44 ' STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



children to have a better education and a better chance in the 

 world, if possible, than they themselves have had. But too often 

 they overlook one of the greatest factors in gaining the desired 

 end, and that is home influence, training and instruction. Permit 

 me a few words here in reference to the home life that has so much 

 to do with the formation of habits for life, the moulding of charac- 

 ter, and the success that comes from knowledge. 



The child has everything to learn, and it is the privilege of the 

 parent to be its first teacher. Have the dictionary, the cyclopedia, 

 the atlas, and such other works of reference as you can afford, 

 handy, and put them to daily use. Encourage the children to ask 

 questions, and be patient in answering them. Live your school 

 days over again in the discussion of their lessons, to your mutual 

 advantage. Find out with them the pronunciation, spelling and 

 meaning of the doubtful word. Hunt up the location of the place 

 about which you have been reading, and find out all about it. Talk 

 over and discuss with them the great events of the world at large 

 that you read of daily, and join the results of your reading, obser- 

 vation and experience to the advantages of the improved methods 

 of the schools of the present day. Encourage in them habits of 

 carefulness, thoughtfulness, and thoroughness, of order, method 

 and punctuality. Tell them that a high school or academic educa- 

 tion in additon to a knowledge of the three "R's" is net to enable 

 them to live by their wits, but to fit them to do more intelligently 

 and efficiently some part of the world's work. The mind is edu- 

 cated that it may the better direct the work of the hands. Try to 

 know a little more of something every night than you did in the 

 morning. This in one direction is one of the right ways of right 

 living, and as every year adds to your stock of knowledge, so 

 every year should increase your love of its acquirement. 



Children should be instructed by their parents in the great 

 problems of nature. They have a right to know of things and to 

 know of them in the right way. To illustrate, take a field in which 

 you, as horticulturists, are familiar. Tell them of the duality of 

 all living things in nature. Begin by showing the flower of the 

 meek and lowly strawberry plant ; show the structure of the flower ; 

 point out the pistils and stamens ; explain to them that unless the 

 pistils are fertilized by the pollen of the stamens no fruit and seed8 

 will result ; and if stamens do not exist in the same flower with the 

 pistils, as is sometimes the case, another kind which has stamens 

 in its flowers must be planted alongside that by means of wafting 



