178 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



honorable and idleness a disgrace, whether practiced by a millionaire or 

 -a mendicant. Then our streets and parks, public buildings, and private 

 residences will delight the eye with artistic effects. All will have correct 

 ideas of rural and civic improvements, from the least to the greatest, 

 and each will vie with the other in giving expression to his thought 

 ideas. Truly, labor is worship, Avork is prayer, when it is done with 

 willing hands and a joyous heart. 



FLOWER GARDENING. 



By MRS. FRANK COOK, of Frep>-o. 



The subject of flower gardening is the poetry of the horticulturist. 

 Even a layman enjoys looking at a beautiful flower garden, if he is sure 

 it won't cost him anything to maintain it; but the true lover of nature 

 sees gardens everywhere — in every landscape, in every mountain 

 meadow, in every public park. But the true spirit of gardening is 

 shown in the little plot about our homes. If the members of a house- 

 hold possess an innate love of flowers, it will manifest itself in some 

 way in and about the home. 



Some people have the idea that a garden is an expensive luxury, but 

 so far is this from being the case, that there is nothing brings such rich 

 rewards of pleasure for so smal] an outlay. The success of a garden 

 lies more in the person than in the purse. A few cents' worth of seeds, a 

 trowel, and the will to do, are all that are absolutely necessary. In 

 fact, I know a woman who raised an excellent garden with no other 

 implement than a butcher-knife. 



Only this year a friend of mine raised a little hanging garden on a 

 broad veranda without a cent's worth of extra expense. She gathered 

 up little cast-away pots and jars and bottles and filled them with soil 

 and placed little sprays of Wandering Jew and slips of geranium — 

 anything — everything — and hung the pots to poles of bamboo along the 

 sides of the veranda, and with a little attention the plants grew and pros- 

 pered until that veranda was turned into a veritable fairy bower — the 

 effect was striking and artistic. 



For town gardens, a little plot of grass with a high background and 

 border of flowers is more effective than a front dooryard full of shrub- 

 bery and trees. If trees are planted, it is advisable to use the deciduous 

 varieties nearest the house, as they drop their leaves in winter and let 

 in the glad sunlight at a season when it is most welcome. 



If neighbors would collaborate in regard to the general appearance- 

 of lawns, it would add to the symmetry of the street and yet give each 

 an opportunity to display individual taste in the variety of flowers and 

 the arrangement thereof. 



It is well to choose such plants as are indigenous to the soil, or 

 such at least as will readily adapt themselves. 



