STATE HORTICCTLTURAL SOCIETY. 177 



Horticulture furnishes forms of enjoyment not properly utilized 

 by ladies. A well-arranged yard is as convenient as an orderly 

 house. People who raise their own vegetables and fruits, can have 

 them when they are firm but not unripe, and juicy but not de- 

 cayed. They will eat their greens earlier and oftener than one 

 dares who purchases at market prices. A fine flower-bed permits 

 its owner to enjoy the luxury of giving. Its lovely blossoms will 

 not only decorate home tables and mantels, but also ornament the 

 house of God, cheer the sick-room, and soften death's hard out- 

 lines. Not all can afford costly gifts, nor does every one care to 

 be under obligations for such. Flowers and fruits make delicate 

 and inexpensive presents, which any one may give or freely accept, 

 A walk or ride is soon over, pies and cakes disappear with alarm- 

 ing rapidity, dishes have to be re washed three times a day; but 

 flower-beds are bright for weeks, and tasteful grounds grow in 

 beauty with years. 



Those excellent outdoor exercises, riding, walking, and croquet, 

 already accepted and appreciated, whose claims, therefore, it is not 

 so necessary to urge, they are very delightful when horticulture 

 has preceded them. Pleasant streets and roads are always resorts. 

 Visitors and friends are taken to see them. And, in proportion as 

 such places grow more handsome, are they more frequented. 

 Croquet and kindred games are hardly practicable without a 

 smooth lawn. Convenient seats often allure one into a game. The 

 possesti'^r of a garden-plot frequently inspects its flowers and fruits, 

 and whoever has a vine and a fig tree of her own, naturally rests 

 in their shade. Thus horticulture not only brings its rewards, but 

 brings people out to see what those rewards are. 



If possible, every person ought daily to learn something new and 

 valuable, though not necessarily from books. " It is not all of life 

 to live." Unfortunately, many a woman's education is finished in 

 her teens, just when she is beginning properly to study and think. 

 Horticulture summons many sciences to its aid, and combines with 

 recreation fine intellectual opportunities. The habits of plants 

 are learned, the nature of soils, the eft'ects of moisture and heat, 

 and the depredations of insects. Without knowing it, one becomes 

 a botanist, a geologist, a meteorologist, and an entomologist. 

 Chemistry teaches how to compound and where to apply fertilizers 

 and explains why some of them are potent at once, and others 

 only in time. Isaac Newton watched a falling apple, and discovered 

 that great law of gravitation which governs myriads of worlds. 

 The wonderful machines for farm and garden use, inventions mainly 



