34 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



February, 1908 



our citizens than this upon God's Acre. 



Some of the funds belonging to our 

 society have been expended in various 

 ways along the line of civic improve- 

 ment. Ornamentation of public build- 

 ings with blooming boxes and hanging 

 baskets has been done. The society has 

 helped to prepare the way for beautify- 

 ing the grounds about the place, which 

 is conspicuous when we are leaving our 

 homes and returning to them again at 

 the season of travel. Our most recent 

 service was one in which we were asso- 

 ciated and assisted by one of the de- 

 partments of the Dominion Government. 

 A waterway leads from our town to the 

 Rideau, which again opens on the one 

 side to the St. Lawrence River and 

 on the other to the Ottawa. The basin 

 at our end is the head of navigation. 

 The banks were unkempt. But now 

 the government of Canada and the 

 Perth Horticultural Society, having 

 joined hands in the enterprise, there is 

 a new order of things since the banks of 

 the Tay were subjected to the skill and 

 culture of the landscape decorator. 



These are sample instances of what 

 has been done in a single place. Ex- 

 penditures for kindred purposes in places 

 where other conditions obtain would 

 seem to be the advantage of the localities 

 and in keeping with the right trend of 

 horticultural society endeavor. 



Taking a wider outlook it appears to 

 me that open doors are presented to us 

 in the three following directions: 



1 . We should be free to expend money 

 to bring in men and women who are 

 capable of making the public platform 



calling is time-honored and respecting, 

 but it is too bad, inasmuch as right 

 gardening is intellectual employment, 

 that so many fine acres should be locked 

 up because so many operators on the soil 

 are uninitiated and uninformed. There 

 is a power in the living voice of an in- 

 terested personality who will provoke 

 enquiries from the platform and send 

 audiences away with a new charm for 

 the most beautiful, most useful and 

 most noble employment of man. 



2. There was never a time in the his- 

 tory of Canada when there was so 

 significant a call to furnish our people 

 with reliable and inspiring horticultural 

 matter through the printed page as that 

 which we have come to just now. The 

 intelligence of the Canadian, I believe, 

 forbids the success of any venture in 

 publication that is characterized by 

 what is scrappy or second-hand. There 

 is a great deal that is hopeful in the tone 

 and talent which we read through some 

 of our Canadian journals that devote 

 themselves wholly or partially to the 

 agricultural or horticultural cause. May 

 these broaden and prosper! I, for one, 

 have great expectations of our Canadian 

 Horticulturist. All honor to those 

 in the earlier days who brought it up to 

 what it is to-day. But from this on 

 everything should be done that lies in 

 the power of our officials and member- 

 ship to enlarge its constituency, to 

 brighten its articles, to fortify its editors, 

 and to furnish for our people in this part 

 of the world the ripest and best in horti- 

 culture. We want this magazine to be 

 first in its line, and I believe we have 



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Countless Effects May Be Produced in Landscape Art 



a disseminating place for healthy horti- 

 cultural information. Dr. L. H. Bailey 

 tells of an owner of land who, not know- 

 ing reasons for anything, has no inspira- 

 tion, and goes fishing. The fisherman's 



the conditions in Canada for making it 

 that. 



3. At the risk of being less definite 

 than I should like to be in this conclud- 

 ing reference, I take advantage of this 



i 



opportunity to express my own concern, 

 as well as the concern of other thinking 

 men, if the present school books of the 

 province are to be changed, that the 

 new ones should have a conspicuous 

 place for the first enterprise of the na- 

 tion. Military training in the public 

 schools in the Maritime Provinces is 

 spoken of as part of a plan about to be 

 executed. If in the Maritime Provinces, 

 why not in all the provinces? If boys 

 and girls in Nova Scotia are to have 

 special instruction in the science of kill- 

 ing men, let Ontario, and the sister 

 provinces on to the Pacific Ocean, be 

 made proficient in it as well, the prayer 

 going up all the while that we may never 

 be called to put it into exercise. 



Next to the work of saving men's souls 

 in Canada, I can conceive of no more 

 important work to be done during this 

 generation than the training of our chil- ; 

 dren into appreciation of the Creator's 

 gift in the soil, and in the best use of 

 that gift both for the development of a 

 sturdy Canadian manhood, and for the 

 enlightened projection of our country's 

 chief resource. We receive from the 

 government of the province a part of 

 our wherewith for promoting the horti- 

 cultural cause. We look for the utiliza- 

 tion of some of the moneys contributed 

 by the Province of Ontario exchequer 

 in laying new and improved foundations 

 with our sons and daughters by means of 

 the very best procurable lessons in the 

 new series. It may be too early to go 

 into detail. But if a forecast would be 

 pertinent, it may not be inopportune to 

 write here the expectation that when the 

 new series of readers for public schools 

 of the province shall have taken the 

 place of those which have served their 

 dav. there will be afforded scope for 

 definite and rewarding considerations 

 of such fundamentals in the soil as drain- 

 age and tillage, as clover and fertilizer; 

 and that the right association will be set 

 forth for the twentieth century citizen- 

 ship in this Canadian realm between a 

 bed of asparagus and health, between a 

 perennial border and happiness, between 

 the "chief end of man" and a "watered 

 garden." 



I find many useful and instructive 

 articles in The Horticulturist. — H. F. 

 Leonard, City Clerk, Brantford. 



Cherry trees need but little pruning 

 affer the young tree .has been properly 

 formed. 



Renovating measures may be said to 

 assist in the judicious removal of feeble, 

 decaying tops and branches and in en- 

 couraging fresh root action. 



To have satisfactory results in the 

 flower garden, make your plans now. 

 Do not plan for more than you can 

 easily do. Quality is of more import- 

 ance than quantity. 



