THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



216 



LINES ADDRESSED TO A BED OF 

 FANSIES. 



{Written a few years since.) 

 Bright eyed pausies opening wide 

 In the glory of your pride, 

 Who would think that fashion's hour 

 Over you could cast Its power. 



Yet you're now the reigning belle — 

 Such at least the florists tell ; 

 Well you merit all the fame 

 Which is thrown around your name. 



Dare I now with you compare, 

 What Ijy nature still you are. 

 Those tiny things the children bring . 

 In the early days of spring. 



True I love your happy fai«. 

 Though the smallest of your race. 

 And you love a quiet spot, 

 Well contented with your lot. 



You, I call the laughing flower, 

 You euioy a shining hour. 

 And you bear transplanting well : 

 To my heart rei)Ose you tell ; 

 For I've not the calm content 

 Of my little favorite yet. 



Would the meekness that yon teach, 

 Every discontent could reach ; 

 Would all hearts were free from guile. 

 As your i>layful winning smile ; 

 Would each mind were daily taught 

 With the lessons you are fraught. 

 * ♦ * * 



Where is reason's boasted power 

 Which is baffled by a flower ! 



M. W. M. 



A TREELESS COUNTRY. 



I had a dream which was not all a dream !" 

 A great State was a desert, and the land 

 Lay bare and lifeless under sun and storm. 

 Treeless and shelterless. Spring came and went, 

 And came, bi.t brought no joy ; but in its stead 

 The desolation of the ravine floods 

 That leaped like wolves or wildcats from the hills 

 And spread destruction over fniitful farms. 

 Devouring as they went the works of man. 

 And sweei)ing southward nature's kindly soil 

 To choke the water(;ourses, worse than waste. 



The forest trees that in the olden time— 

 The people's glory and the poet's pride — 

 Tempered the air and guarded well the earth. 

 And under spreadmg boughs for ages kept 

 Great reservoirs to hold the snow and rain, 



From which the moisture through the teeming year 

 Flowed equably but freely — all were gone. 

 Their priceless boles exchanged for petty cash. 

 The cash had melted, and left no sign ; 

 The logger and the lumberman were dead ; 

 Tlie axe had rusted out for lack of use ; 

 But all the endless evil they had done 

 Was manifested upon the desert waste. 



Dead springs no longer sparkled in the sun ; 

 Lost and forgotten brooks no longer laughed ; 

 Deserted mills mourned all their moveless wheels ; 

 The snow no longer covered as with wool 

 Mountain and.plain, but buried starving flocks 

 In Arctic drifts : in rivers and canals 

 The vessels rotted idly on the mud 

 Until the sjiring floods buried all their bones ; 

 Great cities that had thriven wondrously. 

 Before the source of thrift was swept away, 

 Faded and perished, as a plant will die 

 Witli water banished from its roots and leaves ; 

 And men sat starving in the treeless waste, 

 Beside their fruitless farms and empty marts, 

 And wondered at the ways of Providence ! 

 jVci« York Swi. 



The New Orleans World's Exposi- 

 tion. —Calif omia expects to make a point 

 at tlie World's Fair next winter by send- 

 ing to the Crescent City a wonderful col- 

 lection of photographs of natural scenery. 

 Photographers in various parts of the 

 State are at work making views (^f the 

 most noted mountain and valley scenes. 

 "The glorious climate of California," has 

 heretofore been regarded as one of the 

 chief promoters of the beauty of the 

 photographs made on "the slope;" and 

 Tiow the matter will be brought to a test, 

 for the photographs of all nations at the 

 great Exposition will be placed side by 

 side. 



Currants. — Currants are yearly grow- 

 ing in favor and the price of the fruit 

 .ulvancing ; and now currant culture is 

 profitable, and likely to continue so for a 

 series of years. Ground can not well be 

 made too rich for currants and goose- 

 berries. Plant in rows four feet apart, 

 and plants thi'ee feet apart in the rows ; 

 give thorough culture or deep mulch over 

 the entire surface, cut out all wood of 

 throe years' growth (or after first crop is 

 often considered better), and a good crop 

 is almost certain. Red Dutch, VVhite 

 Grape, Victoria, and Versailles are still 

 the favorites. — T/ie Prairie Farmer. 



PRINTED?AT THE STEAM I'liES.S ESTaBI-ISHMBNT OF COPP, CI.ARK * CO., lOLbOHNE STKEl.i, lOUONTO. 



