and joy of owning and cultivating a little farm— a little farm 
with water gardens, flower beds, and trailing vines over a high- 
peaked roof. Sometimes we spend the whole evening discussing 
this hobby. In our imagination we have developed a beautiful 
country place— a beautiful picture. For seven years we have 
been doing this, yet it is still in the air-castle phase, and privately 
I think it will always remain so. The trouble with us Americans, 
as some foreigner has said, is that we love to lecture and be 
lectured to about many things that ought to form a fundamental 
part of our lives. The love of good books and the love of beauti- 
ful surroundings are two of these. Beautiful surroundings mean 
flowers. Flowers mean eventually varieties and improved strains 
especially adapted to our multitudinous environments. How are 
we to get them ? In the past we have depended largely on 
Europeans. Hence most of our best flower varieties are either 
pro-French, pro-British, or pro-German in the sense that they 
were originated by these peoples. If a generous lover of flowers 
wished to erect a statue to the man who has done the most in 
improving sweet peas, the statue would represent Henry Eckford 
of Wem, England. If it were an Iris enthusiast who wished to 
commemorate his appreciation for the man or men responsible 
for the great variety of Irises, the bronze or marble would be 
French, English, German or Japanese in countenance. Or again, 
when the intelligent gardener offers up his paean of praise for the 
magnificent varieties of lilac and gladioli, Lemoine of Nancy, 
France is the recipient. 
“ The lecturer believes that we should be able to individualize 
our American civilization in regard to our flowers, as we have 
already done in many other directions. We should have thou- 
sands of amateur plant breeders in this country, instead of a few 
hundreds. And we should breed our own flowers our own selves, 
instead of hiring it done either by importing the seeds or plants 
or the men themselves as gardeners from abroad. The great 
English, French and German gardening societies are composed 
of rich and poor, of people having in common a love for getting 
the best out of the floral life of their own and other countries by 
civilizing, so to speak, the wildlings. This is floral exploration 
—this is an outlet for their love of creating something. The art 
of plant breeding is simple. There are no secrets, nor is wizardry 
involved. Mostly what is required is enthusiasm, patience, and 
love of flowers and working w’ith them. No great company need 
be capitalized. I daie say many a new variety is the product of 
some small garden patch or some humble back yard. The 
lecturer will tell what can be done with our common garden 
posies by those with the above attributes.” 
