318 
THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
popular tastes or the florists' catalogues, although they 
may materially aid us. We may, however, under certain 
circumstances, reject both, with pleasure and profit. 
Perhaps other and important duties will not permit of 
gardening, excepting on the most limited scale ; if so, act 
accordingly. Good gardening does not depend on bed¬ 
ding or flowering plants or vegetables. A clean, well- 
kept grass-plot is a beautiful garden of itself, but that is 
soon spoiled if dandelions and plantains are not kept in 
check. Trees well cared for are the highest types of beauty, 
and are evidences of skillful gardening, and these need 
not be what are popularly known as ornamental, as a tree 
is no less beautiful when heavily laden with rich, luscious 
fruit; neither is a garden any the less beautiful if the 
plants are to produce vegetables for the dining-table in¬ 
stead of flowers for decorating the library. A garden is 
beautiful just in proportion as it accomplishes the pur¬ 
poses for which it was intended. The beautiful is useful, 
and the useful is beautiful. Victor Hugo said “the beau¬ 
tiful was as useful as the useful, perhaps more so.” Let 
us, therefore, wherever practicable, combine the two. A 
combination of flowers and vegetables in the garden is 
like a man with business ability happily blended with 
literary tastes, the one ministers to the other. 
It is said that when the goddess of Wisdom competed 
with the other divinities as to which should produce the 
most perfect work, she triumphed over her rivals by call¬ 
ing into existence a fruit-tree. We might add that when 
she brought forth the apple-tree she surpassed any of the 
creations of the goddess Flora, at least any of those crea¬ 
tions that are esteemed for their beauty only. The poet’s 
imagination never conceived anything more beautiful 
than the apple-tree in full blossom, and for an ornamental 
tree the Chinese crab is the summit of perfection. It 
rivals in beauty the acknowledged queen of flowers—the 
rose—when in early spring it puts forth its deep red buds 
and large semi-double flowers of tenderest texture, and 
flushed with a tint of pure, though pale carmine, the 
charm of its rosy clusters all enhanced by their setting of 
freshest vernal green. The common apple-tree, when in 
blossom, is a thing of no ordinary beauty. There are other 
trees of more lofty and noble growth, but their scentless 
flowers cannot compare with those which glorify the 
crooked stem and irregularly jutting branches of their 
orchard neighbor with such delicate fragrance and tender 
hue, “ Less than that of roses and more than that of vio¬ 
lets,” as Dante described it, and which more justly merits 
Ruskin’s testimony, that “ of all the lovely things which 
grace the springtime of this our fair temperate zone, 1 
am not sure but this blossoming of the apple-tree is not 
the fairest.” 
Our experience teaches us that if we wish to enjoy 
flowers in the spring we must prepare for them in the 
fall. While they are at rest—asleep—we must be awake 
and at work. Trees, shrubs and hardy herbaceous plants, 
which includes bulbs, must be planted now in order to 
have flowers in the spring, and both fruit and flowers in 
summer and autumn. If we have neglected our gardens 
and lawn, lose no time in correcting the mistake. Recom¬ 
pense the earth for what it has given us by a liberal sup¬ 
ply of plant-food. If any weeds of the perennial sort 
remain, take them out root and branch. But it is not of 
gardening operations of which we wish to speak, but of 
the effect they have upon us; and at the same time we 
wish our remarks to be useful, and to be so they must 
be practical. This is called a farmers’ club, although I 
do not know that there is a farmer here other than my¬ 
self. But admitting that you are all farmers, as I hope 
for your own happiness and independence you are, then 
the question that will arise is: How shall we make our 
farms yield a satisfactory profit on our investment and 
a suitable reward for our labor, and at the same time 
derive as much pleasure from our industries as can be 
found in other pursuits ? In all business operations pleas¬ 
ure and profit are proportionate ; that which affords the 
greatest profit affords the greatest pleasure. Farming to 
be pleasant must be profitable, and if profitable must be 
pleasant. 
The most profitable industry the farm affords is the 
development of character, of manhood in your boys and 
womanhood in your girls. No farmer ever raised a crop 
half so valuable as a large number of sons—honest, 
intelligent, industrious, fond of home and all its endearing 
associations, avoiding, as„though a crime, the race-course, 
the dram-shop, the gambling-den and allied places of 
infamy. The richest mother is the one that has the 
largest number of affectionate daughters ; daughters that 
know of no place so dear as home and no name so sweet 
as that of mother. Here let me say that I am a farmer 
simply because the farm affords more real pleasure than 
any other pursuit for which I am fitted. My pleasures do 
not evolve from what I make from the farm but from 
what the farm makes of me. I do not cultivate cereals, 
vegetables, fruits or flowers wholly for what they will 
bring in the market, but rather for what they will make 
me worth in the market. It is not the number of 
gladioli, the bushels of corn, or the barrels of apples that 
I have harvested in the year, but it is the crop of man¬ 
hood, the yield of domestic happiness, that shows the true 
productiveness of the farm. 
Your most profitable industry is that of the education 
of your children in order that they may make good 
farmers and good wives of farmers. We do not pretend 
to say that farmers’ sons and daughters are not educated, 
quite the reverse; on the contrary, they are educated too 
much, at least;, in the wrong direction ; they are educated 
away from instead of to the farm. They see nothing but 
the hardships that labor brings, without any of the beauty 
there is in all of nature’s works. Farmers rarely teach 
their children that in agricultural pursuits can be found a 
ousiness both profitable and honorable, and one which, if 
properly conducted, will afford the greatest opportunity 
for knowledge to be pleasantly employed ; a business in 
which, if their children shall receive a suitable education 
and will give it as much study and thought as they will 
be compelled to apply to become successful in other pur¬ 
suits, will make for them a more luxurious living, with 
less care, and afford them more time for pleasant recrea¬ 
tion than can be found in any other walk in life. 
Where are we to look for the proper education may 
be asked. We answer on the farm and at home. We 
fully believe there have been a score of young men ruined, 
