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UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
LIBRARY

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1903

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TRANSACTIONS

W 0 R C !•; S T E II C O U N T Y

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

REPORTS OF THE OFFICERS

FOR THP: year ending NOVEMBER 1, 19()3,

ESSAYS FOR SEASOxN OF 1904.

THE HAMILTON I'll ESS,
No. 311 M A I N S T IJ li ic T .

19 0 1.

LIBRARY

'.'■''iVK<;;)lTY OF

^ ^ 3 -o^

C 0 N T E N T S

Page

Report of the Secretary, A. T>. 1903 5

Report of the Librarian 12

Report of the Treasurer 15

Address by O. B. Hadwen, President 21

Lecture by Herbert D. Heraenway 29

Address by Rev. Frank Alanson Lombard 34

Lecture by F. A. Waugh 48

Lecture by Miss Emma G. Cummings 49

Essay by Mrs. Abel F. Stevens 58

Address by Rev. Dr. Willard Scott 75

Lecture by Edward W. Breed 79

Essay by M. Sullivan 86

Annual Reunion and Social Gathering 97

Essay by John W. Clark 102

^^o 3f

WORCKSTEll COUNTY

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

For the Year Ending Oct. 31, 1903.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

To the Members of the

Worcester County Horticultural Society:

The weather conditions of the past season have been very
unsatisfactory for the growers of fruit, flowers and vegetables.
November, 1902, was so warm the growth of trees and shrubs
was soft and unripe and in very poor condition to stand the
severe cold weather of December 8, 9 and 10, which was several
de;grees below zero. This caused in many cases the killing of
various shrubs, particularly Privet hedges. The winter opened
with very little snow, March being so warm as to cause buds
to swell — and m as advanced a state as they should be in April —
in fact April and March exchanged places. Strawberries
couldn't be kept back by covering as they pushed up through
the mulching; then the cold storms and frost killed the first
bloom. Later they bid fair to have a crop, when the drouth
struck them and nearly dried them up. Then the cold rain
came and rotted them on the vines, after which we had pleasant
weather for a few days. Saturday I visited one of our large
growers and looking over his beds we estimated he would pick
the first of the week, at least one hundred and sixty crates.
Sunday and Monday were so hot the upper side of the berries
were scalded so that he picked less than ten crates.

Apples, pears, plums and cherries l^lossomed and indicated
a good crop, but the late spring frost injured the plums, cherries

2

6 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

and grapes, so that in many sections they were a total faihire.
Peach buds were injured by the December freeze so they were
a failure.

For the odd year there is a large crop of apples — particularly
Baldwins — and also a fair crop of pears.

All fruits except apples have shown the effects of the season
climatically, to a greater or less degree.

The season early was very unfavorable for grass, the drouth
nearly destroying it. Lawns were in a bad condition; the
rainy season of June and the almost contmuous showers through-
out the season have saved the crop, and today they are in fine
condition. Our first general killing frost was Wednesday night
October 21; the season being long enough so that we had
flowers from out of doors for our October 15 exhibition.

The early summer exhibitions showed the effects of the
variable season more than the spring or autumn ones. Our
market gardeners of today use so much glass in the way of
cold irames, hotbeds and greenhouses, that good exhibitions
can be held at any time or under any condition of weather.

Peas came m early; June 4, we had two exhibitors and the
season lasted for two months. Corn, beans, tomatoes and
squashes came in slowly, two or three weeks behind the schedule.
Cucumbers and melons were nearly a failure.

The flower exhibitions as a whole have been good. The
weather seemed to suit gladioli, dahlias and tuberous begonias,
the exhibitions of these being fine. Let one judge from an
exhibition standpoint and he would say that the season was
a very favorable one for the production of horticultural products
except grapes, melons and peaches, though one of our number
managed to have just enough peaches to take nearly all the
premiums here and in Boston.

The Massachusetts Society exhibition for fruit and vege-
tables has been materially increased by contributions from
our members.

The exhibitions of September 24, and October 15, were fine —
some of our members think the best we ever had.

On invitation of our President a party from the Massachu-

1904.] TRANSACTIONS. ^ 7

setts Society wen^ pn^seiit October 15, and wen; our guests.
Their appreciation ol" our exhibition is best expressed by the
wish tliat they could take it as it was shown and })ut it into
their luill for th(nr clnysantheniuni exliibition of November 5,
6, 7 and 8; and their appreciation of our hospitality by saying
they always accept it w'hcni invited.

The exhibits of fruits, flowers and vegetables were far above
the average, and the decorations of the hall itself were beautiful.
The stage w^as banked with palms and ferns, furnished by
Lange; and from the centre of the hall mammoth orchids were
suspended, from the conservatories of G. Marston Whitin, of
Whitinsville.

Not having killing frost up to this date there were four hun-
dred vases of flowers shown, and F. L. Burt, of Taunton,
showed three hundred vases of dahlias.

At 12:30 o'clock dinner was announced and the members
of the Society and their guests repaired to the banquet hall,
where the dmner was served.

The guests were: Patrick Norton, Chairman of the garden
committee, and William P. Rich, Secretary of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society; J. Lew-is Ellsworth, Secretary of the
State Board of Agriculture; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wild of the
Blake estate, Brookline; George H. Sargent of The Boston
Transcript; John Ash of the Clark estate, Pomfret; H. P.
Kelsey, Boston; Judge L. A. Catlin, Woodstock, Conn.; George
S. Ladd, Master of the State Grange; and Mr. Scott of the
New England Educational League.

After the dinner President Hadwen opened the exercises
with a few words of welcome, and reminiscences of the past
sixty years.

Short addresses w^ere made by Judge Catlin, Secretary Rich,
George S. Ladd, Mr. Scott, H. P. Kelsey, J. Lewis Ellsworth,
George H. Sargent, John Ash, Henry Wild and Patrick Norton.

I have had very few complaints this season of damage from
insects except San Jose scale. I have personally examined
every case that has been reported and have several cases that
I am watching carefully for future reports.

8 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

I have also distributed scions as in past years, the Sutton
being in the greatest demand, using at least one thousand of
that one variety; and am indebted to David L. Fiske, as in
former years, for them.

Our winter meetings have been well attended; two of them
we arranged for Saturday and I am sorry to say they didn't
accomplish what we expected — that is an attendance of teachers
and children.

I am sometimes asked why we don't try to encourage the
children more and have been referred to what they do in Boston.
I fail to see any comparison between the two cities. The
children of Worcester have an opportunity to see green grass,
trees, shrubs, flowers and fruit growing, which the children
of Boston do not. I have honored every request for plants,
seeds, etc., that children have made upon me. I have had
many funny, odd and curious experiences with these people
makmg requests for the children. I have noticed almost
invariably these people never give seeds, plants or money to
buy them — only talk. Now it needs something more than
giving seeds or plants; you must keep them in sight, or after
the novelty wears off their interest is gone. Then again it
isn't every child that is interested in horticulture and when
I find those who are then I encourage them all I can.

There are several schools I am interested in and visit every
year. I have suggested several things and have tried to induce
them to grow something and bring it in to our exhibition.
This year I haven't given as many seeds as in former years,
for Mr. W. D. Ross wanted to try the experiment of encourag-
ing children in horticultural matters. If this Society takes
this matter up, those interested must give it their personal
attention and follow up individual cases where they show an
interest — as they do in Boston. It cannot accomplish anything
simply by voting to do.

We are indebted to Miss E. J. Clark of Pomfret, Conn., for
very fine exhibitions of peaches and nectarines grown under
glass; Mrs. John C. Whitin of Whitinsville for peaches and
grapes; also G. Marston Whitui of Whitinsville for grapes.

1904.] TRANSACTIONS. 9

one huncli w(Mi2;liiii,ii; ci^'lit ])()iin(ls ajid six ounces, also decoi-ative
])lants, Dipladciiias and orchids; Eugene V. R. Thayer of
Soutli Lancaster, se(>dling orchids; Bayard Thayer, South
Lancaster, for a display of water-lilies and other aquatics;
H, L. Burt of Taunton, a display of dahlias; and Arthur Cowce
of Berlin, New York, for several displays of gladioli.

A creditable^ exhil)ition worthy of notice was tlie one of
gloxinias, G. Marston Wliitin, Fred A. Blake, Edward W. Breed
and Matthew J. Whittall filling nearly seven hundred vases.

Upon invitation of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society,
the American Pomological Society met with them in their
halls in Boston, September 10, 11 and 12. Your Secretary
received an invitation for this Society to co-operate with the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society. We accepted the invita-
tion and made a very creditable exhibition of one hundred
and fifty plates of fruit, and particularly of fruit originating
in Worcester County; and it was with pleasure that I could
furnish specimens (both of type and color), for the Department
of Pomology at Washington and The New Hampshire Agri-
cultural College. A specialist in the development of seedling
apples, from Minnesota, who had on exhibition two hundred
and sixty varieties of apples — the parentage on one side all
of one variety that is perfectly hardy in that climate crossed
with other varieties. It was surprising how readily the other
parent could be determined.

By invitation of our President 0. B. Hadwen, nearly one
hundred and fifty members visited his home and grounds on
Lovell street, Wednesday, June 10. Lunch w^as served under
the trees, and a vote of thanks was given Mr. Hadwen for
his hospitality. Such meetings are a source of pleasure and
are highly appreciated.

The Worcester County Market Gardeners' Association, the
Worcester County Bee Keepers' Association and Massachusetts
Fruit Growers' Association tendered this Society votes of
thanks for the use of our rooms. These meetings are open
to all and have proved valuable to those interested in these
special lines.

10 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

We are indebted to the press for liberal notices of our meet-
ings and exhibitions. Sometimes the reports after the meetings
are not always satisfactory to some of the members. If reporters
were good horticulturists this would not happen. Perhaps
it would be well to class them with the children and try to
interest them in such matters. I am sure this field would
produce much good in the future.

In conclusion I desire to thank the officers and members
for their uniform courtesy and willingness to assist in any way
they may have been requested so to do.

The annual meeting of the Society was held Wednestlay,
November 5, 1902. The meeting was called to order at 10
o'clock A. M.; President 0. B. Hadwen presiding.

The records of the last annual meeting were read and approved.

Nathaniel Paine, Treasurer, read his report, which was referred
to the Committee on Publication.

Adin A. Hixon, Librarian, read his report, which was referred
to the Committee on Publication.

Adin A. Hixon, Secretary, read his report, which was referred
to the Committee on Publication.

Voted, To proceed to the election of officers, a list of whom
will be found on the covers of the various publications of the
Society.

Voted, That the Secretary notify (by postal cards) members
of any invitations that the Society may receive.

Voted, To dissolve.

Annual meeting of the Trustees was called immediately upon
the dissolution of the meeting of the Society, President 0. B.
Hadwen presiding.

The election of committees and judges was in order, a list
of which will be found with the officers.

Voted, To appropriate the following sums for premiums:

Flowers and Plants $1,000 00

Fruit 850 00

Vegetables 650 00

1904.]

TRANSACTIONS.

11

Voted, To appropriate for Winter Mootings, S300.00.

Voted, To appropriate for Library and Publications, $300.00.

Voted, For San Jose Scale Commission, Charles Greenwood,
James Draper, Henry Rich, C. L. Hartshorn, President Hadwen
and Secretary Hixon.

Voted, To dissolve.

During the year th(> followino; additions have been made
to the menib(M'shi]):

Mrs. Emma M. Davis, Worcester.

Clarence J. Howland, ''

Arthur W. Woods,

Miss Louise Woods, "

Orin P. Durkee,

James Edwin Draper, "

Mrs. E. S. Desautell,

Charles R. Russell,

Fred H. Hammond, Jr., "

Mrs. Frank A. Hadley, "

Myron F. Converse, Worcester.
Mrs. Gardner E. Adams, "
Sam'l B. Woodward, M. D. "
Mrs. Chas. Hacker, Phila., Penn.
Mrs. E. J. Whitney, Shrewsbur3^
Asa W. Ward, Auburn.

Mrs. Ed. A. Warren, Spencer.
H. C. Fuller, Leominster.

C. A. Harris,
Fred J. Reed, Shrewsljury.

Respectfully submitted.

ADIN A. HIXON,

Secretary.

Horticultural Hall, Worcester, Mass.
October 31, 1903.

REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN.

To THE Members of the

Worcester County Horticultural Society.

In presenting my report as Lil^rarian I desire to call your
attention to the fact that there hasn't been any binding done
for thirteen j^ears.

The following books, periodicals, bulletins and papers have
been added to the Library during the year: —

Interstate Commerce Commission. 16th Annual Report. 1902.

Missouri Botanical Garden. Fourteenth Annual Report. 1903.

United States Department of Agriculture. Section of Foreign
Markets. Bulletins, Nos. 28 and 29, 1897 to 1901. Report, No.
67, 1901. Circular, No. 25.

Library Bulletin. Accessions to the Department Lil^rary,
October, 1902, to March 30, 1903.

Michigan State Agricultural College Experimental Station.
Bulletins, Nos. 204, 209, 210. Special Bulletin, No. 20.

Maryland E.xperimental Station. Bulletins, 87, 88, 89.

West Virginia Experimental Station. Bulletins, 84, 85, 86.

Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Bulle-
tin, 90.

Hatch Experimental Station. Bulletins, 90, 91, 87.

Meteorlogical Reports for the Season 1902 and 1903.

New York State Museum. Bulletins, 57 and 59.

Elm Leaf Beetle and Grape Vine Root Worm. Hand l^ook,
No. 18.

Insecticides and Fungicides. Dr. E. P. Felt.

Field Columbian Museum. Publication, No. 69. Botanical
Series, Vol. 3, No. 1. Plants of Yucatan. 1903, Publication, No.
70, Vol. 2, No. 2. Annual Report of the Directors of the Board of
Trustees, 1901-1902.

1904.] RKPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN. 13

Transactions of Iowa Horticultural Society. 1901, Vol. .30.
Compliments of J. V. Jackman, Marlboro.

List of National, State and Local Commercial Or^-anizations.
Also .'Agricultural ()r<i;anizations. 190.3. Compiled by tlu> lnt(>r-
statc Commerce Commission.

Prospectus of the Columbia School of Poultry Culture, Water-
ville, New York. Prof. A. A. Brigham.

Principles of Profitable Farming. German Kali Company.

New Rhubarb Culture. J. E. Morse and G. Burnap Fiske. 1902.

The American Carnation, — How to grow it. Charles Willis
Ward. 1903

Carnations and Picotees. H. W. Weguelin. English. 1900.

Mendell's Principles of Heredity. W. Bateson, M. A. 1902.

Rise and Progress of the Standard Oil Company. Gilbert
Holland Montague. 1903. Compliments of Harper Brothers.

Contest for Sound Money. 1903. Compliments of A. P. Hep-
burn, Secretary of National Sound Money League.

In Portia's Garden.

What is Art. 1898. Tolstoi.

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.

Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. Report, 1902. James W.
Stockwell, Secretary. 20 copies for distribution.

Massachusetts Crop Reports. For the season 1902, 1903.

Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Transactions. Part 1,
1903. Part 2, 1902.

Report of Committee on School Gardens and Children's Her-
bariums.

Worcester Parks Commission. Report for the year ending Nov,
30, 1902.

Inaugural Address. Mayor Edward F. Fletcher. 1903.

Worcester Magazine. 1901, 1902, 1903. Charles Squicr, Secre-
tary Board of Trade.

Report of Board of Trade. 1903.

Worcester Agricultural Society. S4th Annual Report. 1902.

Worcester City Directory. 1903.

Worcester House Directory. 1903.

Worcester Suburban Directory. 1903.

