STATK POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. lOI 



products of higher ideals. But man himself is a product of 

 environment and without natural influences which are in them- 

 selves elevating and stimulating these institutions of which we 

 are justly proud could not have been attained. The same 

 climate wdiich paints the cheek of the apple and gives perfume 

 to the rose instills into its inhabitants an appreciation for all the 

 higher things of life. 



As we consider the possibilities of the country in which we 

 live, the productiveness of the soil, the variety of the vegetation 

 which it is capable of supporting and the utility of these 

 products we are not living up to our opportunity when we fail 

 to provide fruit, flowers, and vegetables for the table and shade 

 and shelter for the home. 



CIVIC IMPROVEMENT— WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN 

 OTHER STATES. 



By Mrs. Emma Dow Armstrong, President Maine Federation 

 Women's Clubs, Lewiston, Maine. 



This subject upon which I am asked to speak tonight is not a 

 new idea at all any more than is the other topic of which we hear 

 so much, the woman's club movement, which I have the honor 

 to represent. Then we also hear much about the "new woman" 

 herself, but the latter, like the former, is the same sort of woman 

 that her mother and grandmother were before her — the same 

 devoted home-keeper and home-maker, the same unselfish 

 mother of boys and girls, only perhaps with this difference, she 

 keeps in touch with husband and children through her larger 

 opportunity. As to the clubs and the civic improvement work, 

 they are old — women never. In order of precedence comes the 

 village improvement society and then the woman's club not far 

 behind. So my text should be "There is nothing new under the 

 sun," and the misleading word, new, disappears. This civic 

 improvement idea is but the education of men. women and 

 children to appreciate, enjoy and help along the movement 

 toward a cleaner and better kept city or town or village, a more 

 beautiful environment for the home and the citv dweller. 



