56 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



artistic enjoyment in the development of parks, pleasure gardens, 

 and other esthetic surroundings. 



Both these divisions react according to conditions of the wealth 

 and welfare of the people. As men prosper, so do we find them 

 enjoying more and more the delights of beauty and luxury in their 

 surroundings. And so we may ask ourselves fairly, how do we as a 

 people stand today? Are we richer or poorer? What are our 

 resources, and how is our present condition likely to react on the 

 horticultural interests? The president of the National City Bank 

 of New York in a recent magazine asks this same question in regard 

 to the general reaction. He says: 



" Do you recall the gloomy predictions which many men made 

 when the war broke out? They said that the wealth which had 

 been accumulated would be swept away; that the world would be 

 set back a hundred years; that the billions that would be spent 

 would be pure waste; that we would exhaust our wealth, and have 

 nothing to show for it but debts. Is it true that we have exhausted 

 our wealth? I do not think so. 



" There are three kinds of wealth : first, there are natural resources 

 — forests, minerals, and water power, and so on; second, there is 

 wealth in the form of production and distribution agencies — 

 factories, equipments, railways, ships, and so on; third, there is 

 what is called consumable wealth in the form of goods on hand — 

 such as food, clothing, and all the things we use in living. 



"Our natural resources have been more highly developed; new 

 mines have been opened; food production has been stimulated; 

 more land has been brought under cultivation. 



" Undoubtedly there is a balance on the credit side to the second 

 class of wealth — factory buildings as equipment and so forth. 



" The pessimist lays emphasis on the depletion of the third kind 

 of wealth. It is true that some stocks have been heavily drawn 

 down, but this is only a temporary and not vital thing. It is not 

 the amount of goods on hand that counts most, it is the ability to 

 keep up a flow of goods. Our power of production is greater than 

 ever before. We have increased our productive power in many of 

 our old industries and have started some entirely new ones. It 

 is the power to produce efficiently upon which emphasis should 

 be laid." 



