74 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



any had been wantonly killed. People living in the neighbor- 

 hood and the man who takes care of the park remarked to me 

 that the children were not killing toads as in former years. 

 A boy was overheard to say: "The kids are not killing the 

 frogs as they did last year." I asked him why it was. "Oh," 

 he said, " they read something in the papers, I guess." 



I should have been satisfied, if such a result had been attained 

 in five or ten years ; but, here we had it within a month. Cer- 

 tainly nothing in recent years has given me more encouragement 

 and demonstrated more clearly the possibilities of rational edu- 

 cation than just this little circumstance. If we can keep it up 

 and have this kind of education in all lines of nature study we 

 can soon have a most remarkably comfortable city to live in, and 

 it would l)e worth in actual fruit, flowers and vegetables saved 

 to the community a large part of what our public schools are 

 costing. 



I mention these things in the hope that by appreciating the 

 wide range of our horticultural interests, by realizing their inti- 

 mate relations to the education of the young, we may as a 

 Society widen our sphere of influence to even more actively 

 encourage and support this living kind of knowledge, for which 

 we have done so much in the past. 



Turning to still another line of work, if possible, even more 

 specifically horticultural we may ask, How can we interest and 

 encourage children in the cultivation of fruits and flowers ? We 

 are often told that it is difficult to interest children in raising 

 flowers, and this is true. It is probably safe to say that horticul- 

 ture is a love which generally develops later in life. Still there 

 are many exceptions to this rule. We not infrequently find 

 children of even four, five and upwards with a veritable passion 

 for planting things, and I am inclined to think by beginning 

 young enough and by adopting suitable methods, we might not 

 only interest the children but establish in them a life-long love 

 for the culture of flowers and thus greatly increase the number 

 of amateur horticulturists in the city. 



For suggestions as to ways and methods to this end we may 

 cite again the policy by which this Society has kept its exhibits 



