68 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



too many laws, and then look to the national forests which are 

 daily becoming less and less. There is a bill now in the Senate 

 on the care of the national domain, so far as forests are concerned, 

 and though it might not be practicable to pass it during the 

 present Congress, the committee would have all the more time to 

 work. 



Rev. A. B. Muzzey said that the subject before the Society is 

 very important and of very wide interest. The indifference to it 

 in Congress arises from want of intelligence. He wanted to see 

 it made a matter of education. If we begin with the children we 

 shall do one of the grandest works ; whenever he walks out with 

 his grandson he tries to teach him to be interested in trees. "We 

 want our farmers every one to be interested in this matter. He 

 was in favor of having the subject brought into the schools ; every 

 boy should be interested in the culture of trees for his own sake 

 as among the grandest and noblest productions of Nature. The 

 subject is legitimate!}' within the scope of this Society, but he 

 would like to have a society for the protection of trees. 



F. L. Temple said that the best place to start the crusade in 

 behalf of trees is in the text-books of the common schools. No 

 persons recognize the value of trees unless they have had a part in 

 raising them. People injure other people's trees as well as their 

 own. He had a j^oung German at work for him who surprised 

 him b}' his knowledge of trees, and when he inquired how he 

 obtained it the answer was that he was taught it at school. 



A vote of thanks to Mr. Harrison was unanimously passed for 

 his instructive and interesting paper. 



M. B. Faxon, Secretary of the Committee on Window Garden- 

 ing, stated that that Committee had found a most encouraging 

 interest in their work. They had received donations of money 

 and fertilizers to promote it, and would publish a large edition of 

 a pamphlet giving directions for window gardening. Mr. Chase, 

 of the same Committee, spoke of the refining influence of window 

 gardening which he had observed in his experience as a teacher. 

 It made discipline easier. The thanks of the Society were voted 

 to those who had contributed to aid in the work of the Window 

 Gardening Committee. 