American Florist.

American Gardening.

Covmtrv Life in America.

14 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

Country Gentleman.
Farm Journal.
Florists' Exchange.
Florists' Review.
Floral Life.
Gardening.

Gleanings in Bee Culture.
New England Homestead.
Massachusetts Ploughman.
Out West.
Park and Cemetery.
Ptural New Yorker.
Worcester Daily Spy.
Worcester Daily Telegram.
Worcester Daily Post.
English :

Agricultural Gazette.
Garden.

Gardener's Chronicle.
Gardening Illustrated.
Country Life.

Respectfully submitted.

ADIN A. HIXON,

Librarian.
Horticultural Hall.

November 2, 1903.

RKPOllT OF THE TREASURER.

Tlio Tr(\isur(M- of 1 ho Worcester County Horticultural Society,
hcrewitli ])r(\sents his ro])ort for the year enchnp; Octol:)cr 27,
1903. Th(^ present funded debt of the Society has been reduced
$900 (hu-ing the year and is now $7,500.

There is no floating debt at this time except a few small
bills, which were not received in time to come into this report.

The Dewey Fund will show an increase of $52.21 and the
Eames Fund $22.81 on account of interest accrued from the
Savings Bank deposits.

The Dewey Fund amounts to $1,357.61 and is now available
for the purchase of books for the library. The Eames Fund
is $593.68, the original amount was $500, so that there is now.
a margin of income for carrying out the wishes of the founder
of the Fund, viz.: ''the promotion of apple culture."

The detailed report of the receipts and expenditures here
follows.

Nathaniel Paine, Treasurer, in account with

Worcester County Horticultural Society.
Dr.

1902.

Oct. 24.

Cash balance as per last report.

$1,361.94

1903.

Oct. 24.

Receipts to date :

From rent of stores.

6,500.04

'' rent of hall.

5,221.75

" membership fees.

87.00

" sale of tickets for annual

banquet, 137.00

" interest on investments.

144.05

Interest from Savings Banks,

75.02

Other sources,

35.00

Total,

$13,561.80

16 worcester county horticultural society. [1904.

Cr.

1903

Oct.

24.

Payments to date :

City taxes and water bills,
Premiums paid to exhibitors
Paid judges of exhibits,
" for gas and electric

lighting,
"A. A. Hixon, salary

as secretary,
" A. A. Hixon, as libra-
rian, and for care of
hall,
" treasurer,
" janitor,
Deposited in Savings Bank,
Interest on Sav. Bank loan,
For coal,
'' printing,

" books and periodicals.
Insurance,
Account of annual banquet,

$1,049.89

, 2,003.88

172.00

821.18

400.00

1,000.00

150.00

500.00

75.02

378.00

505.62

149.16

50.72

30.81

258.95

Incidentals, including telephone.

and sundry hall expenses,

605.24

Paid on note.

900.00

Invested in collateral note.

3,362.79

Total,

$12,413.26

1903,

Oct.

24. Cash balance.

The Francis H. Dewey

1,148.54
Fund.

il3,561.80

1902,

, Oct.

24. Balance of fund,

$1,305.40

1903,

Oct.

24. Interest to date,

52.21

1903, Oct. 27. Present amount of fund, in-
vested in Savings Bank, $1,357.61

1904.] UEPOHT OF TfllO TUEA.SUUKR. 17

The William Eames Fund.

1002, Oct. 24. Amount of fuiul, $570.87

1903, Oct. 24. Interest to date, 22.81

1903, Oct. 27. rresent amount of fund in-
vested in Savings Bank, $593.68

NATHL. PAINE, Treas.
October 27, 1903.

The undersigned Auditors of the Worcester County Horti-
cuhural Society hereby certify that we have examined the
above account and find the same to be correct and properly
vouched, and the investments and cash accounted for.

HENRY L. PARKER.
F. H. CHAMBERLAIN.
JOHN B. BOWKER.

Worcester, Oct. 27, 1903.

ESSAYS.

A. D. 1904.

WORCl'.STER COUNTY

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

7th January, A. D. 1904.
A D D 11 E S S

BY

O. B. HADWEN, President.

It has become a custom of late years that the winter meet-
ings be openetl by the presiding officer, with brief remarks
regar(hng the interest and progress of the Society, antl the
objects it seeks to encourage. I will not dwell on the past,
with which you are all familiar, but rather today look forward
and see, as best we may, what in the future will demand our
attention; and first will say that the financial condition of
the Society was never better. The old New England thrift
with which our Society has been managed for the long term
of its existence has largely contributed to our wealth and
prosperity, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the noble men
whose foresight led them to purchase this spot of ground upon
which our building stands; and to the benefactors whose
money and timely efforts give us a building second to none
in location and convenience, in this country.

Valuable contributions to horticultural science have been
made through the lectures and discussions of our weekly meet-
ings during the winter season for the past several years. We
have kept in view the fundamental object for which our Society
was formed, ''for the purpose of encouraging and improving
the science and practice of horticulture," and with our sixty-
three years of experience, which seems yearly to be on the

22 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

increase, we have demonstrated that our leading cultivators
are striving in honorable competition to bring to perfection
the various products of the field and garden, and with the
active competition in our exhibitions, aimed at the highest
standard of excellence.

Especially with vegetables and flowers, much of the improve-
ment is due to the increased care used by cultivators of the
importance in the growing and selection of seeds; by constant
care in their selection and saving seeds from the earliest and
best developed specimens, an increased product is obtained in
size and color, which always proves essential in competition
and for sale.

We note the capacity of plants to extract from the earth
and atmosphere each its food and nourishment, and to develop
bud, leaf, flowers and fruit in constant succession, unvarying
in general type and variety, each true to its kind, yielding at
maturity food for man and beast, as well as for the innumerable
insect tribes, and with decay in longer or shorter periods of
time, supplying food and nourishment to the life and growth
of other plants in endless rotation. While horticultural science
assures us of the germinal principle of seeds, we are as yet
unlearned in the science of cross fertilization or the methods by
which the qualities of flowers and fruits are transmitted from
one to another through the pollen, by insects and the wind.

The study and practice of horticulture has a tendency to
raise man to a higher level. It quickens and intensifies his
senses of sight, taste and smell, and increases his mental scope
and his capacity for the enjoyment of life.

The future of the countrj^ depends upon the proper education
of the children, and if this Society can do anything to get
the children interested in the cultivation of flowers or fruits,
it should do so.

There are many difficulties in the way when we attempt a
solution of horticultural teaching of school children, the use
of their hands in the cultivation of plants and an interest in
the pursuit. The Society should look into this question care-
fully and if a practical course can be devised to elevate the

1904.] ADDRESS. 23

('(lucaliou of ('hil(li-('ii in lioiiicultiirc, it .should be imj)r()VCHl.
Is it not time to make a special effort to interest children in
gardening, not only in tlieory, but in i)ractice?

Even our country-bretl boy, or man, or woman, does n(^t
sufficiently realize the resources and charm for enjoyment of
country life, — the trees, the waters, the hills and landscape:
ever changing in its contour, with its seasons, never tiring to
those who are trained to ap])reciate tlie resources of tlie country
for lik(> enjoyment. Why should we not contribute sul)stantial
aid to teach the children t(j know the common things which
surround them? Many of our people prefer to amass money
to spoil their children, instead of fitting them to make a living
for themselves and trained to its enjoyment.

It is a remarkable fact that farming and gardening are the
only occupations carried on for fun. Men retiring from all
other business or occupations, either go back to the farms or
long for the opportunity, and are liberal with the expenditure
of money to beautify the old homestead.

The introduction of evergreen trees of late years is proving
an immense gain to us in our cold winters. With our numerous
varieties we can enliven the evergreen effect about our dw(^llings;
by the judicious use of those we now have, a charming effect
can be producetl in tlie landscape, or to a rural home, far sur-
passing any other means of embellishment, or as shelter belts
for the protection from winter blasts.

We are learning the importance of liberal treatment of all
the evergreens to produce the finest color or sheen of foliage,
and the most symmetrical and stately trees. To succeed in
any department of husbandry one must know the laws of
nature which control the development in each specialty, and
learn the best methods of application to secure a desired result.

Trees, indigenous as well as exotic, the cultivated as well
as those of nature's planting, teach us the need of variety.
There is no monotony in variety of trees, something new is
ever being presented to us, which ever delights with its
novelty.

Each department of nature has its own lessons of science

24 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

or art in the grounds about dwellings. Through it the highways
are made delightful with trees, gardens are tastefully laid out,
forming a pleasure in themselves, and' an element of beauty
in the landscape. Wherever it touches it gives the impression
of wealth and happiness in nature, which is skilfully enhanced
through contributions rich and unique, coming from different
lands and contrasting climates.

The love of gardening seems natural to very many. Man
has an inherent love of these beautiful things, but there still
exists, largely through a great lack of education in early life,
something wanting in the practice of horticulture in its higher
branches. An anecdote is related of the late Joseph Breck,
once president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, when
riding in a street car with a large bouquet in his hands.
A little girl kept passing back and forth before him, and
evidently admiring the flowers so much that he took out some
and gave her. Some time after, he was riding again when
a little girl, whom he did not recognize, kept passing before
him and looking up at him, and on being asked if she knew
him, she replied: "0, yes, you are the gentleman who gave
me the flowers." Mr. Breck turned to a friend beside him,
and with tears in his eyes, said: ''We can afford to be at some
pains to grow and distribute flowers if they give so much happi-
ness."

Those who enjoy beautiful natural or cultivated scenery
occupy a higher plane than those who do not. There is nothing
more beautiful than the bloom of many of the fruit trees.
It is an interesting fact that there is no fruit until after the
flower, — beauty comes before reproduction.

The President now introduced Miss Mary C. Henry, principal
of Upsala street school, who explained how gardens of that
school were cultivated by the pupils.

A small portion of the schoolyard is taken for the garden.
The ground is marked off and spaded. In turning up the soil,
the lavse of many insects are found. These are put one side
for future study. The plots are made and the depth for plant-

1904.] ADDRESS. 25

ing tho seed (spn^adiiifj; seod, my pii])ils call it), considorod.
This brings out many interesting observations.

If tlio seed is planted too deep, it will be lost in the soil;
if too near the surface^ the rain will wash it away — observa-
tions again with purpose. The right (le})th is at last decided
upon and the seed planted. Then begins a daily scrutiny of
tlie garden, every morning before school. It leads to the
discovery tliat the earth is cracking, and the children say that
the seeds are swelling and will soon be up. They are right.
A triumphant report is soon made: ''Our seeds are up!" The
unfortunate person who has never planted a seed can never
know the pleasure and gratitude and triumph in that report,
"Our seeds are up!" The miracle is a miracle still. Could
any lesson in pulling flowers to pieces and giving scientific
names to the plants inspire a child as this does? Is there
any doubt in your mind which lesson you would choose for
your children?

Would you prefer to have your child learn that our innocent
little saxifrage had leaves "oborate or oval-spatulate, narrowed
into a broad petiole, crenate-toothed, thickish; flowers in a
clustered cyme, which is at length open and loosely panicled;
lobes of the nearly free calyx erect; not half the length of the
oblong, obtuse petals, follicles united merely at the base, diver-
gent, purplish," or to find out how and where it grew and how
to make it comfortable in a garden? Which is connected more
closely with the life interests and activities of the child? Which
contains more promise for the future? Hundreds of men
cannot read a line of Greek or Latin after they have been out
of college a few years. But had these same men spent four
j^ears in studying practical agriculture or horticulture the
chances are that they would never forget it.

Few schools can afford to give much land for garden purposes.
But it requires little land if worked as a common garden and
not as individual plots. This is the plan followed at the Upsala
street school, where, owing to the generosity of Miss Helen
A. Ball, who gave loam, tools, plans and seeds, garden work
has l^een carried on for years.

26 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

Lessons are given to the whole class and all of the work is
clone by the pupils; spading, spreading fertilizer, measuring,
planting, hoeing, weeding, watering, — every part of the work,
in fact. This I insist upon. I do not think it part of the
janitor's work to help with the garden. If the difficult work
is done for the pupils in the school garden, it tends to make
them helpless, when left to themselves to make a home garden.

SILAS A. BURGESS, President of Worcester County
Market Gardeners' Association.

"I think that this city and every city in the Commonwealth
should appropriate a certain tract of land for the purpose of
teaching the children gardening, and think they should go at
the work with a will." The influence of such gardens upon
the minds and character of the children could scarcely be
overestimated. It wouUl make them better citizens of the city
and the country.

JAMES DRAPER, Secretary of the Parks Commission.

There is opportunity for Worcester in children's gardens, if
proper organization were effected. If all the teachers are as
enthusiastic as Miss Henry and could give the time, and if
the curriculum of the school could be so arranged as to give
teachers time, it would be all right. Time is necessary, for
the ordinary teacher is worked hard. He said he knew because
he had four daughters teaching, from kindergarten to normal
school.

He said the Parks Commission had not yet taken decisive
action, but would be willing, he had no doubt, to give a plot
of land for the purpose. But the Parks Commission would
not give land unless it were assured that the tract would be
an ornament to the park system of the city all the year round.
The Horticultural Society should be able to do something to
encourage. A splendid opportunity, he said, is before the
Society.

1904.] ADDHHSS. 27

"Lot tJio Ilorticulfural Soci(>ty dovoto some of the i)r('miiinis
whicli it almost iiivarial)ly giv(\s for Baldwin ap])lr,s ajid otjicr
things to the garden for the childr(>ji.

"There is one question I would ask Miss Heiny, and tjiat
is whether the garden would be taken care of by the children
dui'ino- tli(> vacation season?"

MISS HENRY.

The garden has been taken care of during the vacation l)y
volunteers.

CHARLES E. PARKER of Holdex.

"When you come to school gardens in the school lot, I have
yet to see one that is any good for the growtli of flowers or
anything else. But if there were lots in a convenient place,
suitable for the growth of the plants, it would be all right.
But when you grow flowers on asphalt paving or bricks, or
behind brick walls four or five stories high, nothing creditable
can be done. If the Parks Commission can give the proper
land, I am in favor of the gardens."

President 0. B. HADWEN.

"I was born in tJie city, and it was there that I got my first
love of flowers and gardening. I had the pleasure when a
boy of attending a school where there was a school garden.
It wasn't a reformatory school, either. It was at the Friends'
School in Providence, and there an acre or more was given
the Ijoys to cultivate. They plowed it, harrowed it and put
it in order, and then it was divided into lots, and each boy
got his portion to seed, plant and take care of. I believe
that flowers have a certain dignity of their own, whicli would
prevent molestation. When we planted water-lilies in Univer-
sity Park and they came out in various colors, such as boys
liad never seen in water-lilies before, the boys got wire hoops

28 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

and lassoed them, but in a short time that was stopped, and
since the first season they have not disturbed them.''

Remarks were made by HERBERT R. KINNEY, WALTER
D. ROSS and ARTHUR J. MARBLE.

Secretary ADIN A. HIXON.

The reason why the Worcester County Horticultural Society
had previously opposed school gardens was the fact that the
matter had been presented wrongly. There had been a club
in the city, called the Civic club, which did all manner of sug-
gesting, but made no move to help along any of those suggestions
being put in practice.

"Besides that," he said, "a principal of a school in Worcester
who had been the loudest spoken for such gardens had one
in his own school. It may have been all right in the spring,
but when officers of the Horticultural Society and others passed
by it during the vacation season it was absolutely uncared for
and weeds grew all over it, killing ofT everything.

"I have always been an advocate of school gardens," Mr.
Hixon added, "and in a small way have done all I could to
encourage love of flowers among children, by giving them
seeds, plants and assisting them in their Arbor Day celebra-
tions."

