58 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



if you can have the leaves stay on until the natural time 

 for the bush to shed in September or October, shovi^ing that 

 the plant is healthy, your crop the next year will be good, 

 other things being equal. That is so with both the currant 

 and gooseberry, and I have found no exception to this rule." 

 At this point the president introduced the next speaker of 

 the afternoon, the well-known horticulturist, Hon. Charles W. 

 Garfield, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In a most admirable 

 address, Mr. Garfield discussed the subject of "Signs of the 

 Times in Horticulture." 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES IN HORTICULTURE 



After the long and weary voyage, fraught with discourage- 

 ments, nearly checkmated by a mutinous crew, the words 

 announced from the lookout which put heart and life into 

 every one, opened a bright promise for the future and united 

 all in one great purpose upon those feeble vessels commanded 

 by Columbus were, "Land ahead." 



From that time to this this same expression, although used 

 often as a byword, has meant a great deal in times of despair, 

 has brought light into darkness and changed discouragement 

 into hope. To-day, amid all the disturbances in the commercial 

 world, all the anxieties connected with statecraft, there is a 

 feeling among most thoughtful people that there is safety in 

 looking toward the land. The tendency to center everything 

 in the towns must be changed, or the congestion will breed 

 ill health. Wisdom, discretion and a long look ahead all unite 

 in the feeling of safety which comes with the growing popularity 

 of rural life. Downing's advice, given more than fifty years 

 ago, came too early to enter into the purposes of men in this 

 country, but that counsel was made a purpose in England, and 

 the result of it was that land -holding became popular; the 

 cultivator of the soil became the leader of affairs ; the farmers 

 became something more than the bone and sinew' of the land: 

 they were the nerves also. 



In a recent number of "The Outlook " the Spectator men- 

 tions this difference of feeling with regard to the promises of 

 rural life between England and the United States, and empha- 



