106 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



HOME GROUNDS; OR, OUR HOMES AND HOW TO 

 IMPROVE THEM. 



By John G. Barker, Jamaica Plains, Mass. 



All great social improvements are from the nature of the case 

 made slowly. A love for the good and beautiful cannot be formed 

 in a few weeks or months ; it must be the growth of years, and in 

 no case is it more true than in respect to horticulture. Did you ever 

 see a child, whether raised in the city or country, that was not over- 

 joyed at the appearance of the first spring flower of the opening 

 season? Yet as the life of that child advances, in order to be suc- 

 cessful through life, these tastes must be developed and strength- 

 ened, and there must be opportunities and means for their cultiva- 

 tion, or there can be very little hopes of success. Hence, from an 

 educational point of view, 3'ou have provided schools with all the 

 modern appliances, second to none on our continent, and by so 

 doing you show to our citizens and the world that you do not expect 

 our children to grow up scholars without schools or books. We 

 have in Boston a great love for horticulture, and I hope you have in 

 Maine, but because that love and taste for the good and beautiful 

 exist, shall we be content to stop where we are? By no means. 

 Our motto must be progress. Washington said that agriculture is 

 the most healthful, the most useful, and the most noble employment 

 of man, and certainly horticulture is akin to it, for I am sure I do 

 not know where to draw the line between agriculture and horticulture. 

 What a source of pleasure it must be to those who have their little 

 plot of ground to cultivate, and how many hours of pure enjoyment 

 are spent therein, and how great the loss to those who have never 

 had their little plot. At this very season of the year have 3'ou not 

 witnessed how many windows there are filled with plants and flowers? 

 Go where you please 3'Ou find them, and b}' these means a taste for 

 flowers is formed, and every means should be extended to increase 

 and encourage their cultivation, both as to window gardening and 

 outdoors cultivation, by offering prizes by local societies forjthe best 

 examples of each, timely advice what to grow, with perhaps an essay 

 on the subject, to be followed by proposing and answering'questions. 

 Let me give you an example. In the year 1885 the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society offered a prize of twenty dollars for the best 



