STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 271 



FLOWERS AND ROSES. 

 By Mrs. M. S. Gould, Excelsior. 



God's first and best gift to niau was a garden, in which everything 

 was not only "good for food," but " pleasant to the sight." 



The love of beauty in nature is natural Heaven-born. It can be 

 said of flowers, says Dr. Tuttle, but scarcely of any other thing, that 

 they are universally admired. There is no time or place where they 

 are inappropriate, no decoration to which tKey cannot add a charm. 

 They lend fragrance and beauty to homes of joy and to homes of sorrow. 

 They may tell our love for the living and our mourning for those who 

 have passed away. There is no private meeting of friends, no public 

 festival, nor anniversary of any kind which they may not embellish 

 or grace with some sentiment. They make crowns for children and 

 chaplets for heroes; and our nation could find no more delicate, gen- 

 uine way of expressing its gratitude for the soldiers who perished in 

 the late war than by covering the places where they sleep with flow- 

 ers." 



It has not been my lot to have much leisure or strength to devote 

 to the cultivation of flowers. But as we have always been blessed 

 with a few, hoping I may help someone less fortunate than myself, 

 and that I may encourage someone who has never tried to raise them, 

 or those who " never have any luck " to trj' once more, having in re- 

 membrance bare and desolate homes in "this broad land of ours," 

 and agreeing with Mrs. Van Cleve that it may be a part of our duty 

 as a horticultural Society to implant and foster in the minds of our 

 youth a love for the culture of plants, I will mention a few of the 

 most hardy which may be grown with the least possible labor: 



Perennials come first in the list of easy culture, requiring very lit- 

 tle care if properly planted. 



Annuals necessitate more labor, the ground needing to be prepared 

 every spring, and early, just when the busy farmer is tempted to reply 

 to such requests, '* Yes, by and by; can't do it now; wait till I get 

 over my rush." Could fathers and brothers alwaj^s realize the bles- 

 sings these God-given treasures are, they would probably oftener con- 

 trive in some way to lend the "helping hand " to provide something 

 " pleasant to the sight." 



Gov. Colman once said, while urging this duty: " Grow flowers; 

 they are elevating, purifying, harmonizing in their influence upon the 

 character of yourself, your wife and your children. The farmer who 



