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234 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



August 



All-wise Creator has wrought such a universe as 

 ours ; its chaDging seasons, and its plant, and tree, 

 and shrub and flower, for no worthy purpose, is an 

 impeachment of such wisdom. So be sure he might 

 have grown trees bare of leaf and branch, the 

 limbs already sharpened for stakes. The flowers 

 and shrubs might have been potatoes and grain, 

 worth so much in bank bills. And even now, we 

 can be as utilitarian as we choose, raise nothing 

 but what will sell for so much money. We would 

 deem such a life a monotony — a curse. 



This spring a friend remarked in town, "I would 

 like to be able to spend $25 in such things," point- 

 ing to evergreens. 



"Humph," sneered a bystander, "I had rather 

 have the substautials." 



He lives for the substantials ! He has a few ap- 

 ple trees, currants, partially put out by others. He 

 has a lombardy poplar or two — cost no money. A 

 few soft maples ; grow free in the woods. His 

 hogs and cattle : sell for money. Has a large farm; 

 brings in crops. Has money loaned ; biings in- 

 terest. And so he will live and die. Does not the 

 hog or the ox do as much ; and leave as much of a 

 record, so far as adding a mite to the weal of a 

 world's accumulating beauty ? He would sell the 

 bread and pork and cheat his very stomach, but 

 for the stern necessity of God's arrangements for 

 sustaining life, and thus add to the substantials of 

 a sordid gain. Things of beauty have no value to 

 him. If he could grow apples on his fence, wood- 

 pile, or cattle's horns, he would never put out an 

 apple tree. ■ If the sunshine was worth a penny a 

 ray, he would live in the twilight for life, as among 

 the substantials. 



We grudge no hour's toil we ever expended in 

 joining with the Creator in adding a thing of beau- 

 ty to the family of the beautiful. Not one weary, 

 aching muscle. Not one drop of sweat. We wish 

 circumstances and means had combined to have 

 aided and added a thousand fold to our labors in 

 this direction. We, too, eat bread and meat, and 

 believe in the '"substautials," but we believe in the 

 beautiful and elevating also, and while the hands 

 are ours to use on earth, however gray the head 

 with years, no spring shall go by, God willing, 

 without some tree or shrub, anchored in the soil 

 for aye. From the window where we write, we 

 look out upon the shadow cast by a beautiful thing 

 — a poem of emerald leaf and whispering branch 

 — whose topmost pennons already peep into our 

 chamber window. Near by a Norway spruce and 

 a hemlock are nodding and coquetting with each 

 other as the wind surprises them around the corner. 

 Through the heats of the summer and the bleak 

 desolation of the winter, they will greet us greenly 

 through all weathers. In preparing and filling up, 

 and setting them, we spent a hard half day's work 

 with spade and barrow, and ou the eighth of June 

 and the thermometer excited at that. But they 

 live on, and an "X" greenback could not purchase 

 them. We once hated the hemlock — its logs 

 which never wore out in the logging field; its 

 lumber and rails with slivers infernal ; — but a more 

 welcome and graceful tree lives not. We now 

 look upon and remember it as a thing of the past 

 —an associate and acquaintance of our childhood 

 in the old Empire State, and no "fatting hog" in 

 the West is "substantial" enough to buy it. It is 

 one of the beautiful of God's great family of beau- 

 tiful things, and shall have a place by our window, 



and where its shadow may fall acrots our door-sill 

 in the years to come. — Wis. Chief. 



Circular of the American Pomological 

 Society. 



In conformity with a resoluiion adopted at the 

 last meeting of the National As.soci ition, the un- 

 dersigned give notice that its tenth ses^sinn will 

 commence in the Corinthian Hall, in th- city of 

 Rochester, N. Y., Tuesday, Sept. 13, 1864, ; t 12 

 o'clock, noon, and will continue several day«. AH 

 Horticultural, Pomological, Agricultural and other 

 kindred institutions in the United Stat'-s at d the 

 British Provinces are iiivited to send d lefraiions 

 as large as they may deem expedient; and 1 1. oth- 

 er pert^ons interested in the cultivatioii of fruits; 

 are invited to be present and to take seats in the 

 Convention. 



The great annual F^iir of the New Yo'k State 

 Agricultural iSociety will be held at Rochester on 

 the following week, so that delegates who de-ire to 

 to do so can attend both meetin;:s, and those who 

 contribute collections of fruits to the Poniul gical 

 Society can afterwaids exhibit them at the State 

 Fair. 



Throughout a lar^'C portion of the country the 

 prospects of the fruit crop are very «'iic uraging, 

 and as the Fiuit Gioweis' Society of New York 

 will place its entire collection at the disposJ of 

 the American Pomologic d Society, a di play of 

 extraordinary interest may reasonaldy be expected. 



Among the prominent subjects which will come 

 before the So. iety at this se.-sion will by thit of 

 the revision of the Society's Cat;ilogiie of Fruits. 



The Special Conmnttce appointed for this pur- 

 pose are now, with the various Stale and local 

 committees, actively engaged in coll> cting ^uch in- 

 formation as will aid in determining what varieties 

 are best adapted to the difierent sections ai d dis- 

 tricts of our country ; and this informatin in the 

 form of leports, wi I be submitted to the action of 

 the Convention. 



All the States an 1 Territories are urgently invi- 

 ted to be present, by delegation at this metting, 

 that the amicable and social relations which have 

 heretcfore existed between the members of the So- 

 ciety, may be festered and perpetuated, ai d the 

 result of its deliberut ons, so beneficial to the coun- 

 try at larf;e, be generally and widt ly diflTus; d 



Members and deleg'tts are requested to c- ntrib- 

 ute specimens of the fruits of their res-pective dis- 

 tiicts, and to comtmmicate in regard to them what- 

 ever m ly aid in promoting the objects of the Soci- 

 ety and the science of American Pomo ogy. 



Each contributor is requested to come piepared 

 with a complete list of his collection, and to pre- 

 sent the s: me with his fruits, that a report of all 

 the varieties entered may be submitted to the 

 meeting as soon as practicable. 



All persons d -sirous of becoming members can 

 remit the admis-ion fee to Thos. P. Janes, Esq., 

 Treasurer, Phil idi l|)hia; or to the Piesdont at 

 Boston, who will f irnish them with Traiisactions 

 of the Society. Life membership ten dollars; bi- 

 ennial, two dollars. 



Packages of fi uit^ may be addressed as follows : 

 "American Pomological Society, care of James 

 Vick, Rochester, N. Y." 



MARSHAL P. WILDER,, Pres. 



James Vick, /Sec. 



