ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 68 



HORTICULTURE FOR THE CHILDREN. 

 M. A. Thayer, Sparta, Wis. 



The heart of a child has been likened unto a sheet of white paper, each 

 day's action writing a word, each year a line, and the paper when com- 

 plete being a life history. 



As a horticulturist I would liken the heart of a child unto a rich un- 

 planted garden, with warm, well prepared soil ready alike for the artistic 

 gardener with his fruit and flowers, forms of health and beauty, or the 

 careless husbandman with his weed and thistle. Well may we pause and 

 inquire, "What shall the harvest be?" and well should we direct this im- 

 portant work. 



The love of fruits and flowers is universal and no influence is more re- 

 fining or impression more lasting. They impart inspiration to all. The 

 mystery of the feeding root, the structure of the breathing leaf, the deli- 

 cate tint of the bursting bud, the perfume of the fragrant blossom, the 

 forming of the healthful fruit and its luscious maturity, are subjects for 

 deepest thought and reflection. 



The memory of a home in childhood, where fruits and flowers abound 

 will remain bright until the steps are infirm and the hair is white with 

 age. If you would have your memory cherished by your children, or your 

 grave strewn with fiowers when you are gone, then give them these com- 

 panions in childhood. 



Statistics show that the growing of fruits and fiowers is very much 

 neglected, especially by our farmers, not one in twenty giving any atten- 

 tion to them. To stimulate and quicken the love of horticulture among 

 all our people it would, if possible, seem advisable to devise some means 

 by which public distribution may be made to all the children in the state. 



My attention was first strongly directed to this matter by a little gift 

 thoughtlessly made to the school children of my own city of Sparta, two 

 years ago, when over four hundred came to my farm, one and one-half 

 miles distant, for a single red and black raspberry. The interest of these 

 children all through the season was a perfect surprise. 



To stimulate and encourage the work further, and test the feelings of 

 the children generally, I made a proposition to our state horticultural 

 society to donate 6,000 strawberry plants to the first 1,000 children who 

 would receive and care for them under such rules and regulations as the 

 society might see fit to make. 



The committee appointed for this purpose after considerable thought 

 formulated a plan which was embodied in a circular, as follows: 



Wisconsin State Horticultural Society, ) 

 Secretary's Office, Evansville, Wis,. March 21, 1892. ) 



To Superintendents, Officers and Teachers of our Public Schools: ■ 



The Wisconsin State Horticultural Society most heartily approves of 

 the observance of Arbor Day in all of the district schools of our state. 

 As a means of expressing its sympathy with the good work, the following 

 circular is submitted as an accompaniment to the one issued by the De- 

 partment of Public Instruction. 



To aid in the selection of proper trees and shrubs for planting on school 

 grounds, the society recommends the following list to select from and 

 gives- preference in the order named. From long experience we have 

 found that nursery grown trees, or those which have once or twice been 

 transplanted are preferable, and any nurseryman in our state will sell for 



