IQQ STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



innocent are enticed to enter, and they are lost ; when if tliose very 

 places had been stripped as bare of every object of beauty as some 

 farm-houses are, they would have turned awa}' with a shudder of dis- 

 gust. God has given us this love for the beautiful, and He has also 

 given us more than enough to satisfy all our longings for it "Beauty is 

 an all-pervading presence. It unfolds in the numberless flowers of the 

 spring. It waves in the branches of the trees, and the green blades 

 of grass." We cannot look anywhere without feeling that we are 

 encompassed with it ; and it is sad to think there are people living 

 in the midst of all this beaut^', as blind to it as if instead of this 

 fair earth, with all its beautiful flowers, and the glorious sky over 

 all, the\- were tenants of a dungeon. Let us each and all try to in- 

 stil into the minds and hearts of our children a true and genuine 

 love for all these beautiful gifts of God, and more et^pecially for 

 flowers and floriculture. If we have had it starved and choked out 

 of our natures, let us not follow the same course with our children. 

 Let us walk with the beautiful ! 



" I hear thee say, ' The beautiful ! what is it?' 

 Be sure, 'tis no long, weary road, its form to visit, 

 For thou canst make it smile beside thy door, 

 Then love the beautiful.'' 



RAILROAD GARDENING. 

 By John Burr, of Freeport. 



The improvement in laying out lawns, and decorating the grounds 

 around the stations with shade trees and flowers, has been for some 

 years extensiveh" practiced in different parts of Europe, and carried 

 to such an extent, that, to use tlie expression of a friend. "Some of 

 the roads there looked like one large flower garden." In our own 

 country, on the roads running from New York to Philadelphia, they 

 u'^e an extremely large amount of plants for summer decoration. It 

 is stated that last year one road alone gave an order for fifty 

 thousand ])l:vnts to be used for decorating the difffrent parks and 

 stations ah)ng its line. In New England, the railroads are not to 

 any consideralile extent, and I might say, not at all beautified with 

 plants and flowers, except the Maine Central, whicli. running from 

 Portland to Waterville by two routes, and thence to Wanceboro' 

 — besides its many branches — has for a few years i)ast decorated 

 its princii)al stations with flowering and foliage plants, besides lay- 



