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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



societies have taken up the neglected work 

 of making the home more attractive. 



Horace Greeley, in his admirable essay 

 on farm life, says that the best investment a 

 farmer can make for his family is that 

 which surrounds their youth with the ra- 

 tional delights of a beauteous and attractive 

 home. This is as true of the town and city 

 home as of the rural home. Whatever the 

 conditions or larger environments, there is 

 no spot that so deeply concerns the welfare 

 of mankind as the home. Where the child 

 is nurtured there the foundation of his char- 

 acter is laid ; and upon the influences of 

 early home life depends largely the charac- 

 ter of the manhood and womanhood we are 

 producing. And upon that character de- 

 pends the character of the nation or coun- 

 try. A country is just what the people 

 make it, with the advantages they possess.. 

 Canada is to-day just what we make it. In 

 another generation it will be whatever our 

 children make it. What they may be then 

 depends largely on the influences we throw 

 about them now in their home life. 



The work of the horticultural societies is 

 the education of the aesthetic side of life, the 

 development and culture of the finest in- 

 stincts in our being. Why do our children 

 love flowers? Why do they delight to go 

 to the valleys and to the mountain sides to 

 gather wild flowers? The love of flowers 

 in the child is an instinct as inherent and as 

 clearly defined as the instinct of worship. 

 It is a tenet of Eden in perpetuity, as our 

 poet puts it, ancj it seeks gratification in the 

 vallies and woodlands to-day as it found it 

 in its Eden surroundings at the dawn of 

 creation. The religious instinct of the 

 cbild is developed by bringing him into con- 

 tact with his creator and under the influence 

 of His divine will. His love of nature Is 

 developed by bringing him into contact with 

 nature, and under the influence of her visi- 

 ble forms. We cannot get too close to na- 



ture ourselves, nor can our children be 

 brought too near to nature's most refining 

 influences in their earlier years. They go 

 to the woods to gather flowers with as true 

 an instinct as they go to the cupboard to 

 gratify their hunger. The purpose of the 

 horticultural societies is to bring that grati- 

 fication to them. Every flower about the 

 home has its influence upon child life. 

 Wordsworth says in every flower, Tenny- 

 son says in every shapely tree, and Emerson 

 says in every running brook there is com- 

 panionship for man. We may not have the 

 running bTook, but we can all have the flow- 

 ers and the shapely trees, with all their ad- 

 juncts in shrubbery and grassy lawn. 



We cannot make home too attractive. 

 Horace Greeley has again said that no ex- 

 penditure pays a man better than that which 

 makes his family fond and proud of their 

 home. The highest order of patriotism to 

 be found among mankind is that which felt 

 its first impulses in the love of home. 

 Teach a child to love his home by making it 

 attractive, and he will grow up to love his 

 country. This should be the aim of every 

 horticultural society, to make a Canadian 

 patriot of every Canadian child. Love jf 

 nature ; love of home ; love of country ; love 

 of God, And yet I found a few societies 

 during my tour in the spring investing their 

 means in seed potatoes and giving prizes for 

 farm and garden truck, with not a thought 

 of their homes, their village streets, their 

 school grounds, or even their front fences. 

 What wonder that some of our members at 

 different points went out on strike ! 



THE ORILLIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Orillia Times says: The record of 

 the Orillia Horticultural Society, as given 

 by Mr. Stephens in connection with the 

 meeting held at Mayor McCosh's last week, 

 affords full justification for its continued 

 existence. It has been doing, in a quiet 



