1896.] ESSAYS. 71 



throws away cuttings that distributed through the right liands would 

 be the means of brightening many a home. If the children of this 

 connuiniity learned that this Society offered prizes for gardens culti- 

 vated b}' them in common jjlaces, that a committee would visit these 

 yards to judge of the work done, it Avould be an incentive to many an 

 idle boy or girl to devote time to gardening, that otherwise would be 

 spent in what can be characterized by no other word than "loafing." 

 The improvement in the grounds of our railroad stations in country 

 places is due to prizes, and though it would be a higher motive for the 

 station master to make his grounds attractive from a love of the 

 beautiful rather than for a prize, still to the looker-on the lesson is 

 taught that gardens are possible even in unpromising situations and 

 are enjoyable. A society that undertakes such work as has been sug- 

 gested must have a committee that would enter upon it sympathetically, 

 assisting the amateur gardeners by advice, by judicious gifts of 

 plants, by heartfelt encourgement. It is not denied- that many chil- 

 dren may not care to have gardens, that there is little time for those 

 whose lives are largely given to drudgery to do more than labor for 

 their daily needs ; l)ut these conditions do not lessen the responsibility 

 of those who having leisure, and plants that they can give away, in 

 not making efforts to gladden the eyes of those whose outlook is often 

 but barren yards disfigured b}' rubbish. 



In a shady yard I have seen the roadside ferns, tiie osmundas, the 

 onaclea, varieties of the aspidium and of the asplenium, the maiden- 

 liair, the common polypodium and others grow in great luxuriance, 

 adorning what otherwise would have been a barren spot, for the place 

 was too shady for grass. When once a fern garden is commenced, 

 every walk in the country gives opportunity for adding to the varieties 

 already collected, and the enlargement of the garden becomes a 

 fascinating pursuit. In a section of my own city, traversed by many 

 working people, an attractive garden caused them often to stay their 

 steps to enjoy its flowers. 



That garden was the direct result of the influence which a neigh- 

 Ijor's well-cared-for grass plat exerted upon a l)oy. His family, caring 

 nothing for the beautiful, bent their energies to performing only the 

 work of life. The boy observed his neighbor's dooryard to be 

 different from his. Its attractiveness made him willing to work to 

 make his dull surroundings pretty. In time a lovely garden and fruit 

 trees rewarded his labors, and better than that lifted the boy out of 

 the common and coarse into the realm of the beautiful. 



Do not, then, members of this Society, believe that you are doing 



