1889.] TRANSACTIONS. 23 



search ; of the barrenness that would displace thrift and beauty, 

 were it to be determined that tlie Chinese and Japanese Flora 

 must be dispensed with once for all ! With much that is pecu- 

 liarly our own, to what forlorn desolation should we condemn 

 ourselves, were we to surrender those fruits of indefatigable toil 

 whereby Fortune and flog^ so lavishly enriched our gardens and 

 lawns ; crowning themselves, the while, with perennial laurel. It 

 may be that Hyacinths and Tulips would be of possible propaga- 

 tion in the muck of Peat, or Pine Meadows; or upon the sands 

 of May Street, by Pipeville. But is it not obvious that Drain-Tile 

 yield the better harvest ; wherefrom Drapers and Lovells gather 

 where they have strewn, fashioning that which they know how to 

 manufacture; leaving Holland to produce what the experience of 

 centuries and the tireless industry of a plodding race has suc- 

 ceeded in growing to a perfection that is, and must doubtless 

 continue, absolutely unrivalled ! 



The hoarse croak of the political vulture is that Home Indus- 

 try must be protected ! Is there no industry employed upon the 

 farm and garden ? Or is that old-fashioned virtue indicated 

 solely by tlie factory roll-call ? Is there no toil at seed-time and 

 harvest, or is its only emblem the miner's pick-axe ? Tax 

 one to extinction that thereby another may live and thrive ! In 

 plainer phrase, according to the terse old maxim : rob Peter to 

 pay Paul ! For instance, it has been proposed to levy a prohibi- 

 tory duty upon the importation of Tin-Plate, whereof not a 

 square foot is made in this country ! Could it be manufactured 

 at a profit, there is plenty of idle capital that would have been 

 applied to the task, long ago. But, besides the prospect of an as- 

 sured projBt, the lure of a monopoly undisturbed by competition 

 must be the attraction for unemployed money- Possibly you 

 may fancy that Horticulture would not be affected by such legis- 

 lation, and deem that your Secretary is hard pushed for an illus- 

 tration of what the bigot or purblind may decry as a partisan 

 argument ! Yet, — at a meeting of that most useful organization, 

 — the Western New York Horticultural Society, holden at Hoch- 

 ester, N. Y., in January of the current year, Mr. S. G. Curtice, 



