440 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



feet in height; two year olds, from three to five feet, and three year 

 old trees, from five to six feet. These trees after the first year de- 

 velop some roots of their own, and they are thus better able than 

 they otherwise would be to withstand a rigorous climate. 



A WOMAN IN THE CASE. 



MRS. A. KENNEDY, HUTCHINSON. 



Now, I do not understand what the secretary meant by"A Woman 

 in the Case," whether he meant a show case or some other kind of a 

 case, but one thing I know, there are some of our women who are fit 

 for nothing but a show case. All their thoughts and their highest 

 aims seem to be to dress and look fine to be admired by their male 

 friends. They seem to forget that they were created for a higher 

 and a holier purpose. They ignore the fact that under the shadow 

 of their own homes and all around them, children hover with pinch- 

 ed faces telling of slow starvation, which the money they pay out 

 for show might relieve. They seem to forget that there are broken 

 hearts to bind up and souls to be gathered for the heavenly garner. 

 They seem to have eyes only for the foolish — what shall I call them? 

 they are not worthy to be called men — so I will simply say the ones 

 that are always ready to fall down and worship the beautiful doll 

 that calls herself woman, forgetting that the beauty they are wor- 

 shiping is only skin deep and that be3'ond that there is nothing to 

 admire. 



But, thank the Lord, there are other cases. There are women who 

 do not live in cases made of glass, but the world is her field of labor, 

 and her thoughts and aims are as pure as the air she breathes, and 

 her aspirations after a pure and holy life are as high as heaven, and 

 it seems as you try to understand her works of love and comprehend 

 her influence for good and the magnitude of her labors you are 

 overwhelmed. Why, it seems as though all of the intervening space 

 between heaven and the abode of the lost is filled with her influence. 



There are cases where women love horticulture, and I am glad to 

 see that their numbers are increasing. One can scarcely realize what 

 a real blessing fruit raising is until you take a load of fine fruit to 

 market and see the little ones as they hover around you and ask 

 "What kind of berries have you to-daj'?" or watch them as a load of 

 apples arrives; I always feel as though if I was only rich, I would 

 buy the whole outfit and send them whirling through the air, to see 

 them scramble for them. And then there is something bewitching 

 in working in the soil, and it seems to me that this is more partic- 

 ularly true of the horticulturist. Perhaps we comprehend the rela- 

 tionship that exists between it and ourselves. I love to work in and 

 with the soil. In the bosoin of the earth lies many a loved one; from 

 it I came forth and to it I shall soon return; and there she will hold us 

 in her kind embrace until the Master calls. Then she will bring us 

 forth beautiful as the flowers and fruit she sends to us in their season. 



