42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1900. 



honor, gives a special law of life that we call the " Golden 

 Rule," so that in our moral conduct we may be protected from 

 evil. Now, I have a golden rule for the garden, formulated for 

 the Springfield people, and it is as good down here in Worces- 

 ter as it was in Springfield. If a thing is worth doing at all it 

 is worth doing well. There are some flowers in some gardens 

 that are a disgrace to the people who planted them, and never 

 cared for them after they planted them. 



I believe every person who wants a garden should have a 

 picture of that garden framed in his soul, and then should study 

 to know the nature of the flowers and try to make that picture 

 come true. Then we should have a garden worth living in and 

 worth looking at. 



The wise man said, " Let your moderation be known to all 

 men." I have seen flowers in mobs; I have met flower glut- 

 tons ; and I heard once — I have forgotten whether it was a negro 

 or an Irishman, but either one or the other will serve the pur- 

 pose of the story, — who when asked how much ground he had, 

 said " Half an acre"; and describing what he had in it, he said 

 he had a quarter of an acre in potatoes and a quarter of an acre 

 in corn and a quarter of an acre in parsnips and a quarter of an 

 acre of something else. Some one asked him how he managed 

 to plant a quarter of an acre of potatoes and a quarter of an 

 acre of corn and a quarter of an acre of parsnips and a quarter 

 of an acre of something else when he had only half an acre of 

 ground, and he answered and said that he set the ground up 

 edgewise and planted it on both sides. I have seen people who 

 would almost serve their grounds and gardens in the same way. 

 I believe that flowers, like men and women, should have plenty 

 of elbow room and an opportunity to show all the good and 

 beauty and power there is in them. The overcrowded garden 

 is almost always a mistake. A garden that gives to everything 

 you plant in it an opportunity to develop, as well as to a wise 

 arrangement of the things that you plant — this is the model 

 garden, when things are looked after as well as you are able. 



I will sit down, although I could keep on talking for another 

 hour on that subject, but if I were to sit down just like this, 



