85 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



helps the whole. We are all of us more or less in need of 

 reformation. We all have capacities for good only partially 

 developed ; all have finer natures than we have half lived up to. 

 We recognize the value of all those influences that can stir these 

 into full life. Music and art have begun their ministry. The 

 power of architecture is just beginning to be felt in America. 

 One of the most efifective agencies for good has had little oppor- 

 tunity to show its power in those sections where it is most 

 needed — nature. 



^jJ 'K ^» -1' H^ -K -1^ ^ 



It is a suggestive fact that in the parts of our cities where 

 poverty, intemperance and crime are most prevalent, there are 

 no parks in which the grass and trees can speak their messages. 

 In the part of Boston where the population is most dense and 

 vicious a little abandoned burying ground is the only bit of 

 green, and all the large and beautiful parks of New York are 

 massed in the upper part of the city where the wealthy live. We 

 who have the plants and trees always with us cannot under- 

 stand how much they contribute to the joys of life nor how 

 closely they are associated with our best and holiest qualities. 

 The little child forgets its fear of a stranger as it eagerly siezes 

 the flowers in his outstretched hands ; the hard and cynical face 

 of the prisoner is softened to tears as he receives a bunch of 

 flowers from a compassionate visitor ; the modern prodigal turns 

 his footsteps homeward in penitence as the sight of some simple 

 flower calls his thoughts back to the old-fashioned garden his 

 mother tended in the days of his innocent boyhood ; the poet 

 turns away from the haunts of man and the things of his crea- 

 tion to find inspiration for his choicest rhymes under the shelter- 

 ing branches of some grand old tree in nature's voiceless solitude. 



=1; , * * * * * * * 



There is no place for coarseness or vulgarity in the heart of 

 him who has learned to love and appreciate the works of nature. 

 He who keeps a grassy lawn, borders it with trees and brightens 

 it here and there with flowers, is a philanthropist. He who can 

 and will not, is guilty of crime. But we have no jurisdiction 

 over him. Only by the gentle compelling of education and 

 example can we work his cure. But the public places are ours, 

 ours and posterity's. Let us make them beautiful with nature's 

 offerings. Long after you are forgotten by those who frequent 

 them, everv tree and shrub with its tireless voice will be revealing 

 the wondrous beauty and love of Him who gave life alike to 

 them and us. 



