10) ANNUAL REPORT. POs KE 
and its “three Normal Schools where its teachers are — for the 
high vocation of instructing its children and youth. ws 
I ask you, Mr. President and gentlemen, to look about this fine | 
edifice in which you are assembled, and see what a veritabie cow 
pasture it is. Open to the street, ungraded, unadorned, unenclosed, 
a disgrace to the State! Many years ago, when these apartments 
were planned and this building was located, it entered into the 
hearts of those who looked to the future, that here a botanical gar- 
den should be laid out, in which might be cultivated those plants, 
flowers and shrubbery which had been proved to be the best adapted 
to our soil and climate, and which might afford perpetual ‘* object 
lessons” to the thousands of ingenious youth that should assemble 
here to be fitted for duty as teachers under our great common school 
system. And why not? What noble, better, more useful purpose 
could these premises be made to subserve? To what end more prac- 
tical or benificent could a few thousand dollars be appropriated? 
Think for a moment of the extent to which the practical lessons 
thus imparted would reproduce around the country school houses 
and rural homes of the people. Certain it is that the noble science 
of horticulture which you, gentlemen, are laboring so earnestly to 
promote will never be taught in our schools until our teachers can 
be made familiar with its theory and practice, and this familiarity 
can never be acquired until its objects and living illustrations are 
at hand to attract the senses and stimulate to earnest and thought- 
ful study. Not to weary you at this late hour, gentlemen, let me 
commend this thought to your candid attention. I know of no way 
in which your worthy and self-denying labors, as a society, can be 
made to receive a more powerful impetus. I know of none that 
would be more fraught with blessings to the people in the diffusion 
of sound information concerning one of the noblest and most useful 
of arts. 
Messrs. Harris and Jewell in a few remarks supported the reso- 
lution very warmly, and it was then carried unanimously. 
Evergreens. 
The discussion on evergreens was then opened. 
Mr. Pearce :—It is one of the most important subjects we can 
discuss. We want them for protection before we can raise fruit. 
The best for this purpose is the Scotch Pine. This for windbreaks. 
For ornament, would plant Balsam Fir, Norway Spruce, Black and 
White Spruce, Mountain Pine, Dwarf Pine, and Austrian Pine. 
