550 
STATE HOETICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 
do I think we find one of the greatest benefits of your Society, one of the 
greatest works it can accomplish. You think, no doubt, it is a fine thing to 
raise fruit, to secure a delicous but hardy apple or grape, and so do 1. The 
more of these, the better. It is pleasant to eat such fruit without even see¬ 
ing it upon the tree or vine. But if you can so favor the raising of fruits and 
fl^owers that a goodly number of the young men of Wisconsin may be induced 
to give themselves to farming, who might otherwise go into overstocked busi¬ 
ness or professions, you will do a great thing for the State. I do not think it 
possible for a man to become a good Horticulturist without becoming a true 
lover of the beautiful for its own sake. And when you Lave aroused in a man 
the love of the beautiful, I know not in what productive labor he can engage 
and tliat love be more fully gratified than in Horticulture. In a course of 
Agricultural education I should consider Horticulture and ^sthetis as being 
so closely united that both must be studied together. And I should con¬ 
sider the love of the beautiful and the capacity to appreciate it, qui te as essen¬ 
tial to a young man, if I wished to make sure of his being a farmer, as I should 
Geology or Cheinistiy. The,latter may give him greater crops but the former 
will add more to his enjoyment and enable him with less means to make a 
more attractive home, and therefore, will be more lilely to hold him to the 
farm—the very^thing we wish to do. 
The planting of trees and the training of the vine have been the delight 
of man in all ages of the world. According to the Bible account Adam was 
started in life as a farmer or rather as a Horticulturist. In that account, 
which represents man as in the most perfect state, he is put into a garden, 
not only to enjoy the fruits, but to dress it and keep it. “ And out of the 
ground made the Lord Ood to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight aud good 
for food.’' Utility and beauty were joined In the products, and the enjoy¬ 
ment of man came from the cultivation of fruits and flowers. W’'hatever 
may be our opinion as to the origin of the Bible, we cannot fail to see that 
this account is in exact accordance with the nature of man. He cannot fully 
enjoy the fruits and flowers of the earth, unless he docs his part in producing 
them, and he cannot fail to be influenced by the element of beauty, if he 
would. The beauty of the fruit is something entirely distinct from its useful¬ 
ness. We delight in the gold and crimson of the apple, the rich purple of 
the grape and plum. And beauty of form is never to be overlooked. 
Many a plant will be cultivated for beauty alone, though it never bear fruit 
or its fruits be as worthless as the apples of Sodom. We do not lose sight 
of this principle, even in the arranging of fruit when it is gathered ; and in 
the clustered boquet the highest skill may be manifested When your Pres¬ 
ident sent me a dish of fruit last fall, I enjoyed the flavor of the grapes and 
pears, but I have ^not half so distinct a recollection of that as I have of the 
picture of the fruit dish as I first saw it. It was worthy of the pencil of the 
finest artist" and I have no doubt the giver enjoyed the sight of it and ex¬ 
pected to give me as much enjoyment through the sense of sight as through 
that of taste. Certainly he did, and had it been in my power to change the 
