150 ANNUAL REPORT 



WEDNESDAY EVENING SESSION. 



JANUARY 22, 1890. 



The meeting was called to order by President Elliot. 



Mr. Barrett. Oar worthy President asked me by letter if I 

 would prepare a paper upon Horticulture among the Masses. I 

 responded that I would, and have to say at the outset that you who 

 know me personally, know, perhaps, that I am always on what I 

 might perhaps claim to be the forward line, and if there is a pos- 

 sible chance for advancement, my idea is we should improve it care- 

 fully. 



Mr. Barrett then read the following paper: 



HORTICULTURE AMONG THE MASSES. 



By J. O. Barrett, Browns Valley. 



The cow, the horse, the hog, the sheep, the fowl, the grains, the 

 garden vegetables, without them we would starve. But with noth- 

 ing more of productions, the young folks better educated than the 

 old folks, generally grown weary of the farm, crowd into the cities 

 and there fight a harder battle than before, for great cities are but 

 "cancers on the body politic." What is the matter with New 

 England farms, that they are so abandoned? It is not alone 

 because they have not paid; they lack the relief of the social and 

 other varying associations. The everlasting tread mill of stock- 

 raising, of raising a little patch of corn and potatoes, of hay and a 

 few vegetables, became an irksome thing, etc., dulling to esthetic 

 ideas, that the energetic young men and women, outgrowing the 

 moulds of their environment, leave in disgust, and New England 

 today is shipping in frugal Scandinavians to reconstruct the agri- 

 cultural ruins. And it will soon be so in our fairer west unless early 

 and more vigorous efforts are made to keep the boys and girls on 

 the farms. Education has so refined our senses these times that 

 every machine, and vehicle, and tool, and piece of furniture, and 

 garment, and book, must not only be practical but a finished beauty, 

 else we are not satisfied. Without some sort of enchantment, 

 without flowers, and their fruits, most of us are uneasy and want 

 to get away to break the monotony. What so enlivens us to do 

 and dare, as drama and song? What so lessens the worry of 

 domestic drudgery as clumps of roses, or pansies, whose sunny 

 faces look like so many fairies peeping out from the ground? 

 What so readily combs out the wrinkles of care as singing birds 

 and laughing voices? What so attaches us to home "be it ever so 

 humble," as trees and vines, and ample supply of juicy straw- 

 berries and other berries and plums, raised in our own well culti- 

 vated gardens? Farm life needs all these appliances to make its 

 tenure sure. 



There are two functions in the direct supports of life — agricul- 



