112 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Now, do not call me egotistical because I say that I believe we are do- 

 ing something of great value to this community. It is natural for an old 

 man— and they say I am the father of the society— to feel proud of the 

 work of his children. We thank you again for the kind welcome you 

 have extended to us, and we promise you that we will go home from this 

 place remembering you at all times, and that we will have something to 

 tell our children and grandchildren about this successful meeting that we 

 have had and this reception you have given us to-night. (Applause.) 



President Underwood: Referring to infants and children, as 

 brother Harris has done, I will ask Professor Charles M. Jor- 

 dan to respond to "Horticulture in the Public Schools." 



Prof. C. M. JORDAN, Supt. Minneapolis Schools. 



Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I know something about horticul- 

 ture, and perhaps a little about public schools, but how to mix them is a 

 problem which I cannot solve. I am somewhat like the man who wrote 

 the history of Ireland. He incorporated in the history all that he could 

 think of and all that he could learn about it, and. Anally, he concluded 

 that he would write a chapter on snakes, so he headed the last chapter, 

 "Snakes in Ireland."' After investigating a few days and finding out the 

 true state of affairs in that country, he simply wrote as his last chapter 

 "There are no snakes in Ireland." (Laughter.) I might say, "There is 

 no horticulture in the public schools,'" and the only reasons for it is be- 

 cause we have never thought of it. If there is anything else except hor- 

 ticulture that is not taught in the public schools, I do not know what it 

 is. (Laughter.) There is, perhaps, a reason which I think of to-night why 

 it ought to be taught. If we teach the girls how to cook the cabbages, 

 we certainly ought to teach the boys how to raise them. 



We have done one thing, however, in the schools of this city in the di- 

 rection mentioned here to-night, and that is in the beautifying of the 

 school grounds of the city. The sani-heaps of a few years ago have dis- 

 appeared, and to-day we have in very many parts of the city very beauti- 

 ful grounds and nicely kept lawns, sprinkled with flower beds and dotted 

 with shaae trees. We celebrate the planting of trees every Arbor Day. 

 The park board furnishes each school a tree; we plant it with a great 

 deal of ceremony, we recite poems, we sing songs, we watch and water 

 and tend the tree for three or four months, and see it die. ( Laughter.) 



But there is one thing that we do try to teach in the public schools 

 every day, and that is the dignity of good, honest, manual labor. We try 

 to teach the boys that it is just as honorable to handle the hoe as it is to 

 handle the scalpel, and that the man who stands under his own vine and 

 fig tree and looks upon the good work of his own hands is as much enti- 

 tled to credit as the man who stands in the pulpit and preaches a poor 

 sermon. (Applause). We try to show that the boy who split rails and the 

 boy who followed the tow path have risen to a place in this country in the 

 affections and respect of their countrymen, such as is very rarely reached 

 by the boy who has been brought up in the lap of luxury and who has 

 never known a want that has not been satisfied. 



I was reading a few days ago in the life of Thomas Jefiierson, that one 

 day when he felt that he was not appreciated he sat down and made a 

 list of the things he had done which seemed to him to be valuable to his 

 country. He noted among other things the establishment of a church: 