CALVIN L. HARTSHORN

Moved that a vote of thanks (which was unanimously adopted),
be extended President Hadwen and Miss Mary C. Henr3^

I4th January, A. D. 1904.

LECTUllE

Illustrated by Steueopticon.

BY

HERBERT D. HEMENWAY, Hartford, Conn.

Theme: — School Gardens.

It is recognized, that a child's echicatioji is not complete until
he has learned something of the world he lives in, something
of the food he eats, and how it is produced. There is nothing
more fascinating to the boy shut up in a factory than a broad
expanse of green fields, waving corn or shimmering wheat.
But that boy cannot get out among those fields as he would
like. He eats bread, potatoes, radishes, cabbages and other
vegetables, but if he is confined in a factory he does not know
how they are produced.

It was the realization of this, that factory boys lose the
opportunities of country boys, that induced the president of
the National Cash Register Co., Dayton, 0., Mr. Patterson, to
lay out a large plot of land in children's gardens. He got a
piece of land adjoining property owned by the company in
Dayton, and several college graduated agriculturists to act as
head gardeners. Their instructions have made the summer
life of the boys employed in the factory much more ]Dleasurable
than it could be otherwise.

There are seventy-one boys' gardens izi this plot, which
covers six acres. Each garden is ten feet wide and one hundred
and seventy feet long. One boy cares for a garden. In the
gardens are radishes, corn, lettuce, beets, carrots, cabbages,
string beans, peas, onions, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, tomatoes

30 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

and other e very-day vegetables. Each kind of vegetable has
a separate bed.

The company furnishes seed, fertilizer and tools. The boys
plant the seeds and care for the plants. The boys develop the
most lively interest in their gardens. They can take all the
vegetables. One boy last year produced enough vegetables to
provide food for a family of four and cleared five dollars. Others
were equally successful.

The company offers prizes to the boys having the neatest
gardens, and those which produce the most. Three officers
of the company, who have no relatives in the gardens, are
judges, and once a week they inspect every garden, and at
the end "of the season prizes are awarded.

President Patterson says it is a great success. Just before
he left the United States on a trip to Europe, the boys gave
him a banquet at a club of officers of the company. There
were about two hundred present, and all the vegetables used
were grown in the boys' gardens.

Boys are allowed to use their gardens two years in succession ;
they are then given diplomas and their gardens turned over
to other boys. When the gardens were laid out, the land was
worth but $300 a lot, but now it cannot be bought for $900
a lot.

On the outskirts of almost any city, one can secure land
at about $100 an acre. Get ten acres, and you would have
all the land necessary for a first class set of children's gardens.
The cost of buildings, such as a small conservatory, tool houses
and shelters, would be about $300. A head gardener could be
secured for about $500 a season, six months.

At Hyannis, on the cape, there are children's gardens in
connection with a normal school. They are successful. There
is nothing like practical gartlening to assist in nature study,
geography, horticulture and other subjects. In connection
with these gardens, the study of bookkeeping is taken up.
The children keep account of the seeds they use, the hours
they work, and the time occupied in the growing of vegetables.

When they sell vegetables, they make a record of the proceeds.

1904.] LECTURT^.. 31

deposit the sum in llic school hank. At the end of the season
they have a little fair, exhibit the i)rodiice, are awarded prizes,
and pa.y their share with a check from their bank account.

It is necessary that children should know something of
agriculture. \\'hen onc^ takes into consideration that 65 per
cent, of the exports of the country are agricultui'al, he may
see the extent of agricultur(\ Instruction in elementary sub-
jects is necessary for all children, but if we can add elementary
agriculture we will have added a great deal.

At Providence the pupils have gardens in the school yards
during vacation time, and grow vegetables that mature quickly.
At East Dedham, tliere is a school garden plant, covering four
acres. At Ham{)ton, Ya,., a great work is being done among
colored children through the school gardens. In the Hawaiian
Islands this system of teaching agriculture has been in force
since 1849. Near Honolulu there are several school gardens.
They were founded by missionaries, and their work has had
much to do with bringing the inhabitants of the island from
barbarism to civilization.

The school of horticulture at Hartford is part of the Handi-
craft School System and covers about five acres, on which are
grown all kinds of vegetables.

The pupils at this school are mostly from the public schools.
Any pupil above the fifth grade is eligible. The only rules
necessary are prompt and regular attendance at classes,
a well-kept record book and clean tools. Few children drop
out of the classes, and none because they do not like the work.
There are classes for adults, most of whom are nature study
teachers in the public schools.

The school also has a number of observation }ilots, which
are cared for and experimented upon by directors of the school.
In these plots are hemp, cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco, flax and
almost every vegetable and grain that will grow in New England.

Practice in measuring, planting of seeds, cultivation of the
plants, the watching for things to come up, learning to observe
what they look like, and to understand something of what
they see, the growing love for nature and things beautiful,

32 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL f^lOCIETY. [1904.

learning habits of industry, keeping the boys occupied when,
otherwise, they would be on the street, and the physical develop-
ment in the pure air, — these are some of the things w^hich
are of far greater importance than garden produce, both to
the boys and to the state. The practical nature study is of
fundamental importance to the boys and girls of today.

What is said of the boys' classes is equally true, and perhaps
more so, of the girls. Girls have not now the same liberty,
especially in the city, that even the boys have in the open
air. Learning habits of close observation and coming into
loving contact with nature and with nature's God, cannot help
but make boys and girls stronger, more intelligent, truer,
nobler citizens.

During the lecture, Mr. Hemenway showed slides of children's
gardens in Dayton, Ohio; Hyannis State Normal School of
Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island, Vacation School;
Boston Normal School; Franklin School of Boston; and George
Putnam School of Boston; The Hopedale School, East Dedham;
Hampton Institute, Virginia; School Gardens, St. Louis,
Missouri; Riverside, California; Normal Schools, Willimantic,
Connecticut; Children's Farm School, DeWitt Clinton Park,
New York; Hartford, Connecticut; Horace Mann's School,
Minneapolis; School 29, Rochester, New York; schools in
France, Germany, Haw^aii and Porto Rico.

One school garden worthy of especial notice is that connected
with the Broadview, Boys Institute, Toronto, Canada.

This is a boys' club, an institute of non-residents, with a
membership of over 500, mostly from the homes of artisans.
In addition to the outdoor sports for the summer is a course
in agriculture and nature study. Last year they cultivated
twenty-seven miniature farms, two boys in partnership to a
farm. The twenty-seven farms constituted a township, the
farmers electing their reeve and municipal council, who had
•charge of the township; appointed a path-master, constable
and weed inspector. A fall fair was held and prizes given
for the best vegetables and flowers. The experiment was so

1904.] LFXTUKE. 38

successful thai the towiishii) borders have been widciu'd to
take in seventy-four farms the past s(>ason.

l)urin<^ the lecture Mr. Henienway answered questions re-
garding the work, and it was found that the work was conducted
in a very practical manner, and that the most scientific methods
of teaching were used.

2ist January, A. D. 1904.

AN ADDRESS

BY

Rev. frank ALANSON LOMBARD, Doshisha, Kyoto,

Japan.

Theme : — The Flora of Japan.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Worcester
County Horticidtural Society, Friends : —

To speak at this time of any subject connected with Japan
is at once to call to mind the war clouds that hang, so dark
and low, o'er the Eastern horizon. It is well that we should
be thus interested, for to us Japan is bound by peculiar ties
of sympathy, more spiritual than material.

As the Prince, in ancient story, found the Sleeping Beauty,
and with a kiss called her from a century of slumber, so in
the cold annals of history it is recorded that by the salute
of an American gallant Japan's sealed eyes were opened to
the light and the life of a modern world. Today she honors
Com. Perry as a national benefactor; and, because of the
unbroken spirit of kindness in wliich she has ever been treated
by the United States of America, feels toward us as toward
no other, England not excepted, an unquestioning confidence
and regard. Her nation-proud people admit their debt to-
American life, character, education and ideals which have
quickened her spirit and given inspiration and guidance to the
efforts of her era of enlightenment. We also may well recog-
nize that the obligations are mutual. We have received as well
as given. Eastern beauty, natural and artistic, has enriched our
Western life; Eastern philosophy, hoary with age, has impelled

1904.] ADDRESS. 35

Western tli()ii<i;lit to deeper introspection; and now as the West
retumetli unto the East, circHng the glolx", a contrilnition greater
tlian in the past will come from the Orient rich in beauty and
charm, richer in the unseen things of mind, heart and spirit than
the eager, restless ^^\>st has heretofore supposed possible.

In the "Federation of the World" for the advance of right-
eousness and truth, for the development of man unto the fulness
of his statur(>, Ja})an stands side by side with l*]ngland and
America, through her affinities of blood wielding a mighty
influence for the inspiration of the Greater Orient, for the
realization of a brotherhood limited by no distinctions of color
or of race. ^Ve are then, I repeat, rightly interested in her,
tor she is our sister, — in her success, for W'ith it our own is
vitally connected in the labor of love whereunto we have set
our hands.

Whatever may tend to make her land more near, her life
more real to us, may, therefore, rightly claim your kindly
hearuig; and, thus, ladies and gentlemen, it is with peculiar
pleasure that I invite your attention to the flora of Japan.

The woods were God's first temples; and in the flowers is
still revealed that love of beauty which is His w^ho filleth all.
From those forest temples man heard God's voice; and on
the i)lains, star-lit above, flower-lit below, entered hito fellow-
ship with his Maker, growing strong of bodj^, Inroad of mind,
gentle of spirit, as the trees, the heavens and the flowers amid
which he lived. And even now, amid the material wonders
of a modern world, there is no place W'hich, rightly appreciated,
brings us nobler, sweeter inspiration than do the farmers'
flower-decked fields, under the open heavens, surrounded by
their wood-crowned hills. He has not left Himself without
a witness in any region; and in Japan, though the grandeur
of our Western scenery may be lacking, the picturesque and
beautiful enfolds every hamlet and extends its influence to the
heart of the largest city.

Off the Eastern coast of Asia, within a day's sail of shore,
stretches an Island Empire, from the latitude of northern New
Hampshire to that of South Carolina, containing an area of

36 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

150,000 square miles and a population of nearly fifty millions.
Of its area scarcely more than one-eighth is arable, in fertile
valleys span-wide, amid the mountains, and broadening to the
sea. The mountains, of volcanic formation unsmoothed by
glacial Action, are wild and broken, bearing shrubs wherever
a foothold is given, and having their lower slopes often carefully
covered by government forests. Every inch of fertile land is
used in intensive agriculture; and nature in all her forms is
appreciated and employed in material or aesthetic service. The
climate through that long reach of latitude varies from semi-
tropical to where snow buries the villages during the months
of a long winter.

A few words concerning Japanese agriculture in general may
now not be inappropriate. All labor is manual except in the
Hokkaido, where, I am told, American methods and machines
are employed on the more extensive farms. In the agriculture
of this section the influence of such men as Stockbritlge, Brooks
and others of our educators, who from New England went
forth to teach and to learn, is vitally effective. The central
and southern islands afford but slight opportunity for the
introduction of our methods of agriculture, for reasons topo-
graphical and social that I cannot here recount.

Rice is the great staple. Seven million acres are cultivated,
with an average yield of about twenty-six bushels per acre.
Wheat, rye, barley, peas and beans, millet, buckwheat, rape,
potatoes, Irish and sweet, are also raised in large quantities,
tliough to none is given more than one-seventh as much area
of cultivation. Small fields, often not more than thirty feet
square, with levees a foot wide, curved and crooked, within
which no draught animal can labor, are the usual farm lands.
Nothing is sown l^roadcast, but in hill or drill; and the levee
sides are planted with pulse. The soil is worked with spade
and mattock, and kept fertilized with straw-ash and night-
soil, for the gathering of which every home in city and country
is visited, and for retaining which tanks are sunk in the corner
of every field.

The rice is first planted thickly in seed-beds which are kept

1904.] ADDRESS. 37

flooded niucli of the fiiiic. When flic plaiifs arc six or c'glit
inches liigli they are traiisi)lanted into hills abouf a foot apart;
and tliere carefully tended througli all the period of their growth.
It is a common sight to see men and women, up to their knees
in muddy water, setting the plants or pushing the hand culti-
vator, by which they are later hilled more perfectly. The
method of irrigation is ()ft(>n most i)rimitive. If the fields are
by a stream, the water is lifted into th(> sluice-ways by a great
wheel, whose wide surface is laden with little buckets, which
as the wheel revolves empty their contents into a leading-pipe.
The whole is turned by human tread or, if the current is strong,
by the force of the stream. Where there is no running water,
many wells are sunk and from them by hand the water is drawn.
About Kyoto the fields are watered from a branch of the great
canal which for commercial purposes connects Lake Biwa with
the city. At the harvest, four or five hills of rice are bound
together and hung upon bamboo rods to dry. The grain is
removed by hatchelling and winnowed by the breeze.

From this picture of simple conditions, however, do not
hastily judge that we have nothing to learn from the agriculture
of Japan. A willingness to learn is the hope of the agricultu-
rist. In 1899 the United States Department of Agriculture
introduced Kyushu rice with the purpose of developing the
rice-growing industry in Louisiana and Texas. It would be
quite apart from my intention to review the results. They
more than met the most sanguine expectations. Believing that
further improvement might be effected. Dr. S. A. Knapp was
later commissioned to visit Asia and study the methods of
rice-culture. His report is issued by the Department's Bureau
of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 35.

We call Japan a lantl of flowers. It is a land of trees also.
Almost one-fourth of its plant growths are woody; and for
its area Japan is unsurpassed in the number of forest trees.
Yet many of our most familiar friends are there unknown;
and those of you who have become at all interested in botanical
study have observed that to many common names is added
the term Japonica, to signify that the tree or shrub as there

38 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

foiuid differs from the same in America. In general, as is
natural, the kinship is closer between the flora of Japan and of
Europe, than between that of Japan and of America. Through
our increasing intercourse, the trees of either are becoming
well known to the other. American apples flourish in Japan;
and a beginning has been made toward the introduction of
Japanese fruits in California, and of ornamental trees in New
England. Nearly every lawn now boasts a few Japanese
shrubs; and one need not leave Worcester to see a truly won-
derful collection, in the grounds of that early and constant
lover of natural beauty, President Had wen, whose interest in
and care for these beauties from the East have done much to
introduce them to New England. At the Agricultural College
in Amherst are a group of Japanese maples that are proving
themselves hardy in our climate; and, if I understand correctly,
most interesting experiments are being performed in the graft-
ing of Japanese cuttings upon American stock with a view to
securing the delicate beauty of the Japanese foliage upon our
larger native trees.

The number of varieties in Japan valuable for timber is
comparatively small, — due it may be to the rapid growth
fosteretl by a damp climate. The maple, to which I have
alluded, luxuriates in no less than twenty species, while in all
of North America, I think, there are not half that number;
yet with one exception they have no resemblance to ours, and
none of them are timber trees. They are much smaller. Their
leaves are far more delicate and deeply cleft, baby-hands as
the people poetically call them. Some of them have bright
foliage from bursting bud to falling leaf; and in autumn they
rival ours in brilliancy, giving an effect quite different, though
wherein the difference lies it is not easy to say. Many hills
are covered with them. They line the sides of river-gorges;
and for their beauty 'of form and color are planted in parks
and private gardens. Wherever they flourish, there, in the
days of their glory, throngs gather to warm their hearts at
the fireside of the gods.

