Ely MaLe ^ Mo^r ^wJen 



sorts of bugaboo theories of the difficulties of flower 

 culture; but to refute this, we only have to take a 

 drive through the outlying districts of the town where 

 the workmen and washerwomen — the so-called hum- 

 bler citizens — • live, and the prodigality of bloom sur- 

 rounding each busy doorstep will soon show us what 

 wealth even the supposed poor may own, without 

 adding extra burden to their tired backs. 



We have to learn to cook, to sew, to paint, to 

 write, but there is scarcely the littlest child who does 

 not naturally grasp a hoe, and use it as if he were 

 bom a graduate in the science. This is probably 

 an inherited instinct, for all of us are descended from 

 some original tiller of the soil. It is the oldest pro- 

 fession in the world. 



As Plutarch says, " There is no exercise nor oc- 

 cupation which so certainly bringeth a man to love 

 and desire quietness, as doth husbandry and till- 

 age." 



In the springtime the sap of enthusiasm and new 

 life begins to stir in mortals just as it does in trees ; 

 this fact, noted by the Romans, was expressed in the 

 name given by them to the first spring month, which 

 they called Aprilis, "because then is the chiefest 

 force and strength." June (from juniores, mean- 



