1899.] ESSAYS. 7 



Ki:v. Mil. KENT. 



You cjin (iikc .'I iiiinistci" l)y surprise souietiiues, and your 

 President has certainly taken me by surprise. 1 do not feel 

 like talking to you on Horticulture when there are so many 

 gentlemen here who can talk to you so much better than I can. 

 In giving my talk on roses I only spoke of their relations to 

 me. I had a dozen of my boys learn to solder, so that when 

 their mothers' kettles needed mending they could solder them. 

 When I liv^ed in Illinois, there was a young man who came to 

 take charge of a church there. It was a village with about 400 

 people and 600 pigs. The pigs and the people seemed to be 

 very friendly with one another, they certainly shared the same 

 door-yard. Well, when this young man came, he started a 

 little garden in the door-yard. I believe that his Howers did 

 more good and saved more souls than his preaching did. The 

 next year the women wanted to make their door-yards look 

 pretty, and commenced to build fences to keep the pigs out. 

 The people improved very much after they ceased to associate 

 with the pigs. And so your Society, by its exhibition of 

 flowers, has done nmch to elevate the people. 



EDWARD W. BREED, Clinton. 



As we review Horticulture for the past few years, we find there 

 have been many valuable additions made, although, in many 

 instances, new varieties only serve to adorn catalogues. Their 

 chief value lies in the fact that they are novelties. 



There are, however, many desirable acquisitions, from which 

 I have selected the following : 



Trees. 



Cornus Florida Rubra. — The flowers of this variety are a 

 deep rose-color and are freely produced. The tree is a fit com- 

 panion for the white flowering dogwood. 



Larix Kaempferii. — This is a Japanese variety that makes a 

 slow dense ijrowth with \\2hi soft-irreen foliao;e. While it is not 



