92 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



their bread in cities, even as it is driving them from the prairie 

 and the uplands today, to the reeking factory towns and the intol- 

 erable tenements. Savage men and women struggled with nature 

 to wTest from her food, clothing, and shelter. In the pastoral 

 stage of civilization men and women worked side by side in the 

 open, in order to force from nature the necessities of life. In the 

 agricultural stage, farming was the chief occupation though the 

 men, in addition, often followed the trades of shoemaker, black- 

 smith, carpenter, etc., and the women worked in the dairy, cai-ed 

 for the poultry, were the bakers and brewers, the dyers, spin- 

 ners, and weavers. Both men and women by force of circum- 

 stances had eye, ear, and hand fitted to do with precision the task 

 required in order to support life. 



We are now in the beginning of another epoch-marking change, 

 for the race in its upw^ard climb is entering the industrial stage of 

 civilization, but the w^arfare does not cease. Domestic production 

 has given place to factory production, and, in consequence, men, 

 women, and children have left the farm to work in the factories. 

 They are crowding into the cities to live in an environment of 

 brick and mortal", where sordid surroundings too often crush out 

 the impulse toward a higher life. In these early years of indus- 

 trialism, as in the past, the undeveloped soul of man fails to see 

 in the glories of sunset sky and the blue depths of heaven the 

 joys of existence. The poets have always been seers and through- 

 out the ages have called man's attention to the wealth and pro- 

 digality of beauty everywhere in evidence, and have dwelt upon 

 the perfection attainable by man when he should see that "nature 

 is but a name for an effect whose cause is God." In the history 

 of human progress, however, the black and bitter wanter of unrest, 

 discontent, and change always heralds the gracious springtime 

 with healing in its wings. 



Through this period of echpse we are j^assing, but as the rain- 

 bow in the ancient story stands eternal in the heavens as a proof 

 that seedtime and harvest shall not fail, so we realize that this 

 return to nature is the visible sign of man's awakened conscious- 

 ness to right ideals, w^hich exists as an irresistible undercurrent, 

 despite the apparent materialism of the age. This makes every 

 thoughtful person watch with the keenest joy, in this swiftly 



