STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 1 33 



An important mission of horticultural education, and this need 

 by no means be of college grade, is the creation of a new senti- 

 ment, a new atmosphere, about rural homes and rural affairs. 

 Children from the farm are often prejudiced against the farm 

 from their earliest period of recollection. They feel instinct- 

 ively that their lot is less attractive than that of their city cousins. 

 As they go to the towns and villages to attend high school, this 

 feeling of dissatisfaction is increased. 



There is no doubt that a neat lawn and a well-kept house, or 

 the contrary, may have quite as much influence in determining 

 the future of the boys and girls from farm homes as the amount 

 of hay per acre or the number of cows in the herd. If farm life 

 is made interesting, farm homes and surroundings made attract- 

 ive, farm boys and girls will become enthusiastic, activity will be 

 stimulated and profit will follow. This is not mere sentiment, 

 but a statement of fact which should appeal to the business sense 

 of every farmer in Maine. 



The mission of horticultural education then, especially in New 

 England, is by means of lectures, institute work, bulletins, and 

 correspondence, as well as in the class-room, to stimulate the 

 desire for better conditions in our rural homes ; to point out the 

 possibilities before young men and women in the direction of 

 improved rural conditions and of intensive culture of fruits and 

 vegetables and flowers from a practical point of view ; to wel- 

 come to a broader field and higher training those who would fit 

 themselves for leaders in either practical or scientific work along 

 horticultural lines ; to solve by careful experiment some of the 

 problems which confront the gardener, fruit grower, and home- 

 maker. 



