82 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1893. 



day to day, and realizes that he has been instrumental in producing 

 so much beauty and sweetness. 



In life we get more real pleasure and enjoyment out of the close 

 friendship of a few and congenial friends than out of a multitude of 

 casual acquaintances. 



So with flowers, when we have watched and tended a lovely rose, a 

 delicate pansy, a gorgeous geranium, or a graceful lily, until we are 

 familiar with its every bud, stem and leaf, we appreciate its beauty 

 and cherish and love it with a feeling akin to human affection. By 

 the proper use and arrangement of flowers the home grounds can be 

 made beautiful and fair to see. They are a sign of good taste and 

 culture, and when we see the outward surroundings of a home made 

 attractive by flowers, grass and trees, we know that its inmates are 

 refined and given to orderly habits. Some people, especially in the 

 country, are too busy, or think they are, to spend any time in the 

 culture of flowers, and consequently we often find the most beautiful 

 home grounds in cities and villages. This ought not to be so. In 

 the country there is abundant room for the embellishment of the 

 home grounds by the natural products of the soil. 



It is not so much a question of money as it is a disposition and 

 desire coupled with good taste, and when these are found in a country 

 home, however humble it may be, they result in making it beautiful 

 without as well as within. 



In this matter of the ornamentation of our home grounds we need 

 to remember that Rome was not built in a day. We live on the high 

 pressure principle, and do nearly everything in a hurry. When we 

 purchase a new place, or make up our minds to fix up the old one, we 

 want to have everything we contemplate doing completed as soon as 

 possible. We are unwilling to make our improvements little by little 

 until our ideal has been reached ; and so we make our plans and exe- 

 cute them with railroad speed. In this way we sometimes smooth 

 down the rough places and cover up barrenness with great rapidity ; 

 but we sometimes make great mistakes, and deprive ourselves of the 

 great enjoyment which ever follows our successful efforts in making 

 progress slowly in the right direction. All the good and beautiful 

 things in our homes, from the children to the books and pictures, are 

 appreciated and enjoyed by us in proportion to the time and care we 

 have expended in their study, or in their bringing up. 



The cultivation of fiowers is also a source of health and strength 

 to those who engage in the work at reasonable times, and in a proper 

 way. A reasonable amount of manual labor and exercise is abso- 