The Japanese are a nature-loving people; and make the

1904.] ADDRESS. 39

ix'i'iods of licr richest beauty in tree or flower tlie time of festival,
when the populace en //ia.s.se issues from village and city to
bask hi her bounty.

Not far from Kyoto is a famous maple scene. It occupies
the slopes of a little valley, through which flows a crystal stream.
Twic(^ I have visited the place. Ihider a canopy of flame, 6r
at a little distance whence could be seen the glow of nature's
fire, picnicked hundreds of families, whose children, gay as the
falling leaves, romped in the sunshine and shadow. Along the
winding wal^s were booths, more numerous than at a New
England fair, for the sale of things to eat, to drink, to play
with, or to bear away as reminders of the scene. There might
be found fried maples leaves, showing the bright colors and
flne traceiy, which had been dipped in transparent batter and
for a moment dropped in boiling fat. The process went on
before our eyes; and the crisp leaves were daintily boxed,
that at the household evening meal the beauty of the woodland
might be recalled. There were furoshiki also, — cotton kerchiefs
painted from the life-blood of the leaves. The cloth was
spread smooth upon a block of wood; the leaves were placed
upon it in graceful figure and over them was laid another corner
of the cloth. With gentle taps the painter hammered the
imprisoned beauties until faintly, then in perfect form and
color, they sought escape through the fabric. A few severe
blows set, as it were, the pattern; and, when the cloth was
unfoldetl, nothing remained but the leaf skeleton and upon
the cloth a beautiful double design that, unless washed, would
keep distinct and unfaded through long, long months.

Of the rose family also not one is of forest size. The most
popular garden tree in all Japan is the plum, whose single or
double, white, rose or red blossoms appear before the leaves
in February and March, clothing the stalks and twigs in garments
of beauty, concealing all l^ut the tracery of the branches now
made soft with bloom. Great care and labor is spend in train-
ing it, for, with the Japanese, beauty is as much a thing of
form as of color, and is a term applied not to a part but the
whole of an object admired. Plums are dwarfed for potting.

40 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

grafted with different colors, until a mature tree is attained
ten inches in height, displaying white, pink and red blossoms
beautifully mingled. In the place of honor such a tree often
adorns the guest room of a wealthy home. In the lyric verse
of the people, as in art, the plum figures largely, and is asso-
ciated with the nightingale, musical in the season of its blooming.
As seen by moonliglit, while the faint perfume floats upon the
soft, silvery air, the effect is enchanting.

" In spring time, on a cloudless night
When moonbeams throw their silver pall
O'er wooded landscape, shrouding all
In one soft cloud of misty white,
I'm vain, almost, to hope to trace
The plum trees in their lovely bloom
Of argent. ' Tis their sweet perfume
Alone which leads me to their place."

Following the plum in the order of the season comes the
cherry, in its glory through a few days of April. This, rather
than the chrysanthemum, is Japan's national flower. Though
it blooms not on the Imperial crest, it blooms in the hearts
of the people; and by Emperor and coolie alike is deemed
the flower royal. It is planted singly and in groves, in gardens
and about temples, along the highway for miles, and upon
the banks of streams. Hillsides burst into glory with masses
of its bloom against backgrounds of pine.

The flowering of the cherry is the call for a universal holiday,
when the temple gardens are thronged by day and night;
and the famous hillsides made alive with festal crowds. Even
private grounds, the Japanese gentleman's holy of holies, are
thrown open if they possess a noted cherry, for such wealth
of divine beauty is not given for one alone, but is a gift of
the gods to all mankind. A few miles from Kyoto is a steep
hill called Arashiyama. To increase the natural beauty of the
place an emperor, hundreds of years ago, planted cherry trees
amid its groves of maple and pine. About its floor flows a
little river; and there in the springtime come thousands that
they may float upon the waters and look up to the blossoms
that like clouds rest on the slopes of the mountain.

1904.] ADDRESS. 41

111 Maruyaina rark is a famous cherry called the "night
cherry of Gion," because to beliokl its beauty by the light of
flaming torches the city literally encamps about its feet. I
have been there at seven o'clock in the evening; I have been
there at midnight; and the wierd spell held the thousands
with an influence no \\'esterner can comprehend. The tree
stands on rising ground surrounded by a park. It is old; and
its brandies are supported by a score of poles. To us it has
no beauty; yet to the people of Kyoto it is dear; and in the
springtime even we must gaze in wonder at the mass of white
that flows over its bending branches as a veil of glory. Be-
neath it the grountl is carpeted with ermine; and in the glow
of th(^ evening lights a wild enchantment seems to issue from
its ancient form. Far as the eye can reach mats are spread.
Men, women anct children, in family groups, in larger parties,
sit in social enjoyment through all the evening hours and far
toward morning, held by the object to which all faces turn.
Here an aged man in silence sits dreaming of other nights
beneath the shadow of that tree, and worships a distant past.
The dead are here tonight.

Not to the flowering trees alone do the Japanese give their
affection. The country is rich in cone-bearers, of which the
Hinoki is most valuable. It rises to great height, with un-
branched trunk. Sacred to disciples of Shinto faith, it is
planted near the Shinto temples ; and from its timber, straight -
grained, light and strong, their shrines are made. More common
than the Hinoki is the Sugi or Cryptomeria, universally used,
having no rival in the world perhaps, but the Sequoias of Cali-
fornia. About the famous temples at Nikko are mighty groves
of this tree, forming for me the chief beauty of the place. Along
the old imperial highways their lines extend for miles, blending
b(»auty and grandeur, and speaking of that past when beneatli
their branches trod the retinue of Dymio and Prince.

Pines are in abundance, but of little value for timber. Some
are mighty monarchs famed for historic associations. Upon the
shore of Lake Biw^a is a pine over 1,200 years old. The cir-
cumference of its trunk is over twenty-flve feet, and its branches

42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

cover an area of three-fourths of an acre. The height is not
great, only about forty feet, and the hmbs turning downward
are supported by wooden posts. Great holes in the trunk are
filled with plaster, and many of the larger branches are com-
pletely roofed, to protect them from the storm and sun. We
are more familiar with the dwarfed forms, many of which
have been imported to this country and sold at fabulous prices.
A tree of only a few inches may be a hundred years old with
every characteristic of its great age except that of size. Japan-
ese gardeners are very skilful in training these trees, both large
and small. In a temple garden familiar to me is a junk under
full sail. Its hull and rigging are perfect; and all formed of
the limbs and leaves of a living tree. That tree is tended
even to the care of each individual needle, while its branches
and smallest twigs are held to the desired form by bamboo rods.
In connection with the trees of Japan, I ought to mention
that growth of universal use, the bamboo, a tree in size and
strength yet in truth a grass of the field. About the word
'M^amboo" might be written the daily life of the people. The
mountain sides and the forest floors are covered with bamboo
grass from three to six feet high, making traveling impossible
save by well-beaten paths. Every village has its grove of
bamboo trees growing in smooth glossy splendor fifty and
sixty feet high, waving their feathery tops in each breath of
the breeze. The mature stalks are used in a thousand ways,
from the building of a house to the making of an umbrella,
while the young sprouts are cultivated for food. As an object
of beauty the bamboo, whether singly or in a grove, is a delight
to the eye. A few years ago the Emperor gave forth as the
subject for poetic contemplation and composition, snow on the
bamboo; and truly no more beautiful sight can be imagined.
We of New England know well the beauty of the graceful
birches as, snow-laden, they bend by our country roadsides.
In place of their silvery trunks and leafless twigs, scarcely seen
in the mantle of snow, picture the sheen of the bamboo's pure
green and the quivering grace of its finger-like leaves playing
hide and seek in the snow.

1904.] ADDRESS. 43

In p;issin<2; tVoiii \hv tree <>;i-()\vt]is, I wish to niciition one
vine, true (i-('('-l()V(>i\ the wisteria, so familiar to ns all. It
blooms in May, following the cherry, and with a luxuriance
we never behold in tliis country. Trained on trellises, a single
plant will covei- an innnense area; and wild in the groves
near tlu; tein})les of Nara its pendent bloom-clusters, over a
foot long, wdxo from the top of sixty-foot trees. In doul)l(>
white as wvW as ])ur)ile lolooms, its floral offering is both royal
and spotlessly pure.

Following the wisteria blooms the iris, and then the peony,
both admired, as, in spite of difhculties, they are now becoming
well-known in our gardens.

The flower of autunni is the chrysanthemum, ennobled in
the Imperial Crest, yet democratic as our own wayside dais}^
in the lavishness of its manifold beauty. There is little occa-
sion for me to speak at length of the chrysanthemum in a
land which has so fully adopted it. Under the care of our
gardeners it has attainetl a development unsurpassed if equalled
in the land of its nativity. Tasts may differ, and some prefer
the symmetrical perfection of our dense blooms, while others
may regard more highly the artistic grace of the plant with
lighter flowers. In the one, the American culturist has sur-
passed his teacher, for his love has led him where the other's
desire would never lead. The Japanese does not so much
regard the beauty of blossom, which may be enjoyed apart
from the plant, but rather esteems that completeness which
makes stalk, leaf and bloom one artistic perfection.

You all know the story of the chrysanthemum's introduction,
how Joseph Neesima, the Japanese runaway, exile, scholar,
hero. Christian educator, gave a few plants to the wife of his
benefactor, Mrs. Alpheus Hardy; how by her they were in-
trusted to the care of a florist; and how they aroused the
interest that to this day increases with each succeeding year.

We have our chrysanthemum shows. Many of them surpass
what might be seen in Japan. Yet there are features of Japanese
exliibits that may have a novel interest. Apart from i)rivate
collections, emphasizing this or that phase of the culture accord-

44 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

ing to the owjier's taste, there is the Imperial Chrysanthemum
Party, as much a social function as a flower display. In various
exhibits wonderful masses of bloom are seen, and marvelous
individual plants, so trained that when in flower they perfectly
represent forms of beasts, of architecture, or natural scenery.
Street displays are common, where for half a mile the sides
of the street are banked with plants in bloom, their roots care-
fully bound in straw, and all for sale at prices that to us seem
ridiculously small. Three cents will secure a chrysanthemum
tree of perfect symmetry, spreading from a trunk eight or ten
inches high into a mass of branches bearing thousands of dainty
blossoms; or the same sum will buy its neighbor plant, a grace-
ful, slender twin-stalk with bending heads of tangled hair
rich in color as the golden sun.

The Japanese find no difficulty in moving living plants, be
they large or small. The roots are gathered in a compact
ball and wound with straw, thus suffering transportation
without apparent injury. These chrysanthemums in full bloom
are carried in carts, handled with apparent carelessness and
yet remain unwilted. So with trees. A common sight in the
park of the old imperial palace is the moving of trees from
place to place, their roots cut and bound in like manner and
receiving as little injury. To account in part for this skill,
acquired by long experience, it may be said that the trees
planted in the ground do not loecome a part of the estate, but
remain the owner's personal property, to be removed by him,
if, having rented a house, he now desires to move to another.

Every Japanese is to some extent a skilled gardener; and
in this connection I wish to speak of their mode of culture.
In the first place, they care but little for what we call cut-flowers.
Hence their culture is rather of trees and flowering shrubs,
of plants to be admired as they grow or which yield themselves
to their peculiar style of flower-arrangement, than of such as
find their chief beauty in the bloom alone. A Japanese garden
is a thing of wonder. It is a work of highest art, yet in utmost
harmony with nature. A firmly fixed body of conventions
govern the gardener's efforts. The scenery of the country is

1904.] ADDRESS. 45

idealized (o make certain lealures proiniiieiit ; but the desip;!!
is always sell'-coiisistcnt, and expi'essive of some idea oi" seiiti-
mont. A depth of philosophy uiulcrlies every armngement and
ministers to an inner sense in the behokler. Though much
may be included in a small area, — a mountain, with its torrent
flowing from an island-studded lake whose shores are lined
with forest on one side and low iris-fields on the other; a
summer-house from which to \w\y the scene; winding walks
and shady groves — there is no over-crowding, no sense of
confusion. There is perfect obedience to the laws of proj^riety
and proportion. The lotus may bloom in the marshes, the
mai)le illumine the hillside; l)ut by suggestion rather than
mass do they give the impression of greatness. There is studied
avoidance of the strange, the incongruous, the inharmonious.
Collections rare and wonderful are of interest; the grotesque
is peculiar in its appeal to the Japanese mind; yet these are
not the ideals of the garden. The garden is the sanctum sancto-
rum; and should harmonize not only with its own philosophy,
but also with its owner's soul. It is not primarily for public
display or social entertainment, but for private and personal
enjoyment. As the "den" to the student and man of letters,
as the studio to the devotee of art, so is the garden to the soul
of its owner. It is never seen from the street; but, being
entered usually through the house, it is the most retired of
the master's possessions.

Together let us visit such a garden. Its beauty we may
only half appreciate; but our friend will patiently listen to
our misdirected praise and courteously guide our attention to
that which is worthy of note. We will imagine that we have
passed through the preliminaries of reception within the house,
the tea-drinking and the pleasantries of polite conversation,
and have, stepped from the parlor to the stone walk of the
garden. Its sanded surface is spotlessly clean. No leaves or
fallen twigs disfigure the path. With three steps we ascend
the mountain promontory which overlooks the scene. Here
we sit down and behold a wide reach of country. At our
feet is a placid lake, which in a merry stream flows away at

46 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

our right beneath an overhanging pine, whose ancient branches
span the channel, bridging it from shore to shore, and casting
dancing shadows o'er the edge of the meadow, where the iris
is in full jjloom. Off to the left is an island, densely wooded
with pine, amid which may be seen the graceful forms of the
cherry, which in the earlier months made it a bower of beauty.
Away in the distance, at the upper end of the lake, may be
caught the gleam of the boulders, over which the mountain
torrent rushes to the calm waters of the lake. They are deeply
worn, and have been quaintly hurled from the higher ledges
by the force of the water, which, far above, issues through a
broken wall of native rock. We can almost hear the roar of
the falling water; and surely that is the lap of the waves,
lifting the lily-pads floating by the nearer shore, — or is it the
gurgle of the laughing stream, mockingly playing hide-and-
seek amid the stones and shrubs that half conceal the bed
in which it runs to slumber? We cannot tell; and yet, a
word, — there is no drop of water in all this scene, save wliat,
in buried tanks, holds life for the roots of the iris and lily grow-
ing by the banks. The lake of glistening sand, the island with
its cluster of dwarf pine, the mountain with its rocky gorge
and open cleft, the floating lily-pads, the blooming iris, — all
are here; and make a scene in which the soul delights and
to which the soul gives soul.

" Spake full well, in language quaint and olden,
One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine,
When he called the flowers, so blue and golden,
Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine.

Stars they are, wherein we read our history.
As astrologers and seers of eld ;
Yet not wrapped about with awful mystery,
Like the burning stars, which they beheld."

All people of any fineness of culture have found in flowers,
as in the stars, appropriate symbols of elevated thoughts. To
the boor, the primrose by the river's brim may be only a prim-
rose; but to the poet it becomes transfused with a meaning
which is difficult to express in a language less refined. To
the Japanese flowers have a language difficult for us to com-

1004.] ADDRESS. 47

j)i'('li('ii(l, as aw the niai-vcls of tlicir spokcii ttuiguo. In the
first place, in I he use of flowers, as in the i)lanjiinni; of a pardon,
there must be propriety and htness. A liower out of season
is unnatural and hence olijectionable. Tlie hotlioiise foi' forced
culture is a thing by tlunn unknown and ujidesired. An
arrangement of flowers that would not occur in natui'e is in
poor taste; and an arrangement that doc^s not in some way
suggest the natural is equally inai)i)r()priate. Thus special
vases are often used for s{)ecial flowers, that l)y their form
and structure they may enhance the naturalness of the effect
and suggest an entire landscape to the imagination. Massing
is seldom allowed. A single spray is often more effective than
' a crowded cluster; and its charm consists not so much in beauty
of blossom as in beauty of form, suggesting to the sympathetic
soul much that is hidden from our duller sense. A gnarled
and knotted tree trunk, bereft of branches, may for some
reason by them appreciated be a thing of beauty and of joy.
So the untrimmed limb of the forest may, in the costly vase
of the parlor, suggest a beauty and charm native to itself alone.

