STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 95 



emblem, with its piue tree emblazoned on a shield upheld by our 

 sturdy pillars — the sailor and the farmer. Its "Dirigo" and star 

 should have a meaning that should make even the heart of the 

 child glow with pride. I recently heard a returned missionary who 

 had been journeying around the world for the past five years, say 

 that she had been asked since her return, 'What sight impressed 

 you most?" 



She said, "I tried to recall the scenes that had made the great- 

 est impression upon me, and there came before me in thought the 

 time when I stood in the presence of the greatest mountain on the 

 earth. I looked at the eternal snows of that great mountain peak 

 and I was lost in wonder and admiration of the grandeur of that 

 great mountain and it seemed to me that nothing in the world had 

 ever so spoken to my soul of God and His greatness. But I passed 

 on to view some of the marvels of the handiwork of man and I stood 

 in that wonderful spot the, Laj Mahal, and again I was lost in wonder 

 over the spirit of man. But I want to tell in all this vast 

 journey what has stirred my heart most. It was last Christmas 

 morning on the shores of a heathen land, my mail had not come 

 to me for nine weeks. The first letter I opened was from. home 

 — it contained — this, and she held up to the audience a little flag. 

 At the sight of it my heart was stirred as nothing else had ever 

 done, and I said then as now : 



" 'There is a laud on earth supremely blest, 



A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest. 



And thou shalt know where'er thy footsteps roam. 



That laud, that country, and that spot thy home.' " 



Our fathers and mothers builded well in laying the foundations 

 of our social, political, and religious liberty. 



We have now our Memorial Day, our Arbor Day, our flags and 

 our fine schoolhouses in the cities and larger towns. We need 

 belter schoolhouses in the country, whose preservation and orna- 

 mentation shall be the pride of every man, woman and child in 

 in their vicinity. It has occurred to me that this Pomological Society 

 is in a condition to foster this work by encouraging village and 

 rural improvement societies having for their object the improvement 

 and ornamentation of streets, school grounds, roadwnys, cemeteries 

 and any other public grounds by planting, and cultivating trees, 

 by locating and protecting grass plots, lawns and boulevards, and 

 generally doing whatever may tend to the improvement and adorn- 

 ment of the place. 



