108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



unaljle to obtain fresh vegetables and well-ripened fruit, why 

 it is that the farmer's table is so poorly supplied with these 

 luxuries, so easily grown, and which afford such a large 

 amount of health-giving food. No country home can be 

 complete without flowers. They help the weary to rest, 

 they are company for the sick and lonely, and help to cheer 

 the downcast and afHicted. Flowers in a room will do what 

 nothing else can accomplish, — a single rose lights up a room. 

 The cultivation of flowers may not add to the Ijank account, 

 yet the happiness and good which they aflbrd will well re- 

 pay their cultivation, and their little blossoms contain a 

 passport that gives them entrance into all hearts. 



" In palace and in hovel, in science and in art, 

 They speak of love and beauty, they cheer the lonely heart ; 

 They work their mission, given by their creator God, 

 Who planted them in beauty on many a velvet sod. 

 They never grow weary of the work they have to do, 

 But bud and bloom, in beauty so faithful and so true ; 

 And in the coming ages, as knowledge holdeth sway, 

 Will be added laurels to the flowers of to-day." 



Music shoukl not be forgotten or neglected. It should 

 occupy its place and form one of the principal entertainments 

 of the home circle. A piano, organ, violin or other musical 

 instrument adds greatly to the pleasures of the home. Then 

 give the children singing-books and teach them their use. 

 It cannot be expected or desired that all the boys and girls 

 will j'emain upon the farm. The men and women that were 

 born and l)rought up on the farm give to the city its health 

 and life. More than one-half of our presidents, statesmen, 

 clergymen, professors and merchants, received their early 

 education upon the farm. They grew upon the hills and in 

 the valleys, surrounded with the noble work of nature ; they 

 there gained the power to accomplish what they have in life. 

 The city and country are bound closely together by ties that 

 can never be broken. Our country homes will grow and 

 educate for the nation, its presidents, statesmen, clergymen, 

 etc. ; they may give to the western cities and prairies a part, 

 but retain the best upon the farms of New England. 



There is one evil that is bcins^ felt in New England to- 



