$ ©per? Letteps. ^ 



Annual Plant Distribution. 



Sir, — As an example of the value of the 

 annual premium plant distribution, I may 

 say that from the two Courath Raspberry 

 plants you sent me I will have 525 tip plants 

 and 50 one-ye«r plants this fall, which at $5 

 per 100 for tips and iJS per 100 for one-year 

 plants amounts to a snug sum. 



Yours truly, 



D. J. Stewart. 

 Athens Ferry, P.E.I. 



Japan Plums in Simcoe County. 



Sir, — As there is much interest taken in 

 the Japan plums at present in Ontario and 

 many doubts expressed as to their ability to 

 stand our climate in this northern section of 

 the province, allow me to give my experience 

 with the two varieties of these plums. Three 

 years ago I sold a number of Abundance and 

 Burbank trees in this neighborhood, being 

 doubtful about their hardiness. I sold only 

 two to each person, and after selling to six 

 fanners stopped recommending them. 



I have watched these trees closely and have 

 to report favorably. Last year they all bore 

 a dozen or so of fine plums and made a won- 

 derful growth of wood. 



This spring I was almost afraid to visit 

 them, but did so and found the buds all right, 

 and better still, they not only came through 

 tlie hardest winter on trees ever experienced 

 here, but have made a splendid growth dur- 

 ing the summer and have borne fruit. A 

 gentleman told me a few days ago that his 

 trees gave a nice little crop and that he was 

 delighted with the quality. 



I have set out a couple of Wickson, Wil- 

 lard. Abundance and Burbank so as to test 

 them at home. 



S. Speedwell. 



The Church in its Relations to 

 Horticulture. 



Sir, — One of the primary and standard 

 dogmas of the church militant is the fall of 

 man as recorded in the inspired account of the 

 creation and subsequent banishment of man 

 from his primary surroundings The one side 

 only of that dogmas has been dwelt upon by 

 the church from its very earliest days down 

 to the present time, while the other side is 

 sc trcely ever touched upon. The condition 

 to which man fell with his weary toiling and 

 his sweating, his physical burdens and his 

 mental suffering have been pictured to him, 

 without stint and without end. The primi- 

 tive condition from which he fell and the 

 desirability of returning to them is scarcely 

 ever moated from the pulpit or in the Sabbath 



School room. Surely it is a more attractive 

 and pleasing theme to contemplate — the 

 happy condition from which man fell than 

 the miserable state to which he descended. 

 Why not dwell more upon man's surrounding 

 in his harmonious relations to his Creator 

 than upon his fallen state ? In bis first con- 

 dition man was perfect in his moral relation 

 to his God, and his surroundings were in 

 keeping with his perfect moral nature. He 

 dwelt in a paradise. This was his estate, the 

 condition to which he was created. When he 

 fell through transgression he was driven from 

 his surroundings. The bare and naked earth 

 was good enough for him in his degenerate 

 nature and he had to toil for a living. But 

 he had a means provided for him whereby he 

 might renew his moral relations to his maker 

 and again brintj himself into harmony with 

 his Creator. This the church has preached 

 to him throughout the ages and endeavored 

 to lead him back to God. But what about 

 his outward surroundings when he does come 

 back? 



If God intended man to dwell as a perfect 

 creature amid perfect and beauteous surround- 

 ings what does he expect of him when he 

 seeks to be restored to his higher condition 

 in his moral relations ? If the fruit of the 

 vine and the fig tree were necessary to his 

 perfect life, and the paradise of flowers and 

 shubbery were his natural surroundings, 

 why are these things not essential to his 

 social, moral and physical happiness in his 

 regenerated nature ? In accepting the attone- 

 ment in order that he may bring himself into 

 moral harmony again with his Creator as he 

 performed more than half his obligation to be 

 performed — that is to surround himself with 

 the fruits and flowers and all the beauties in 

 nature which God had given him — where does 

 the obligation of the church lie ? 



Has it not been the experience of every 

 horticultural lecturer to hear the excuse given 

 for the small attendance at local society 

 meetings that there is something going on in 

 some of the churches ? Has it not been the 

 experience of every horticultural society that 

 they caunot get the people, and especially the 

 young people, to attend their flower shows 

 because of some, perhaps unimportant social 

 function in some of the churches ? If there is 

 a circus coming to town, or a horse race, or 

 anj' other manner of entertainment of suspic- 

 ious morals or questional influen'^es the 

 church will naturally feel it its duty to preach 

 against it and exhort its people to keep away. 

 This is the duty of the church universally 

 acknowledged even by those who heed not its 

 exhortations. But when the people of a com- 

 unity provide an attraction that is really 

 refining, socially and really elevating, and in 

 every sense instructing, by collecting together 

 an aggregation of fruit, and fiower and plant 

 and shrub, the best and most beautiful in 

 nature the church cannot lift their voices 



417 



