ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 115 



afraid I could not say all I wanted to on the subject, ot erwise, 

 and leave any time for anybody else to speak. (Laughter.) 

 ('Beads paper, ivhich the secretary cannot get hold of to print. ) 



President Underwood : If there is any feature of the Minne- 

 sota State Horticultural Society of which I am proud, it is that 

 feature which gives to us such valuable allies in our women 

 representatives, and I propose "The Horticultural Garden,' 

 and call upon Mrs. A. A. Kennedy of Hutchinson to respond. 



THE GARDEN FOR WOMAN. 



3IRS. A. A. IvENNEDY, HUTCHINSON. 



Any one might infer by the number of times I have been requested to 

 write upon the subject of gardening, that I was born and brought up in a 

 garden; but this is not so. If it was I might, perhaps, have been more 

 successful. My father was a "down easter,'' a "Yankee" if you please, 

 and any one that has push and energy enough to make a good living at 

 farming among the rocks and mountains of New Hampshire, is capable 

 of taking care of a garden in the West without the help of a wo- 

 man. Of course, I knew that the garden was the place where they raised 

 vegetables, but that was about the extent of my knowledge in that direc- 

 tion. But I have long since learned to love this avocation. It is a splen- 

 did rendezvous to which a woman may hie when vexed with petty house- 

 hold cares and pour her sorrows into the imaginary ears of her beloved 

 plants. It is so much better than whispering them to a gossiping neighbor. 

 They never betray our confidence, and then they listen with such respect, 

 too. 



When the Great I Am had cre'ated the world and placed the sun, moon 

 and stars in their proper places, even before he had brought man, the lord 

 of creation, into existence; (and, by the way, I am afraid, if they will 'per- 

 sistin placing the ballot into the hands ot women, they will lose their iden- 

 tity as far as their appellation of "lord" is concerned) He proceeded- 

 to layout a garden, thus sanctifying the calling and making the gar- 

 den a proper place for woman. And here she can find ample scope to ex- 

 pend all her strength, knowledge and wit. I often wonder what that 

 Garden of Eden must have been like. Of course, it must have been perfec- 

 tion itself, perfect in all its appointments. And so I find myself wondering, 

 as I walk among my own vines and plants, admiring the abundance of fruit 

 and their lovely bloom, what that must have been with its fruits and flow- 

 ers, and, as the queen of the floral kingdom is the rose,it must have grown 

 there in great profusion, thus filling the air with the sweetest perfume. 

 Thus our surroundings here amid the abundance of this queen of flowers, 

 with its delightful fragrance, at least suggests, and in a large meas- 

 ure restores, the £}den we have lost. 



President Underwood: I will ask Miss Smith to recite a 

 poem which I think will impress the members of the society 

 as being especially appropriate upon this occasion. 