None l)ut one trained in the art of Japanese flower-arrange-
ment should attempt to speak in detail; none but one moved
by the inherited philosophy of that Orient race should undertake
an interpretation of that which is with them a liberal art, the fit
employment of literati, embodying much of their esoteric faith.

In painting arid in verse the language of flowers and trees
is an element of enrichment and beauty; and with the trans-
lation (by a professor of the Tokyo University), of a famous
Tanka, I will conclude my lecture, thanking you for your
gracious attention :

Thou plum tree of common growth,

Beneath thy spreading leaves

The air of reverence breatlies still.

Were't not for the noble exile

Would thy leaves be regarded to-day?

Oh, the sainted no more's to be seen,

But the plum tree that once vi^as his pride.

And in the words of another floral verse : —

May thy fam;; flourish as the firs,
Prospering in the forest of everlasting green.

28th January, A. D. 1904.
LECTURE

BY

F. A. WAUGH,

HORTICULTURIST, MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Theme: — Stock and Scion or some Facts and Theories about

Grafting.

He spoke of experiments which have been made at the Col-
lege to ascertain the best methods of grafting. Until a few
years ago the impression among horticulturists was that,
while the scion had a strong influence on the stock, the stock
had little or no influence on the scion. Nothing could be
further from the tiuth, for recent experiments have shown
that in order to produce the best results as much attention
should be given to the stock as the scion. The principle is the
same as governs stock breeding.

He told of results obtained by grafting the peach on its
own root, plum on the peach, and plum on three varieties of
plum, one American and two European varieties. In this con-
nection he explained how to get the earliest, latest, best keeping
and most beautiful fruits. He advocated the dwarfing of trees, so
that they might l^e within easy reach of the sprayer, particularly
those which are troubled with San Jose scale.

In Vermont there had I'jeen numerous experiments made by
grafting Mcintosh scions on crab apple stock, resulting in a
remarkable improvement of the Mcintosh, the fruit ripening two
or three weeks later than on common stock, fruit of superior
quality and keeping much longer.

Discussion followed. The principal speakers were, 0. B.
Hadwen, James Draper, Arthur J. Marble, S. H. Record, S. B.
Parsons, A. A. Hixon. This was a very interesting and instruc-
tive lecture. Prof. AVaugh spoke witliout notes, and declined
at a later date to wi'ite it out.

A. A. HIXON.

4th February, A. D. 1904.

LFxrruRE

Illustrated by Sterkopticon.

BY

Miss EMMA G. CUMMINGS, Bkookline.

Theme : — CharacterisHcs of Some Southern Trees.

The people of \'irginia must have been fond of planting willows,
and their fresh, feathery green leaves, expanding so early, are
an attractive feature of the cities and towns. The woodlands
are dotted with the deep pink blossoms of the Judas trees;
combined with the green of the willows it forms a very pleasing
picture. The rjiododendron, kalmia or mountain laurel clothe
many a slope of the southern Alleghanies with green, shining
leaves, and along the river banks the rhododendrons often
make impenetrable thickets. There is a great variety of the
broad-leaved evergreens, like the magnolia, holly, live oak and
palmetto.

Magnolia fcptida has been freely planted in the parks and
gardens of Washington, and from there southwaiil is a promi-
nent decorative feature of the cities, and conspicuous in the
forest.

Fine old trees of live oak {Quercus Virginiana) are growing
in Fortress Monroe, and they entirely compose the park along
the water-front in Charleston. The trunks usualh^ divide
a few feet from the ground and form many wide-spreading
l^ranches, often from one hundred to one hundred and fifty
feet across.

In the early part of the last centur}^ the United States govern-
ment bought in the Gulf States large tracts of land covered
with live oak, because the wood w^as regarded as especially

50 WORCESTER COUxNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

adapted to ship-building; and large quantities of it were used
in the construction of warships before the substitution of iron.
Since the Civil War the reservations have been neglected, and
occupied by people who cleared the ground for planting. In
1895 all the reservations, except those in Florida, were trans-
ferred from the Navy to the Interior Department and opened
to the public.

The Sabel palmetto, which makes the traveler feel at a
glance that he is approaching the tropics, grows singly or in
groups in the sandy soil of the islands and along the coast
of South Carolina to Florida, but seldom grows more than
thirty or forty feet high.

The leafstalk is connected with the trunk by a series of threads
or fibres. These descend in curves through the whole trunk
of the tree, a structure peculiar to palms, interlacing with
fibres from the other leaves in such manner as to produce
great resisting power.

In May, 1777, the soldiers under Captain Moultrie were
obliged hurriedly to construct a fort to protect themselves
from an attack by the British fleet. For this purpose they
used the trees that were growing on the shore, and the balls
of the enemy either passed over or lodged in the spongy wood.
Thus the small garrison within were enabled to repulse the
foe. To commemorate this event, the state seal shows an oak
without branches, at the foot of an upright palmetto, signifying
the victory of the palm over the oaken British fleet. Ever
since then South Carolina has been known as the Palmetto State.

It is commonly called cabbage palmetto because the growing
tips are cut off and eaten as a vegetable by the negroes. From
three to four feet of the top are taken off, and after removing
from the centre the tender young leaves, the remainder is
boiled, shredded by machinery and made into scrubbing brushes.
A factory in Jacksonville has converted as many as 7,500 of
these buds into scrubbing brushes in a single week. The
leaves serve as a thatch covering for roofs; are made into
hats, mats, fans and baskets; also used for green on Palm
Sunday. One Boston firm receives 200,000 leaves annually.

1904.] LECTURE. 51

IMiicliurst. the well known health resort in Nortli Carolina,
is built anion*:; pines. Thei'e are three species, one with short
leaves growing- in clusters of two, Pinus echinnta, is of wide
distribution and found from southern New York to Texas.
The other two species are long-leaved and grow in clusters of
tliree. The Pinus Ueda lias leaves from six to ten inches
long antl with innumerable cones. Pinus palustris is larger
and longer leaved, and commercially the most valuable of the
three. They grow tall and straight with no low Hmbs and
the long dark green leaves form dense tufts at the ends of
the branches.

A fourth species of pine, growing from South Carolina south-
ward, is the Cul^an. This so closely resembles the long-leaved,
from which formerly it was not distinguished, that it is often
cut and sold under that name.

The largest forests used to be in Georgia, and they have
been practically exhausted by tapi)ing the trees for turpentine,
and cutting for the lumber market. The government reports
state, that in 1S90, there were eighty-eight lumber mills in
Georgia sawing exclusively long-leaved pine timber.

The seedlings of the long-leaved pine look like little tufts
of grass and grow but little in height for several years, giving
most of their nourishment to the development of a root system,
by wdiich they are better prepared to live in soil where the
water supply is scanty.

A plant two years old is not more than one and a half inches
high, while the tap-root is often two or three feet long. The
slow upw^ard growth continues until the plant is about seven
years old and as many inches high, when its period of most
vigorous growth begins, and it doubles its height in a year.

Great quantities of these trees are cut every winter and
sent to our northern markets for decoration. The leaves re-
main green a long time, and put in flower pots they look like
growing plants and are used extensively for church decoration.

The largest forest of this species to be seen in North Carolina,
is known as Ray's Forest and covers an area of 2,300 acres,
where formerly it covered about 15,000 square miles.

52 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

Here and there through these trees we came upon a few
deciduous trees, such as button wood (Platanus occidentalis) ,
red maple {Acer rubrum), and the blackjack (Quercus Mari-
landica), and the willow oak (Q. laurifolia). There are also
occasional patches of low, swampy ground where grow Magnolia
glauca and Leucothoe. Specimens of this last have been planted
at the foot of Hemlock Hill in the Arnold Arboretum.

One of the important mdustries of the state is known as
the Naval Stores Industry, probably because its products have
been so extensively used for vessels and in ship yards. It
consists in gathering the resinous substance from the trees and
converting it into resin and spirits of turpentine. Tar is pro-
duced from dead wood and thoroughly seasoned stumps.
These are gathered, put in a clay-lhied pit, set on fire and
loosely covered with earth. After nine days of slow burning
tar begins to flow into a hole some three feet away, with which
the crude oven is connected by an underground channel. The
flow continues for several weeks. Pitch is obtained as a result
of boiling down the tar.

The turpentine is obtained by removing the bark of a tree
and cutting into the wood, when a liquid exudes in large quan-
tities.

The trade in turpentine and the manufacture of tar and
pitch were started in North Carolina by the first settlers; and
in colonial times these products furnished the chief exports
of the colony. In 1770 their value amounted to $215,000.
In 1890 it had increased to more than eight million dollars
(-18,135,339). This country has for many years supplied a
large part of the world's demand for these substances, but
the industry is doomed to destruction unless a different method
is substituted.

A lumber company has established itself in Ray's Forest,
with the intention of cutting down the trees as soon as the
turpentine company has finished with them, having paid for
the privilege at the rate of ten dollars an acre. Such land
without the trees is of little value, often being sold for fifty
cents an acre.

1904.] LECTURE. 53

Fires clue to viu'ious causes uhviiys have been and still are
of frequent occurrence in these pine forests. Other causes of
destruction to these i)iiie foi-ests nvc in the pasturage of cattle,
who eat off the tops of the young trees; hogs are always allowed
to roam at large through the South, and do nnich injury by
digging up and eating (he tender roots of the young plants;
and squirrels i)ull the cones to pieces to get at the sweet seeds.
It seems marvelous that undcn- these adverse conditions any
seedlings escape destruction, and more especially when the
fields of burned stumps bear sucli evidence of continued fires.

Taxodium dislichum, or bald cypress, is another conifer of
great interest, not an evergreen, and grows along the low coast
lands of the Southern States, sometimes following up the
rivers for several miles. Unlike the long-leaved pine it needs
a great deal of moisture and grows in wet, swampy soil that
is often flooded for weeks at a time, so that the young plants
are wholly covered with water. It must be a desirable condi-
tion, for the old trees grow to a large size. Fortunate it is
that some trees prefer swamps and some the dry sandy plains,
that both may be clothed with verdure.

We went through the Dismal Swamp canal to Drummond
lake for the purpose of seeing the bald cypress trees. We
left Elizabeth City in North Carolina on a canal boat; we
found the first ten or fifteen nules of the route was on the
Pasquotank river, which grew narrower as we ascended, until
we were close to the banks on either side. The cypress trees
were numerous and conspicuous, just coming into leaf. Some
trees were reddish-brown and some yellowish-green in color.
In contrast with this delicate green were the brilliant colored
keys of the red maples, everywhere abundant through the
woods.

We entered the canal, which stretched out before us in a
nearly straight line for twenty-two miles. Recent dredging of
the canal had drawn away the water in adjacent lands from
the roots of the trees and their bare branches testified that
hundreds of them had been killed. The mud had been deposited
upon the banks, making them very unsightly. In some places
5

54 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

they were covered with plants, conspicuous among which was
the Gelsemium , commonly called yellow jessamine. From time
to time we passed small settlements, and occasionally large
farms.

About midway of the canal a small side canal, its banks
covered with a growth of horsebriar and wild roses, leads to
Drummond lake, which is off the direct route and has no regular
connnunication with it. Altogether the visit was a disappoint-
ment because the wind was blowing a hurricane and it Was
not considered safe to go out on the lake; and second because
there was no chance to see the peculiar cypress characteristics.
As far as we could see along the shore most of the trees appear
to be dead, due to the lowering of the water.

We saw some of these trees to much better advantage on
the James river, and also while driving near Suffolk, coming
unexpectedly upon them as they stood in the water on the
borders of a small stream. The two forms of growth which
this tree assumes were quite noticeable, — the erect pyramidal
form, common to young trees; and the broad summit, often
one hundred feet across, and rounded outline of older trees,
which generally lose their lower branches, the up})er ones
curving slightly tlownward. AA'here a tree stands alone or a
few grow together in cultivation they show the pyramidal
form, like the group in Central Park, New York.

They have also two forms of leaves, the one pressed close
to the branch, the other standing at right angles from it. They
may appear on tlie same or on different branches of the same
tree, or on separate trees. Trees with both forms of leaves
are growing side by side at the Arnold Arboretum. The foliage
is very delicate and fern-like and its beauty makes the trees
desirable for cultivation.

One of the i)eculiarities of the bald cj^ijress is the enlarged
trunk near the base, where it slopes outward, looking like an
inverted vase; but the most striking characteristic is a series
of projections from the roots, known as cyprei-s knees, an
arrangement, so it is tliought, for supj^lying them with air;
and as water often covers the ground ai'ound the trees to the

1904.] LECTURE. 55

(leptli of several IVet, llic roots, of course, must have air. Tins
is conveyed through the hollow projections wliich grow on the
roots and rise at least high enougli to he above the usual high-
water mark. If the water rises so high as to cover these for
many weeks, the trees die.

This is the generally accepted theory of the knees, still they
have beeii a matter of six'culation to the botanists. Michaux
writes, "no caus(> can be assigned for their existence." Dr.
Gray writ(>s, ''the use to the trees of the knees is unknown."
Som(> authorities believe that their purpose is to strengthen
the root system. Mr. Lamborn writes, "I am convinced that
the most important function of the cypress knee is to stiffen
and strengthen the root, in order that a great tree may anchor
itself safely in a yielding material. When the trees grow in
firm grountl or where the roots can obtain a hold in the ordinary
way knees seldom if ever develop."

The wood of the cypress is very valual)le for lumber, being
used for a great variety of purposes, and varying in color with
different localities. In the last twenty years it has largely
taken the place of white pine, which has become more and
more scarce in the market. In the vicinity of the Gulf of
Mexico, the largest trees are found.

No other trees grow surrounded by so much water, and for
centuries they have stood in marshes, apparently undisturbed
by storm or flood. On the Ashley river, near Charleston,
TiUandria, or southern moss, grows upon its branches. This
I)lant loves moisture and in the damp woods of the South
often veils these trees with its abundant growth.

As we left the lowdands for the mountainous district we found
coniferous trees fewer and the deciduous trees more and more
apparent. Red birches (Betida nigra) grow along the banks
of the Swananoa river at Biltmore, where they attain great
size. These trees are estimated to be one hundred and fifty
j'^ears old or more. Beneath their shade along the banks
grows a tall reed or cane, resembling bamboo.

A short distance from Biltmore, the estate of W. K. Vander-
bilt, we saw the Carolina hemlock {Tsiiga Caroliniana), and

56 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

the dark slopes of the high mountains, we learned, were covered
with Fraser's fir (Ahies Fraseri). Both are found only in this
vicinity. The botanists at Biltmore think the mountains of
North and Soutli Carolina the most interesting botanical region
on the Atlantic coast, because of the great variety of species
native to that region.

We saw many traces of fire and flood, especially on the
French Broad river in the western part of North Carolina.
In ^^irginia these conditions are even more noticeable, where
the hillsides are strewn with burned or partially decayed timber.

