STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 38 



trimmed lawn, and with vine and plant and flower so arranged as to 

 give a fine setting, like a picture both beautiful and restful. The 

 time was when the lilac, the cinnamon rose and the Boston pink 

 played a prominent part in the adornment of countr}^ homes, but that 

 day has long since passed and it is only because these things were 

 perennial, hardy, deep rooted and strong rooted, like the ideas that 

 once prevailed, that we have any evidence that a house once stood 

 on the forsaken and otherwise barren spot we gaze upon. How 

 many such spots there are and what sad thoughts arise as we view 

 these tender reminders of the old homesteads, now deserted or 

 utterh' gone to ruin. 



I remember of climbing a few years ago one of those immense 

 foothills to old Abram in company with a friend, and how upon our 

 descent my companion pointed out to me such a spot and said ''here 

 stood a house once and here was born and reared a lad who is now 

 one of the most noted preachers in the land. You would scarcely 

 think," said he, "that such a man could spring from such a place." 

 "No, r should not," I answered. The land was rough, stony and 

 rugged, and yet we know that often it is from just such rugged sur- 

 roundings that some of our most prominent and useful men have 

 had their birth and earliest education. What part in the wide 

 range of sentiment the lilac, the cinnamon rose or the Boston pink 

 could have played in the lives of some of our greatest preachers, 

 poets and authors we cannot tell ; we know onlj' that the}' did act a 

 part and for the influence they did have let us ever hold them in 

 sweet remembrance. 



We do not care to perpetuate a dead past. Times have changed. 

 The sentiment of the age is progressive. The spirit of improve- 

 ment which animates the mind of the village or city resident and 

 prompts him to remove old fences and everything that is offensive 

 or unsightly ; to grade his grounds evenly ; to lay them out artisti- 

 cally and adorn them with a few choice plants and flowers, is mani- 

 festly on the increase and is certainly to be commended by ever}' 

 lover of the beautiful. 



That there is a growing sentiment in the rural districts of remov- 

 ing altogether road-side fences and clearing the lands adjacent to 

 the highways of all unsightly bushes, stones, weeds and rubbish, and 

 cultivating the same in connection with previously enclosed lands is 

 very evident. I say growing, for such is the fact. In some towns 

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