STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 35 



OUR FIRST FIELD .AIEETIXG— WHAT WE SAW— 

 W^HAT W^E WANT TO REMEMBER. 



Prof. Elijah Cook. 



In visiting the hospital grounds yesterday we saw a great 

 many things that must have a more or less lasting effect upon 

 our minds. We saw the grounds beautifully laid out ; laid out 

 with a great deal of taste and good judgment and the grounds 

 nicely kept. We saw them adorned with plants and flowers in 

 great profusion, and we could but feel a great deal of pride in 

 the fact that the Pine Tree State has an institution of so much 

 real merit, so nicely conducted and so ably cared for in every 

 respect. 



The strawberry, the best fruit, as has been said, that God ever 

 made, is there cultivated to a large extent for the use of the 

 patients who are found in the asylum, and I think the surround- 

 ings of those patients as they look out upon the grounds, or walk 

 over the grounds, must have a great influence over them. Their 

 environment must have a great deal to do in restoring the mind 

 to its normal condition. Our surroundings always affect us 

 more or less and with such surroundings as the patients have 

 there, had they enjoyed them from their youth up, it may be it 

 would have kept them from the sad calamity that has befallen 

 them. 



It is a thought that cannot be too deeply impressed upon us, 

 that the flowers and fruit that God gave us in such abundance are 

 calculated to give health to the mind and body. The more our 

 thoughts are absorbed by the beauties of nature the more they 

 are taken from those perplexing or serious subjects that make 

 the patient insane. Every flower is a tender thought of the 

 Creator to the created, and the surroundings have a great deal to 

 do with the character of the individual ; a great deal to do with 

 the man or woman in after life. 



We saw there also a magnificent farm, one of the best in the 

 State ; the best perhaps in the State. A farm conducted upon 

 scientific principles ; a farm provided with almost everything to 



