180 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



shelves of every horticulturist who has a soul for the history and 

 literature of his favorite recreation." 



Professor Shaler, in " The Popular Science News," refers to the 

 rare opportunity which the agriculturist has for cultivating within 

 him that habit of " questioning nature." He says : " The degree to 

 which the questioning of nature may be associated with the occu- 

 pation of a man must manifestly vary, in a great measure, accord- 

 ing to the nature of his vocation. Fortunately for the interests of 

 the better culture, more than one half of the men and women of 

 the world must always be in contact with the soil, — with that realm 

 where nature is most active, and where she teaches the most." 

 " What is needed is that a man should be informed concerning 

 the nature of the creatures with which he deals ; that he should 

 know the laws of plant life and of animal function, so that he does 

 nothing unintelligently, or without the sense of the truth which is 

 before him. From the creation of this spirit of inquiry, we may 

 not only hope for a new mental state in the agriculturist, but for a 

 vast measure of benefit in the economic results which he seeks to 

 attain " 



Professor Shaler also speaks with keen insight and apprecia- 

 tion when he adds: "Thus we may make men and women feel 

 the comforting sense which comes from the understanding of the 

 world about them." 



Let us say in passing that if ever our now naked islands in the 

 harbor here are to be covered with trees, and the bleak headlands 

 made green with welcoming verdure, to gladden the eye of one 

 who comes a stranger to oar shores, all this and kindred results 

 which beautify and adorn barren places must come from the culti- 

 vation in the people at large of just that aesthetic sentiment which 

 it is one of the legitimate aims, duties, and privileges of such a 

 society as yours to secure, and they are to secure it by this 

 fertilizing process that I have been talking about ; to secure it 

 first to themselves, individually, and as a society ; then, through 

 their influence, example, and advocacy, to impart it to the com- 

 munity around them. 



Thus will you, as a society, from one side help to create that 

 " pure, fresh atmosphere," which, with " the breezes of a higher 

 intellectual culture " sweeping away the mists, shall exalt the 

 meaning of life to the artist, to the merchant and the laborer, as 

 well as to the solitary scholar. 



Turn now to " Moral Fertilizers." You can by this time 



