228 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have l)een observed by careful students, but it has no limits ; it is 

 on and on and on — and the most patient and painstaking ob- 

 server, after the study of a long life, finds himself just entering 

 upon the threshold of his work. Artificial diversificution of fruit 

 and ilower may possibly be of modern origin, but natural hybridiza- 

 tion has been at work since the earliest development of plant life. 



It is by suggestions such as occur to the young when cultivating 

 an intimate relation with the vegeta])le economy that great possi- 

 bilities are generated — not only in the vegetable kingdom, but 

 throughout the world of matter. The primary school and the co- 

 operating higher institutions of learning can never la}' the founda- 

 tions of deep research in any other way. And this practical study 

 of the soil and its productions should not be limited to young 

 men — young women should share not onlj' in the vigor which 

 such practical work gives to the body, but in that which it affords 

 to the mind. Encouragement to strive for and seek the unattain- 

 ed but possible is no less valuable in developing a full womanhood 

 than in working out a complete manhood. 



Many of our leading educational institutions for women are in 

 advance of those for men, inasmuch as they insist on the perform- 

 ance of certain amounts of student labor in practical housekeep- 

 ing — making bread, cooking meats, washing dishes, and other 

 detail work — such as is required in the domestic economy. This 

 has proved a most attractive feature in the education at Vassar 

 and Welleslc}', and at other great leading female seminaries in 

 America. This might with great propriety and success be supple- 

 mented by practical horticulture, educating young ladies to pro- 

 duce their own flowers as well as to arrange bouquets. 



So good success has attended the practical work of housekeep- 

 ing as an educational measure, since its introduction into some of 

 our institutions, that young and middle aged women who have 

 heretofore failed to secure the benefit either of home or school 

 training in this direction have patronized and are now patroniz- 

 ing cooking schools ; which moreover are largely supported by well 

 recognized leaders in society in our large American cities. 



In a time when the value and necessity of this practical domes- 

 tic education is almost universally acknowledged, 1 am quite aston- 

 ished at finding a communication, published this present month, 

 in a leading religious paper in the cit}' of Boston, discouraging 

 any attempt or ambition of young ladies to qualify themselves for 