It was in the mountains of South Carolina that we saw the
largest and finest trees. Leaving the railroad at Seneca we
drove twenty-five miles up a river valley, where we went for
the purpose of seeing that most interesting American flower,
Shortia galacifolia, — little coltsfoot, the natives of Jocasse
valley call it.

At first our route lay over a stretch of country where dead
pine trees stood in various stages of decay. The settlers girdled
them for the purpose of clearing their land that they might
plant corn and cotton. We passed through many such fields
until we came to a growth of liardwood, oak predcmuiating,
.with mistletoe growing upon its boughs.

Our guide, learning of our interest in trees, offered to show
us some exceptional ones. It proved to be a day's tramp
there and back from the valley, but we felt well repaid for
all our trouble in crossing streams and climbing through rhodo-
dendron thickets, until we finally came to the big timber.
We saw chestnut trees (Castanea dentata) fourteen feet in
circumference; tulip {Liriodendron tulipifera) more than sixteen
and a half feet in circumference, five feet from the ground,
a liquidambar or sweet gum {Liquidamhar styraciflua) nine feet,
sending its straight trunk into the air for one hundred and
thirty feet, with at least seventy-five feet clear of branches.
It is said there are over a hundred varieties of trees in these
mountains. There were black walnut, black birch, ash, per-
simmon, hemlock and puies. The reason why so much virgin

1004.] LECTURE. 57

tinil)('r remains iintouclKMl is hocaiiso of the long distance from
a mark(>t.

It was a satisfaction to sec trees that were not in any way
confributino- to the demands of commerce, and 1 niif>;ht add
one word more and say that it was just this fact that gave
them a special interest.

Best of all, the ground beneath our feet w^as carpeted with
the shining evergreen leaves of Shortia. A sight of this beauti-
ful flower in bloom in its native habitat, was the ci'owning
feature of our trip, and gave an added zest to the interesting
story of its rediscoveiy in this country, after having been lost
to scientists from the time of Michaux' visit to America in
1785, to the latter part of the last century, a period of nearly
a hundred years. I will conclude, hoping I have been able
to convey to you some of the interest and enthusiasm I felt
myself in these trees, and perhaps to excite a longing to see
for yourself some of the wonders of our southern forests.

(Miss Cummings had numerous slides showing pictures of
many of the trees and plants mentioned, as well as views of
interesting southern scenery.)

nth February, A. D. 1904.

ESSAY

BY

Mrs. ABEL F. STEVENS, Wellesley, Mass.
Theme : — The Adornment of Our Rural Homes.

It is a sulDJect that lies near my heart; and is yearly taking
stronger hold on my affections. From my earliest years I
cannot remember the time when I did not love the cultivation
of plants and trees. And the more I am brought into com-
munion with nature, the more I am filled with gratitude to
the giver of all good, that he gave me a love for fruits and
flowers, and cast my lot where I might enjoy them, and have
sweet intercourse with these beautiful objects of creation. And
who does not look with wonder and admiration upon the infinite
beauty and perfection of these works of the "Hand Divine":
the enamelled blossoms bespangling the orchards with starry
spray, scarcely less numerous than the glittering hosts above,
dancing in rainbow hues and flinging on the breeze a fragrance
richer than Ceylon's Isles, — sweet harbinger of a bountiful
harvest; the luscious fruits, God's best gift to man — save
woman; the velvet peach mantled with beauty's softest blush,
and vieing with the oriency of the morning; the delicious
plum veiled with silvery bloom over robes of purple or cloth
of gold; the royal purple and brilliant cherry; the melting
pear; and the burnished apple, — tempting human taste from
the mother of our race to her last fair daughter! But what
pen can sketch the changing hues, the magnificence and glory,
when "Pomona" pours from her ever-flowing lap the varied
treasures of the ripening year! Here are creations originally
pronounced very good; here beauties which fade only to re-

1004.] KSSAY. 59

api)('ar aii'aiii. I'^i'dtn tlic l)<'<;'iiiiiiii,i>; tlicrc scmmiis to luivo boon
ail iiiliiiiatc coiiiicctioii hclwccn I fees and man. Trees are
spoken of as liH)U<2;h man conld not live without them, as thon^li
divine hen(>fieenee had given them to us as coni))anions for
life, and as emblems of all that is beautiful in inia<j;ei'y, exc(dlent
in character or hopeful in destiny.

Our trees, from the openino; bud to th(> golden harvest, from
the layinp; off of their autumnal livery, and during their winter's
shroud — waiting a r(>surreetion to a new and superior life —
are all eloquent {)reachers, proclaiming to our inmost soul,
"The hand that made us is divine."

(lod gave us trees adorned with ijiimitable beauty, pleasant
to the sight and good for food. He gave us also natural and
instinctive love for them.

Witness the love of Abraham, desii'ing to have all the trees
in the field; of Rousseau, longing to be laid under his own
selected trees; of Temple, directing that his heart should 1)6
buried beneatji the trees of his own planting; of Washington,
returning to the cherished groves of " Mt. Vernon " ; of Webster,
reclining in life and sleeping in death beneath the umbrageous
elms of Marshfield; of Marshall P. Wilder, who said, "When
delicious fruits and fragrant flowers shall no longer cherish
and cheer me consign my dust to mother earth, and for a head-
stone plant a tree!" Of the lamented Downing, father of
American Pomology, whose genius lives in trees which adorn
many a lovely landscape, many a beautiful garden and many
a fruitful orchard in our own dear land.

From the day when God gave our father in Eden trees
"pleasant to our sight and good for food," down to Solomon,
who said, "I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted
in them of all kinds of fruits," and through the successive
generations of men, the cultivation of trees and plants have
l)een the criterion of. taste and refinement! No object of
attachment is more naturally allied to the instincts of the soul.
And truly did Emerson remark, "He who knows the most,
and what sweets and virtues are in the groimd, and how to
come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man." And

60 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

what greater benefactions can you have for posterity than
these memorials, which shall live and grow, which shall tell
of your love of the most beautiful works of nature, kindred
and home, when you are slumbering in the grave? Far better
these, for the perpetuation of your memory, and the benefit
of the advancing millions of coming time, than all the monu-
mental shafts and pillars of polished marble that ever graced
a hero's tomb!

Let every town and hamlet in our land have its "Improve-
ment Society." Let the planting of trees, shrubs and trailing
vines become universal. "Let the rough places bo made
smooth, the crooked straight, and the desert to bud and bloom
as the rose." The art of landscape gardening is one that
should be cultivated by all lovers of nature, for every oppor-
tunity is at hand, and kind nature has been so lavish in her
gifts to the flora of our country, that by a systematic method
we can adorn and embellish our grounds, avenues and streets,
our public parks and the old town commons. Every native
citizen of our dear old New England should be so public spirited
as to devote our annual "Arbor Day" to beautifying the land
of their birth, and to adorn their homes, as it is a fitting em-
ployment for a patriotic and home-loving people! And I
commend most heartily that the day be observed by all the
people who love, enjoy and appreciate rural life, by the setting
out of trees, shrubs and vines, for the adornment of public
grounds and private places, that will in all coming time be
the pride and joy of its inhabitants. So all shall be impressed
with the beneficial results from a general observation of the
day. Indeed we would make it universal, so that the waste
tracts might be reclothed with verdure and forest growth,
and culture be promoted, as well as the homes planted with
flowers, and our waysides made beautiful. For the canopied
shade of tlie majestic elms, and the autumnal splendor of the
beautiful maples, that constitute the glory of our rural towns,
we owe to the generous foresight of our fathers! In country
roads and city streets, let us make equally liberal provision
for those who shall follow us; so with each passing generation,

1904.] RSSAY. 61

will tlio state grow in beauty and chann, not loss in virtue
and enlightenment'

A taste for rural improvements is advancing with great
rapidity in our nation. This is evident from the immense
number of trees and shruljs that are yearly ])laii(ed in all i)rivate
and public grounds, upon the avenues and streets of small
towns and large villages and suburban cities. For such we
rejoice to see so much enterprise and taste, so much ambition
and love of home adornment; and w^e are unwilling to rest
quite without the association, comfort and enjoyment in all
ways derived from cooling shades and fragrant flowers, and
singing birds.

What does he plant — who plants a tree?

He plants a friend of sun and slcy :

He plants a flag of breezes free;

The shaft of beauty towering high.

He plants a home to Heaven anigh.

For song and mother croon of bird

In hushed and happy twilight heard,

The treble of Heaven's harmonic.

These things he plants, who plants a tree.

What does he plant — who plants a tree?

He plants cool shade and tender rain

And seed and bud of days to be

And years that fad(»and flush again.

He plants the glory of the plain.

He plants the forest's heritage

The harvest of a coming age.

These things he plants, who plants a tree.

What does he plant, who plants a tree?

He plants in sap and leaf and wood

In love of home and loyalty

And far-cast thought of civic good

His blessing on the neighborhood.

Who in the hollow of His hand

Holds all the growth of all our land.

\ nation's growth from sea to sea

Stirs in his heart who plants a tree!

The law^s of nature should be secrets to none, and he that
has a knowledge of any important discovery in horticultui-al
process should gladly impart it to others. The results of all
experiments should be noted down and this experience given

62 WORCESTER COFNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

to our associates; for it is l^y the constant interchange of
facts, derived by experience, that we owe much of our progress
in horticulture. Let the cultivators of the soil give our art
more attention, and promote this interesting and benevolent
employment. To my mind, the production of delicious fruits
and fragrant flowers is only the promise of a healthier race,
of happier homes and a higher and nobler civilization! A
tree is the noblest monument of any generation.

WITHOUT WORDS.

As without words the roses scent the bower ;
As without words the dial points the hour ;
As without words the stream the water wheel
Turns o'er and o'er, and grinds the luscious meal ;
So without words the gallant grove, with shade,
Enrobes the knoll and skirts the sunny glade,
Providing thus, against excessive heat,
For men and beasts a cool, a safe retreat.

LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

The value of everything that approaches the beautiful is
enhanced by an appropriate setting. Even the most beautiful
flower of nature is improved by its surroundings of delicately
tinted green foliage. The artist, when exhibiting his most
perfect artificial representation of nature, places it, if possible,
with a surrounding which will measurably attract the eye,
and yet cast upon the picture an enhanced breadth and height
of coloring, combined with the softness which nature, in her
hazy moods, gives to all her productions.

The art of composition embraced in landscape gardening has
certain principles which go towartls forming a unity of the
whole, and from which no deviation can be made without
marring the result. Taste may be possessed in a greater or
less degree, but without reference to principles it will fail to
create a design of harmonious association. In the past too
little attention has been ^iven to the proper arrangements of
trees, shrubs and flowers in the decoration of our homes. But
every American citizen should have sufficient love for his
home, and he imbued with a sjnrit of in(l(>]Dendence, a })ri(le

1004.] ESSAY. 63

Mild 1()V(> for the crcvilioii of one's own, to mako ov(M"y ini])i'ove-
nunit possible for the enihellishineiit of Iiis Jionie.

From years of elos(> study and practical knowledge as to
the character of tnn's and ])lants, — the requisites of })lanting
or arranging them for a liarmoiiious effect, — we say there is
a common error in ornamental gardening, viz. : that of jjro-
miscuously mixing of herbaceous plants with shrubs and trees,
by which neither can thrive properly, and the effect of the
one is injured l\y tliat of the other. PVir however pleasing
and i)icturesque it may be in the natural w^oods, yet this kind
of beauty is totally unsuit(Ml in landscape art, for it destroys
unity and effect by crowding of varieties incongruously together.

In every small garden, or more commodious grounds, always
have some leading feature — such as foliage trees, ornamental
shrubs or flowering plants ; also the creating of a flower garden
proper, a water fountain, or rockery for plants. But in the
constructing of all these permanent and beautiful ornaments,
let them harmonize with the surrounding grounds. Let no
liarsh lines be left to break the smoothness and harmony of
blending from the lawn to the flower beds or walks, — ever
remembering the softness of nature's own laws, which always
resolve into one another without any offending feature. In
the preparation of the grounds let the soil be trenched deeply,
by plowing or spading, keej)ing the surface soil always on top
and thoroughly enriching it before planting.

LAWNS.

In all our rural w\alks the charm of every place is a beautiful
lawn, and we w^ill give practical direction for making, sowing
and keeping them in their vernal beauty during the growing
season. Let the ground be thoroughly prepared in April or
August, — fully 18 inches deep of a good, rich, loamy soil,
making the whole surface of uniform depth, and same quality;
whether on a rising knoll, or a low level grade, enrich the soil
with a mixture of 20 bushels wood ashes, 10 bushels bone
meal, 2 bushels salt and 1 bushel of plaster per acre. Incor-
porate all these thoroughly with the soil; rake and pulverize

64 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

with the roller until all the surface is a fine seed bed. Then
sow very evenly the following formula: —

2 bushels Kentucky Blue Grass (Poapratensis) .
2 " Ked Top (Agrostis vulgaris) .

Creeping Bent {Agrostis canina).
Sweet Vernal (Arithoxanthum odoratum).
White Clover {Trijolium repens).

Five bushels of above mixture per acre, using this quantity
in proportion to the area sown. In sowing, take one-half of
the seed to be used, sowing it evenly over the whole surface
from north to south; the other half and sow it from east to
west; then rake in deep and well and finish with a heavy hand
roller, going over the entire surface. If dry weather prevails
sprinkle at sundown. Let the young grass get three to four
inches high before cutting it the first time, after that cut it
every ten days, give water in moderation as needed, for more
fine lawns are ruined by over watering than for the lack of
water. Annually in October apply a heavy dressing of wood
ashes, and in April a light dressing of nitrate of soda.

Now with proper attention to cutting, watering, dressing
and rolling you may have the most- beautiful velvety lawn,
so charming to the eye and the pride of its owner, and it should
last for twenty years without renewing. Don't ruin the above
beautiful lawn by continually drenching it with cold water,
that kills out the above tender sweet grasses, and brings in
the coarse, sallow, wiry water grass that is the ruination of
so many fine lawns. Don't cover it in the fall with coarse
odoriferous stable dressing full of weed seeds, to grow and
injure the roots of the grasses. Don't play croquet, tennis,
or games so injurious to the fine turf. A well kept lawn is
the most attractive feature about our charming rural homes.

MY CONSERVATORY — ITS CARES AND PLEASURES,

No home of taste and refinement is considered complete at
the present time without the conservatory. Though it may
have its labors and difficulties, still the pleasures M^hich it

1904.] ESSAY. 65

affords can be but i)arlly told, and the profit only in a measure
disclosed. ()n(>'s home may not be costly, and y(^t a small
conservatory will ti'ansform that liome into an ]*]den of flowers.
How dreary and cold a home nnist be without the })resence
of these ''Jewels of Nature." They give to all an air of peace
and love; while without the earth may wvar her mantle of
white and nature look sober and sad, we have only to turn
our gaze from tlie desolation spread over our mother earth
to the cozy blossoming bower within, noting the contrast
between cold, cheerless winter without, and bright, genial
sunnner within. HoW' they thrill our hearts witji love for the
beautiful! How we would like to pay our grateful thanks to
them for tlie many hours of happiness they have bestowed
upon us I In our conservatory we find many and great advan-
tages; we find there a field for study wdiich is of great interest
and pleasure; the w^aiting and watching day by day for the
leaves to unfold and the blossoms to send forth their exquisite
fragrance, causing us to indulge in exclamations of delight
and wonder, showing us they are associates in our bright and
cheerful household. Thus we are taught to think of them as
our companions, for they have the same w^onderful thing as
we, — called life. And so we learn to love them as w^e become
acquainted with their sweet modest plant life. Conservatories
of plants are educators of taste. How many window^s w'e have
seen that told us plainly of the fair hands that trained those
draperies of green, and twined the clinging tendrils so artistically,
till all was a labyrinth of symmetry and beauty, was one whose
heart was filled with love for the beautiful. Flowers and
plants, not only by their beauty and fragrance, teach us cheer-
fulness, purity and love, but they point us to the great designer
and painter of the universe; they tell us of his wisdom and
care, reaching to the smallest of his creatures. We can truly
say ''the hand that made them is divine."

