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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF HORTICULTURE 
Read before the Minnesota Horticultural Society 
By C. S. Harrison 
A S a class Horticulturists have the highest ideals, 
lead the cleanest lives, and exert the strongest 
influences of any of the secular professions. I 
am called on to address thousands of people in the var¬ 
ious walks of life but never have I met a more responsive 
class. A public speaker is extremely sensitive to the at¬ 
titude and sympathies of his audience. 
I am often called upon to open meetings with an invo¬ 
cation for Divine aid, and these men, many of whom are 
earnest Christians, seem to move on with me to the throne 
of grace with reverent and devout spirit. If I touch the 
higher phases of our calling I am often deeply moved and 
thrilled by their silent or uttered responses. When af¬ 
ter our great meeting at Cleveland people from Texas and 
California said “your address richly repaid us for com¬ 
ing” I felt I was not living in vain. I am always glad to 
touch those chords which respond to our highest inspira¬ 
tions. 
Let me say, first, we live nearest to nature and to God. 
We belong to the firm of Heavenly Father and Sons, our 
mission is to make the world more beautiful and fruit¬ 
ful. 
Through the ages people blundered and stumbled in 
darkness. Many of the most potent agencies were un¬ 
known. The savage trembled when the mighty oak was 
shivered by the ligtenings blinding flash. Little knew 
he that in that tremendous force there was the untrans¬ 
lated lesson of Jehovah’s love—a giant at play waiting 
for a harness so that he could dive under an ocean, leap 
a continent, illumine our homes, drive vessels and cars 
and set in motion acres of machinery. Only recently 
was the power of steam applied. The force by which 
God “taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” Coal 
and oil are only recent discoveries. All these things re¬ 
veal the far planning and kindly providence of our 
Father. 
Alarmists predict the speedy dissolution of all things. 
Never fear, the world is just beginning to live. Through 
what a stupendous past has this old globe of our swung 
down to the present. Look forward, and the ages 
through which we are to move are lying like sands along 
the sea shores of eternity. I love to think of nature as 
the first born daughter of God. Sometimes she seems 
like a person whose Motherhood embraces the world— 
ever fresh and vigorous though the snows of the ages 
crown her head. On her cheeks are the tints of eternal 
youth. How much she is doing for us. She takes us 
into her holy of holies and reveals to us her mysteries and 
tells us of the wonderful things yet to come out of the un¬ 
known. In the Arnold Arboretum are some six primi¬ 
tive apples. She taught the horticulturists how to evolve 
from these in the long processes the Jonathan. Grimes 
Golden and the Wealthy. She has given us High Priests 
who minister daily in her temple. Our beloved Hansen, 
Wedge, Patten. Wyman. Elliott, who fell dead among his 
flowers, and a host of others whose combined labors have 
glorified and transformed all the bleak Northwest. 
Nature gives us the single flowers and teaches how to 
improve them. How marvelous the transformation in 
the Peony, the Iris, the Carnation, the Phlox and the rose. 
Standing on the threshold of the future she exalts a great 
hope before us. 
See what Horticulture has Done! 
It does not seem a great while ago when I used to ride 
over the vast prairies of Minnesota and later those of 
Nebraska, and in the wide range of vision there was not 
a tree or house to be seen. Growing fruit was consid¬ 
ered an impossibility. Now there are comfortable 
homes, well sheltered with groves and wind breaks and 
here and there orchards burdened with lucious fruits. 
The nurserymen have added millions to the wealth of the 
state, besides beauty—you have compensation for your 
long winters. A California spring bears no comparison 
to one in Minnesota, when all nature puts off her cold 
white robes for the royal garments of springtime—God 
welcome to earths new ressurection. What an honor to 
introduce the world to the beauty of the Lord” and to 
give the people a view of His real nature and character 
and his willingness to aid us. It is an honor and a joy 
to swing the gates wide open and introduce to the world 
the hitherto unknown God. 
We now come to the great issues of today on which our 
work has a powerful influence. Take the cause of tem¬ 
perance. Fruits, their unfermented juices are fast tak¬ 
ing the place of intoxicants. In our town of York, Neb¬ 
raska, there are no saloons. You do not see wagons 
loaded with extracts of rotted grain, but you do see train 
loads on train loads of fruit poured into a town of 7000 
people and you see one of the healthiest cities in the land. 
There is a tonic in fruit which is not always recognized. 
You are a busy man, often overwhelmed with work. You 
get tired and are worried with labor and business. Just 
sit down, drop all care and relax completely. Then eat 
a couple of the best juciest apples you can find and how 
you are refreshed and return to your work with renewed 
vigor. I often try this. Fruit is the best medicine one 
can take. It is the cheapest and used judiciously it 
would send half the doctors to raising apples and berries. 
A mighty battle is on us and as horticulturists we 
must throw our forces into the front ranks. 
The horticultural army is a tremendous force. Three 
thousand members of this society, the grandest in the 
world, will be a nower. They work for cleanness and 
righteousness. They will be progressive and positive on 
all moral questions. Raise trees, fruits and flowers and 
you are working for the uplift of humanity. You are 
soldiers of peace instead of reaching out with all the 
craft and cunning of demons to perfect the high art of 
murder and destruction. It is your mission to glorify 
this old earth with beauty, to bring out of the unknown 
yet more lucious fruits and more lovely flowers. 
When you pass on you leave a path of peace behind 
