550 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 94, 



and you will not be obliged to bang the 

 man; find the vagrant orphan a home and 

 teach him a useful trade, and you will not 

 have to punish him as a thief, or watch 

 him as a criminal; furnish work to all who 

 need it, and there will be but few to support 

 as tramps, paupers and parasites ; remove 

 temptation from the path of the weak, and 

 you will not be obliged to punish them for 

 having stumbled and fallen; it is better to 

 counsel than to condemn, better to lift up 

 than to crush down, better to be shielded 

 by love and gratitude than to be protected 

 by soldiers and police. Thus testifies the 

 moral genius of our age. Let us try to un- 

 derstand and heed it. 



The great, all-embracing reform of our 

 age and country, one that naturally follows 

 the banishment of human chattelhood from 

 our soil — one that is palpably demanded 

 by every instinct of justice and humanity 

 — is that which will lift the industrial 

 classes from the plane of servility to one of 

 self-respect, self-guidance and independ- 

 ence. Its object is to lift the laborer, not 

 out of labor, but out of ignorance, inefii- 

 ciency and want. This great end cannot 

 be attained at once, but the development 

 of a truer and more profound social and 

 economic science should help to pave the 

 way. 



The socialist has his dream of an ideal 

 world. He believes it possible to have a 

 social and industrial order wherein all 

 freely serve and all are served in return; 

 where no, drones or sensualists can abide; 

 where education is as free and common as 

 air and sunshine; where nothing but service 

 secures approbation, and nothing but merit 

 wins esteem; where mental development 

 and moral culture is the aim, as well as 

 the possible attainment of all. Is such an 

 order possible ? What says social science ? 



It may be well to repeat here the ques- 

 tion discussed by Vice-President Fernow at 

 the last meeting of this Section. 



Have we a social and economic science ? 

 Have we enough observations, facts, laws,, 

 principles, subservient to social and eco- 

 nomic conditions, so well arranged and 

 classified as to warrant the use of the term 

 science f I believe we have. Let me not be 

 misunderstood. I am not a teacher of such 

 science. I rank low in the class of learners. 

 "What I know of science as applicable to- 

 society and economics is slight indeed. Yet 

 I know there is such a science, and I be- 

 lieve that each succeeding year enlarges, 

 improves and perfects it. 



If some of the recent applications of this 

 science appear shallow and seem almost to 

 partake of the nature of quackery, this 

 should not bar the way to our advance to 

 the acquisition and development of a true 

 social and economic science, which shall be 

 neither shallow nor empirical. 



In this spirit, and with no little hesita- 

 tion, I present a few thoughts on ' Horti- 

 culture and Health.' 



Ours is an eminently practical age. The 

 energy of our people is mainly expended 

 in the production, manufacture and distri- 

 bution of articles that nourish the body, 

 gratify the senses, or in some way con- 

 tribute to the comfort and convenience of 

 mankind. 



Mind is steadily dominating matter, and 

 this extension of the sovereignty of man 

 over the material forces of the earth we 

 call civilization. 



The art of horticulture consists primarily 

 in transforming, by means of cultivation, 

 crude and worthless materials into sub- 

 stances valuable as food products, or useful 

 in ministering to our love of the beautiful. 

 This raw material is furnished by the soil, 

 and such substances as may be added 

 thereto, together with certain elements of 

 the air. 



Etymologically speaking, horticulture 

 means the cultivation of a garden. The 

 real scope of this definition depends upon 