We learn to cherish these floral treasures as they remind us
of th(>ir companionship w^ith us in hours of joy and happiness —
in hours of sorrow and pain. They bloom upon the bridal
altar, decking the brow of the blushing bride, kissing her cheeks

66 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

with their sweet scented breath; they grace the festive board;
they are largely used to adorn the house of God, — and what
more delicate offering can we give to him who has bestowed
so much on us, than a tribute from his floral gems? From
time inmiemorial flowers have been symbolical in religion:
red, the symbol of divine love; white, of divine wisdom; yellow,
of the relation of the love and wisdom of God ; blue, of divine
eternity and human immortality. If there is any adornment
suitable for the house of God, it is in the use of the beautiful
things of earth.

" Bring flowers to the shrine, when we kneel in prayer.
They are Nature's ofi^ering — their place is there,
They speak of hope to the tainting heart,
With a voice of comfort they come and part."

We would have flowers in every home. Even in some of
the remotest places and conditions, may be found the rarest
gems of earth; for you will find these blessings of sunshine
on the window sill of the ranchman's cabin, in the little secluded
cottage by the dusty roadside, and there in a discarded
fruit can, down the lone and dingy street in the corner of a
window, you catch a glimpse of something bright and cheerful.
Stopping a moment your eye rests upon the delicate blossom
of the heliotrope, trying to send its reviving influence through
the stifling atmosphere that surrounds it.

How often in visiting a bereaved home we notice a beautiful
fuchsia placed upon the window sill, guarded and watched
with tender care, and we notice how often the mother's eye
rests upon the brightly colored jewel blossoms, drooping down-
ward, and seems to constantly remind her of the delight they
gave her little child, .before it was transplanted to its angel
home.

FLOWERS.

Who would think that war, defeat and " dispersion would
have an effect on such simple things as flowers. Yet they
did. The Roman Empire fell, and the Teutonic invasion swept
away villa and garden and laid waste many a spot that had

1904.] KSSAY.

67

been g:ii-l;iii(l('(l willi hlooiii, and so many siK'cics of clioico
plants wci'c lost, and had to We reintroduced. Now perhaps
we wonder how they come agiiiii to the land that had been
swept bare and desolate. It is a pretty story, as follows:
The monks wei'c early comers from the South, coming in little
bands, and built their monasteries there, and horticulture
revived by their efforts. Within the walls of every monastery
was included a garden for vegetables, which was an important
part of a monk's diet, it w^as as necessary as sleeping cells.
They were skilled gardeners, and while they gave attention to
the vegetable garden, the physic garden was well tended, and
there grew blossoming plants as well as simple herbs. In
times of war the monasteries w(^re respected and the gardens
grew ai)acp, and before long flowers were again growing in
profusion. In the court yartls of the fortresses there was no
room for these gems; hardly a blade of grass dared to show
its head between the stones; but, by and by, times grew less
fierce and then gardens were planted within the walls, and
gradually they crept in different ways, until the air once more
was laden with their sweetness and fragrance. \A'ith the
Jai)anese, the word garden does not always signify a place
where plants grow, it may be acres in extent or it may be
encompassed by the walls of a tiny dish, it is always a product
of art, and is always beautiful. They excel in this particular
cult; the secret of their success is in their simplicity of treat-
ment. In arranging flowers for decorative purposes harmony
of color must be taken into consideration. I think the art
and science of arranging flowers is not acquired, but is a gift
bestowed on a person, to be able to make exquisite blendings
of color to greet the eye, in fact, making a pleasing flower
picture that will })roduce and receive rapt attention, is the
happy possessor of a charming faculty. Another important
feature is to guard against crowding, which not only hurts
the flowers, but destroys th(> artistic and tasty effect. Take
the rose for instance, it should depend upon its own foliage
for greenery, and not mingletl with climbhig asparagus, smilax
or ferns. It has an individuality of its own, and when grouped

68 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

with others loses its prestige and effect. In placing flowers
upon the table, to form a picture of restfulness antl charming
attractiveness, bear in mintl harmony of color, artistic arrange-
ment and blending of form. And thus these gems in our
floral kingdom will be more and more appreciated.

Make your homes beautiful, bring to it flowers,
Plant them around you to bud and to bloom,
They will give life to your loneliest hours,
They will bring light to enlighten the gloom.

Then shall it be when afar on life's billows
Where ever your tenipest tossed children are flung,
They will sigh for the shade of the home weeping willows,
And sing the sweet songs, that their mother had sung.

Climbers. The climbing plants furnish us with nature's
drapery, and nothing produced by art can equal their elegant
grace — nothing is so effective and beautiful as these charming
climbers; they surpass all, and give us our idea of beauty
and refinement. Let the corners in our homes and the sides
of our windows be covered under the delicate foliage of these
beautiful vines.

CARE OF PLANTS.

Now we come to the daily care of our plants, and the
essentials of successful cultivation. We must have proper
soil, which is to become the food of the plant, the best for
nearly all plants being decomposed soil, well enriched with
one-fourth stable dressing. Thoroughly mix, and add to this
potting soil one-fifth fresh ground bene — for the smaller plants
sift it. Next in order we must haA^e suitable flower pots. By
far the best is the common earthern pot, new and clean from
the pottery, unpainted or unglazed, with good drainage. Should
your pots become infested with any earth worms, give them
a good wetting of lime water in which is added a little spirits
of ammonia, one tablespoonful to the c^uart. This will rid
the soil of all insect life and give vigor to your plants.

Our next great point is the watering of our plants. How
shall we water them? How often and how much? This de-
pends entirely upon the conditions and growth of the plant.

1904.] ESSAY. GO

No plant save tlic a(|uati(' can lloiirisli or flower from a sour
or sodden soil, made so from over watering. More delicate
jjlants are ruined by over watering — like our beautiful lawns —
than by lack of water. \\'hen ])lants need watering give them
a thorough soaking so the soil in the pot will be wet through.
Rain water is the best, as it contains a small supply of ammonia
and sulphur. A\'ater at a temperature of 55" to 60° should
be given at all times. No function in the growth of our plants
is of grcniter iniportanc(^ to their welfare than intelligent water-
ing. All a(iuatics, callas tuul rubbers rec^uire large (quantities
of water. Our charming ferns must have a moist atmosphere
to develop their delicate fronds and exquisite foliage, from the
beautiful maiden hair to the grand Bostonese fern with its
two charming seedUngs Piersonii and Annie Foster. Nothing
in foliage gives a more striking and pleasing effect than these.
For corners and canopies nothing equals the asparagus plumosa,
with its delicate feathery foliage; and for hanging pots the
asparagus sprengerii, with its vivid green foliage, makes our
conservatory a bower of exquisite beauty. These gems of
nature are admired by all, from the merry school children
wdio loiter to gaze at them, to the busy housewife, who steals
away from her weary labors, to tend carefully these objects
of her affections.

INSECTS.

Now like our skins the leaves of plants are perforated with
hundreds of minute pores, through which they breathe, ex-
haling oxygen, inhaling carbon. If these pores are filled up
with dust the plant cannot perform these functions, and its
life either ceases or stands still — it is impossible for it to grow
or bloom. Frequent washing of the leaves is absolutely essen-
tial. In a window garden, when sweeping and dusting your
rooms, throw newspapers or a light cloth over them. This
will prevent the dust settling on the leaves. For close handling
and washing, a soft sponge is of great service. The previous
anxieties of the window- garden are but light compared to the
deadly warfare he is forced to wage against the insects which
not only infest the plants, but the soil in which they grow
6

70 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904,

and bloom. The red spider is the most minute, yet the most
dangerous foe, with which we have to contend, as they suck
the juices from the leaves of the plants upon which they are
allowed to remain. They increase very fast in a hot dry atmos-
phere. The leaves of the plants on the upper side grow brown
and the plant loses its healthy appearance.

Moisture is sure- death to this pest ; clear water applied to
the foliage on the under side and a frequent syringing freely
in the morning before the sun is up, will drive away the intruders.

The Aphis or Green Fly is less to be dreaded than the
red spider and is more easily seen. For window plants make
a tunnel of stiff brown paper and burn tobacco stems on a
shovel or iron pan. Then dip the plant in quite warm water
to kill the eggs. In our conservatory we fumigate with tobacco
stems in a cylinder stove, then syringe thoroughly with water.
Thus by frequent fumigating and syringing not a aphis will
be found.

Meal Bug, being a very annoying insect, coleus and smooth
barked plants suffer especially from it. Alcohol is sure death.
Apply it with five per cent, of water, either syringing or by
a sponge. Kerosene emulsion is also effective.

Fresh water well applied, fresh air at proper times and cleanli-
ness at all times, are the best preventives one can employ
against the encroachments of these enemies to plant life.

HOME.

Home! is there a sweeter word in any language than that
of home? What can bring brighter pictures of joy; what can
give happier impressions on the mind; what can we treasure
more tenderly than memories of home; and where in all the
earth, can happier hearts be gathered but in the delightful
precincts of home? Let it be our cordial pleasure, then, to
give some useful encouragement to every lover of sweet, pure,
tasteful home life, helping all to add to its attractions; to
show them in many beautiful little ways, how to embellish
its walls, improve every room with fancy ornaments, and even
decorate the windows with charms of art and refined taste.

1904.] ESSAY. 71

To my worthy twisters, true; lovers of lioiue tk'ct)nitions, and
ardent admirers of every hint and tasteful suggestion, we present
you these thoughts and offer our greeting, with the cordial
wish that in every home hei'e represented these suggestions
may be the means to make them more beautiful, more enjoy-
a])le, happier and more heavenh' — a true ideal New England
home.

The beauties and attractions of the home can be none too
pleasant or tasteful. Here gather the young to learn for all
years to come. Here social life gains its lessons of utility
and sense; and from this essay may all find a stinmlus for
new thoughts, more active work with pretty fancies, and
aesthetic beauty to gild the days for years to come.

Bright moments shall still brighter glow
"\^'hile home becomes our Heaven below.

No work is at once so refinetl and ennobling as that, which,
by imitating the beautiful and lovely in nature, raises the
human mind ''up to nature's God." And of all beautiful
things in nature, flowers, sw-eet flowers, are admitted to be
of all things most lovely. I love all nature. Her secret ways,
her mysteries, her beauties, her wonders, are all open to me.
I can say I have got next to her heart and felt it throbbing.

No home of taste is now^ considered complete w^ithout its
window garden, as it develops a taste for plant life and love
for flowers. One of the advantages of window gardening is
its simplicity — open to every one and impossible to none.
Many persons confined to their houses for the greater part of
their life have no larger estate than that which the window
garden affords. They are educators of taste; they add bright-
ness to our homes; and furnish food for pleasant thoughts.
A single plant of ivy trained on the wall, or festooned over
the window is a joy to all that look upon it. Among the most
gratifying signs of the love of flowers, is the introduction of
them into our school rooms. They impose a wdiolesome restraint
upon the children; when tired with study, a few^ glances at
the window sill and its pot of bloom wreathe their faces
with smiles, and they willingly go to work again. Flowers

72 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

bring cheerfulness, purity and refinement. They are the spring
of sunshine, a constant pleasure. We would have flowers in
every home for their soul refreshing, heart inspiring and eye
brightening influence.

Next to adorning our homes with these exquisite natural
beauties comes the art to form their counterpart in wax and
in oil in the most perfect manner, which is done most truthfully
and lifelike that can be conceived, and as the contemplation
of the beautiful is always interesting and instructive, so the
art of copying or producing faithful imitations of the same,
must tend to instruct and refine the taste and improve the
mind of the operator; and it will be found that those persons
constantly engaged in copying the lovely things scattered by
a munificent creator through our woods and fields, will be
ever on the watch for beautiful objects; tliis alone would be
a high recommendation in favor of teaching and learning the
art of forming the flowers and fruit of our own dear land, and
then embellish our homes with these beautiful objects of nature.

In every home we should find the refining influence of good
literature apparent. Let it not be as it was fifty years ago,
a centre table adorned with books placed at exact distances,
with the most rigid accuracy; but no home adornment is
complete without a good array of choice books. Let it be the
aim of all to secure a good library of the standard authors,
poets and historians of our day. Be careful in your selections.
Let them be only the very best of their class. We rejoice that
the day of light, trashy reading is rapidly passing and the
demand as rapidly growing for books of the purest tone of
sentiment or song. We know of no greater factor for culture,
enjoyment and true happiness in our homes than that derived
from reading and study of the best books at our command.
May this custom of reading circles Increase in all of our societies.

To decorate properly we must blend different colors and
shades, that they may appear in perfect harmon}^ It needs
the hand and brain of the professional expert to make the
most complete arrangements so it may produce the best effects.
The idea of home decoration prevails among all classes of

1904.] ESSAY. 73

society, from tlu^ ]ii,<2;liest to the lowest in all I'uees of mankind —
only second in imjjortance to producino- a tine ])icture, is the
fact. When completed it should he ])lace(l where it will be seen
to the best advantage

All pictures of the same order of design should be placed
together. Some works can be seen to advantage in a briglit,
and others in a subdued liglit; while others may lose nothing
if placed above the line of sight and others gain rather than
lose if hung nuich nearer the floor. It is suggested, that it
is not desirable to put oil paintings in the same room with
water colors, crayons or other like material; although frequently
done, we consider it, from a point of artistic taste, a mistake.
Never overcrowd the walls of any room with pictures; this
is the very acme of poor taste.

As regards the furniture and carpet, decoration, tapestries,
costly mirrors, rugs, etc., must depend upon the taste and
means of the owner. If I could furnish a house to suit my
own taste my preference would be for more expensive furniture
and articles that are useful and ornamental also. Let every
one arrange their own homes to suit themselves. Let love
and contentment hold sway in the family circle; with these
conditions prevailing, our homes will be to us the brightest
place on earth.

No home is complete without its flower garden. These
beautiful ornaments of nature — loved, cherished and almost
worshipped by all people in all lands — are emblematic of:

"Those gems of earth in which we see
What Eden was — what Paradise will be."

A flower, by universal consent, is acknowledged to be so
excellent in design and so lovely in endless variety of its form
and color, that it has become a type of all earthly perfection
and beauty. The ingenuity of man is exercised on the cultiva-
tion of flowers in all the civilized countries of the w^orld. The
love of flowers is one of the prevailing feelings implanted in
the human mind. One of the earliest signs of delight in a
child is called forth by the sight of flowers. In fact, it is a

74 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

sure token of progress in the comforts of civilized life, when
flowers receive some share of attention. A cottage flower
garden is one of the surest means of improving the conditions
of the poor. It is an indication of industry and cheerfulness.

NEW ENGLAND.

I love New England's vine-clad hills,
Her thousand bright and gushing rills,

Her sunshine and her storms ;
Her rough and rugged rocks that rear
Their hoary heads high in the air

In wild fantastic forms.

I love her rivers deep and wide

Those might.y streams that seaward glide,

To seek the ocean's breast ;
Her smiling fields, her flowering dales
Her shady dells, her pleasant vales,

Abodes of peaceful rest.

I love her forests, dark and lone.
For there the wild bird's merry tone

I hear from morn to night ;
And lovelier flowers, are there I ween.
Than e'er in eastern lands were seen

In varied colors bright.

