; not one single tree in sight ; crops grown there worth 

 thousands of dollars, but not one dollar to beautify the place. 



I want to impress upon you gentlemen this thought : Go home 

 and start an improvement association in your town, in your com- 

 munity and make Minnesota the most beautiful state in the union. 

 (Applause.) 



Mrs. A. A. Kennedy : There is one little town in this state that 

 is a good one. It is the nicest town I have ever seen. It has beau- 

 tiful streets, handsome lawns and an abundance of trees. We have 

 two large school houses, and right behind the school house is a nice 

 lawn, and we also have an electric light plant put in. Our door 

 yards, both front and back, are kept clean ; we have trees and ever- 

 greens all around ; in fact, as I said before, Hutchinson is the most 

 beautiful town I ever saw. 



