96 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



buckets of water and one baiTel of gypsum or plaster. This mix- 

 ture ma}' be allowed to stand a few weeks, or it may be used at 

 once if needed. If permitted to stand long it heats from chemical 

 action, and the freed ammonia is in part fixed as a sulphate by the 

 plaster, but not all of it. 



For fruits of everj^ kind I know of no better fertilizing material, 

 and as it supplies every needed element of nutrition, its eflfects are 

 remarkabl}' persistent and immediate. 



But, gentlemen, I must detain j'ou no longer. I cannot think 

 that I have presented anything new, or of special value to a com- 

 pany' so intelligent and experienced as this. There are old facts 

 and forms of knowledge, which it is well to call up for consideration 

 occasionally, as we often find that the good and excellent have been 

 neglected because they are old. 



AN ESSAY ON FLORICULTURE. 



By Mrs. A B. Strattard, of Monroe. 



"These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, 

 Almighty ! Thine this universal frame. 

 Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then, 

 Unspeakable ! who sittest above these heavens. 

 To us invisible, or dimly seen 

 In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare 

 The goodness beyond thought, and power divine." 



" And nature is to me a living thing, 

 Food to the heart, and beauty to the eye : 

 The bud, the flower, the autumn's mellow sky 

 Awake the moral thought and sympathy." 



The!jcultivation of flowers is a God-given vocation, and is as old 

 as the creation itself. The great All-Father created man in His own 

 image, and made him only " a little lower than the angels," and as 

 a fitting home for such a creation, He made the garden of Eden and 

 filled it almost to overflowing with all manner of fruits and flowers, 

 and placed man in the midst of it, that he might enjoy them, and 

 worship Him by looking "through nature up to nature's God." 

 And to-day every flower that grows on the face of this fair earth of 

 ours, had its origin in the garden of Eden, which in its turn was a 

 part of the beautiful gardens in that bright world beyond — 



"Where everlasting spring abides, 

 And never-withering flowers." 