Her forests and her valleys fair

Her flowers that scent the morning air

All have there charms for me ;
But more I love New England's name
Those words that echo deathless fame

The Land of Libertv !

i8th February, A. D. 1904.

ADDRESS

BY

Rev. Dr. WILLARD SCOTT, Worcester, Mass.
Theme: — On the Trail of the Naturalist.

I use the word ''trail" this afternoon in the sense of a clue,
or series of clues, given us by those lovers of nature who have
truly influenced our views of the world and life more than
any others of our time. Primarily, of course, it means the
mark, or marks, which the Indians' lodge-poles, trailing from
the saddles of their horses, made as they drag over the virgin
surface of the earth, carrying the Indian's squaw and papoose,
or the utensils of their simple life.

But this is as fair a picture in outline, as we can think of,
of the work of the naturalists, those pioneers of all mental
discovery and civilization, to whose patient research we all
are indebted for our modern view of the world, our relation
to it, and our duty in it.

To them we owe those first advances, often hazardous and
solitary, by which the world of the past, unknown and dreaded,
has become known and rid of its superstitution and uncertainty,
preparing for the new interest and faith in it, which are the
characteristic moods of our age.

They are the new discoverers of the world, who have ventured
out on as noble a quest as the ancient knights of the Holy
Grail, bringing to us in their train more precious treasures
than bold warrior or crusader ever aspired to. These latter
sought with hatred to overcome an enemy; or by war to win
a superstitious token, which by some magic charm might
make the world blessed.

76 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

But the naturalists have had no gory aim or lust. They
have not distrusted the world, or sought to ride over it, or
trample upon it, in a search for supernatural goods.

They have believed that the greatest blessing of the world
was the world itself, better known and loved; that the best
good of those who lived in it was not separated from its own
self; and that those who w^ould possess and enjoy most of
life must find it in a deeper thoughtfulness about the realm
in which it is placed, and our natural and wholesome ways
of living in it.

Following their trail we have come into a new and very
different w^orld, a world better known, far more worthy of
being trusted and loved, a world which does not impeach our
best ideals of the goodness and wisdom of God, when he made
it and put us here, nor teach us to distrust and neglect it in
the interest of some supernatural good supposed to be the
real end of human living.

The older thinkers and observers looked askance at nature,
or with a deep feeling of hostility. Most of it was unknown,
even superficially.

Discovery was chiefly of its surface rather than of itself.
Living was a fight to maintain one's self in the midst of warring
and treacherous surroundings.

Man was in it as an alien, and for the present only, for his
disciplining. He had no close relations with the land on which
he was encamped, and his release from it was his highest desire
and reward.

The Epicurean said, Live in the good you have, forgetting
all else. The Stoic said. Fence out the evil by resolution and
so secure your temporary peace. The Platonist said. Rise
above the things of nature, and in the transcendental realms
live the life of the spirit, separate from the baseness below.

Even early Christianity, followed literally through the
mediaeval centuries, taught an other-worldliness which was the
faith and prayer of all pious hearts.

This world, in the language of all, was not man's home,
only his pathway to it, and full of roughness and sorrow. Even

1904.1 ADDRESS. 77

tlu' passing beauty and hlcssinf;- of (he world was delusive,
or actually ensnarino-, ihin<>;s to he shunned, and the more
dangerous because seemingly innocent and delightful. There
was no room for the appreciation of the natural blessings of
life, or real esteem of natural virtues, nor anywhere was the
real life, or tli(> ivi\\ world-building, of this present time.

From much of this, and by anticipation from all of it, we
are being led hapi)ily by the way of the trail of the naturalist,
the world-lover and student, the poet of the fields, t\\v marsh,
the woods, the solitary way; the scientist, making new theory
and principles of life as he advances, and giving to all living
a more natural and satisfying character. He has taught us
not to judge the world until we have studied it, or to draw^
conclusions against it until we have gone at least as far as
those who have penetrated farthest.

He has taught us to approach the study with expectation
and in the appreciative spirit, and not with prejudices drawn
from the mood of the past. As a guide he has been an optimistic
friend, seeing deeper because he sharpened his sight with
enthusiasm in his inquiry and love for his work.

Assuming to be the more intelligent brother of a universal
world-family, he has been admitted to world secrets denied
to those who have shut out this discovery by the very assump-
tion with which it was undertaken. He has opened up a new
world in part, and given fair tokens of being on the track which
will lead at last to such a world as has never yet been dreamed.

The best books of the world today are nature books, the
most simple and yet the most profound. The most hopeful
and compelling teachers are those who keep close to the nature
of things about us, and advance only so far as the immediate
facts discoverable warrant.

Leaping to conclusions, as a method of progress, has given
way to the painstaking task.

The mood of hostility has been succeeded by the appreciative
temper.

Love is needed to be the key that opens not only the heart
and heaven, but also the secrets of life on every hand.

7$ WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

If the present world is not the very best we can think of,
at least it is the one in which we are living now, by the grace
of the giver of life, and doubtless the best for us at the present
time; else why are we here?

And if we are to live this life as we should, ought we not
to love it and to know it?

And where shall we begin in this quest if not with the next
thing to us, and in what way most hopefully if not with the
expectation that we shall find good and not evil, beauty and
not uglmess, meaning and not farce, joy and blessing and
not disappointment? But to do this is to be ''on the trail
of the naturalist," as he exists among us today, and long may
abide with us.

25th February, A. D. 1904.

I. E C T U R E

ILLUSTRATED BY STEIIEOPTICON
BY

EDWARD W. BREED.

Theme: — A Trip to Jamaica.

Will you go with me in imagination to a land of perpetual
summer, to the tropical island of Jamaica, where the tlier-
mometer registers eighty degrees every day in the year? To
accomplish this trip, we will take one of the United Fruit
Company's steamers and prepare ourselves for a five days'
voyage. Our sail, after turning Cape Cod, lies in a direct
southern course of 1,600 miles, and for the first three days
we shall be out of sight of land, and only a few seagulls and
a chance vessel will occasionally greet our eyes. If we are
sea-sick, and the chances are that we will be, our time will
be fully occupied, but after that we will have a good opportunity
to make acquaintances and perhaps find those who will become
our traveling companions during the entire trip. On the fourth
day we will find that the thermometer has reached seventy
degrees and that the ocean begins to have that beautiful blue,
which indicates that we are approaching the tropics.

Our first land will now be in sight, Watlin's Island or San
Salvador, the next we will see Bird Rock, and then Cape Maysi.
If the night is clear it will be our privilege to see the southern
cross shining magnificently in the heavens as we pass between
Cuba and Porto Rico.

It is time now to be donning our thinnest apparel, for we
are in the tropics, and the heat will be felt by us, as we have
just come from the frozen north.

80 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

Passing in and out among these islands clad in their tropical
verdue, we finally see in the distance what seems to be a stretch
of land enveloped in a cloud; this is Jamaica, but, as we come
nearer, the cloud gradually disappears and the beautiful Blue
Mountain stands out in all its grandeur, towering 7,000 feet
above sea level and rising abruptly from a short distance inland.

We now land at Port Antonio on the northeastern part of
the island and are greeted by the natives, eighty per cent,
of whom are negroes; and, in their somewhat dilapidated
carriages drawn by poorer horses, we are conveyed to the
hotel. Our first meal will be an enjoyable one, for we are
treated to the many tropical fruits in addition to some of our
northern products that have been brought down on the boat
with us.

The first tropical sunset will, I think, be the most fascinating
pleasure we will have. The beautiful blue of the water, the
gorgeous coloring of the sunset and the tropical verdure of
the island combine to make a picture that cannot be excelled,
and which might be illustrated by the German, who was so
enraptured by a beautiful painting which he w^as studying that
he exclaimed, "Der is only von word in de English language
dat explains it and dat word I forgot."

Our first day is over and in the time that follows, our ex-
periences may not be as rosy, for, during our trip, we shall
many times have to depend upon native cooking and encounter
native customs that will require all the Yankee shrewdness
that we can command in order to get along.

The sea bathing at Port Antonio is most delightful, the
water being very warm. It is here that the eyestones are
found and we dive down and bring up a handful of sand and
find on examination of it several of these very useful stones.
We will carry them in our pockets for we may have occasion
to use them on the trains, as w? pass through many tunnels
with the car windows wide open.

The cocoanut tree is the first object that attracts the traveler's
attention, being found on or near the coast. They seem to
grow spontaneously and add a great deal to the beauty of

1904.] LECTURE. . 81

the laiulscapc. \\'h('n seven or ('i<!;ht years old they he^iji to
hear and continue to do so for sixty or eighty years, sometimes
l)earin<>; from eighty to one humhvd coeoamits. It is very
interesting to see tlie natives cHnih u\) the trunks on all fours
as it were, and gather them with their indispensable tool tlu;
machete. They cut the end off and allow you to drink the
cocoanut milk, which is the safest beverage for th(> tourist to
indulge in.

The wealth of troi)ical foliage discloses the hibiscus in its
bright colored blossoms, which the natives call '''shoel^lack."
The ])oinsettia which adonis our conservatories in the holiday
season is found here growing by the roadside. The bougain-
villea runs riot over buildings and trees, and there assumes
a brighter color than with us. The jessamine in all its sweetness
is frequently found. As we ride along, the i)icturesque houses,
primitive in their construction, with their thatched roofs all
more or less hidden by foliage, are dotted all over the island.

The drive from Bog Walk to Spanish Town as we pass the
Cobra River has many attractive features. The hillsides
are clad with a jungle of beautiful plants, and the limestone
rocks seem to be a hiding-place for the maidenhair fern. The
canal, carrying the water to Spanish Town with its row of
cocoanut trees on either side, is a very cool and attractive
scene. As we approach Spanish Town the country is less
interesting and the road very dusty. Spanish Town, a former
capital of the island, is rich in historic interest. The English
cathedral, the monument erected to Admiral Rodney for his
loyalty to the people, and the public buildings, are the most
important objects of interest. There are a few attractive
estates, probably laid out by officials in her majesty's service.

Kingston, the present capital of the island, is a busy place
and has the only electric car service on the island. The public
buildings and stores are not attractive on the outside, although
some of them are cjuite so on the inside. The residences of
the better class show a type of English life and are very pleasing,
with their walls or fences and forecourts, fountains and formal
gardens.

82 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

The lover of plants will find at Hope Gardens and at Castleton
much that will be of interest. Palms will be fomid that are
veritable trees. The pandanus, century plant, oleander, jus-
ticia, acacia, dracena, begonia, araucaria and the croton in all
its beautiful tints are here in great numbers. At Castleton
Gardens the rainfall for twenty-six years has averaged 113
inches per year, while on the south side of the Blue Mountains
at Kingston only 30 inches falls, and that too in a distance
of about twenty miles.

The bamboo serves many useful purposes. It forms a very
important part in the construction of the natives' houses;
growing by the roadside it forms an interesting feature. The
African bamboo has a very peculiar habit of twisting its growth
in toward the trunk, then upward, forming an impenetrable
mass of growth.

In Mandeville, at an elevation of 2,000 feet, is probably the
most comfortable sp,ot for the tourist, a place that in some
ways reminds one of an English village. The people are most
hospitable and take great pleasure in showing attention to
American guests. This is the home of oranges, grape-fruit and
coffee, the first two most luscious and the other the best in
the world after it has been properly cured. Unfortunately the
natives use the coffee green antl make it so strong that it is
not liked very well by the traveler. Here and at Kingston
we find the most interesting markets. We shall miss a great
deal if we do not visit these places on market-day, when the
people for miles around come to market, laden with their
scanty products to barter for other goods. The women carry
everything on their heads, frequently requiring assistance to
place in position the loads which they are able to carry for
a long distance. The little children are trained to first balance
an empty pail or basket and then to increase their load. It
is not uncommon to see young women carry a can holding
five gallons of water and hardly spill a drop. When their load
is too large the donkey is calletl into service, and on these
market-days there will be seen several hundred coralled near by
while their owners are busily engaged in disposing of their wares.

1904.] LECTURE. 83

As we ajjpi'oacli the western vud of the island we will find
more of a grazing section and we notice all the animals have
a better fed appearance. 'Idie cows give a very small amount
of milk, (hie no doubt to climatic conditions, but they produce
excel lej it beef.

Sugar-cane has been grown for many years, but at the present
time it is made into rum rather than into the refined sugar,
as the profits in the latter are nuich smaller than in former
years. It grows contimiously and there are some very old
plantations.

Saint Ann's Bay, situated on the nortluM'u side of the island,
has justly been termed the garden spot of the island of Jamaica,
and here every thing seems to grow very luxuriantly and an
air of thrift is seen which is more noticeable than anywhere
else on the island. The drive from Saint Ann's to Ocho Rios
is very beautiful. It is along the shore, and in and out among
the boulders and cocoanut trees we wind, passing the Roaring
River, a sort of Niagara, flowing on through the tropical growth
to the sea. The maidenhair fern is here found in great abun-
dance, the fronds being very large.

The Fern Gully is a point of interest worth visiting, and
as you drive through this wonderful natural formation and
look upon either side your eye is greeted with a wealth of
ferns and other foliage that is most remarkable.

The breadfruit tree is a very ornamental one, with large
glossy leaves and peculiar fruit, which the natives put to good
use. The mango is a fruit much liked by the natives, but
certainly needing an acquired taste or something else to relieve
it of a very pronounced turpentine flavor. A few pineapples
are grown and those we tasted were most delicious. Toljacco
is grown to some extent, and the coils you find for sale at the
shops are very curious. These they sell by the yard. The
tobacco is not of the best and they rather depend upon Havana
for their cigars, in part at least.

The logwood tree, similar to our locust, forms a very impor-
tant article of connnerce, and its roots are frequently seen on
the wharves wiiiting. for transportation. This is sold by weight

84 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

and is used for dyeing. The cotton tree is a very conspicuous
tree in the landscape, growing much larger than other trees,
and its peculiar trunk formation impresses one with the idea
of stability. Its wood is very light and is not of much value.
Orchids are found growing in the branches of this cotton tree,
sometimes completely hiding the bark; this with the Jamaican
mistletoe and other plants of a parasitic growth gives the
appearance of the tree being well laden. The ponciana is a
tree of considerable size, with its finely cut leaves and great
long seed pods.

One might continue almost indefinitely in describing the
great varieties of trees. I was told by a native that he could
readily collect two hundred specimens of wood from a very
limited area.

Probably no one variety of fruit is so extensively cultivated
as the banana. This we see growing in great abundance, and
the shipments north frequently reach a half million bunches
weekly. They are picked green, carefully brought on the
heads of the natives to the storehouse, then transported to
the wharves to be loaded on the steamers. It is interesting
to watch this latter process, as the natives pass in line with
a bunch on their heads to the gangplank, receiving one shilling
for carrying one hundred bunches. They are carried largely
by the women. They also load coal in the same way, carrying
a bushel at a time. The following couplet is rather illustrative :

" Here's to the land of the Banan
You pay what they ask and get what you can!"

The cacti is found in and about Kingston and it forms a-
hetlge that no form can penetrate, and our barbed wire fence
will certainly have to take second place.

The roads are all under government control and are kept
in excellent condition, crushed limestone being used and all
the work performed by hand.

Much can be said historically concerning Jamaica, beginning
with its discovery by Columbus in 1494, continuing for nearly
one hundred and fifty years under Spanish rule and since then

1904.] LECTURE. 85

(lomiiuiU'd by the lOnglisli, who luivc given to its citizens a
civilized life. Of late years the coolies from India have been
a great factor in (lie labor of the island. They make excellent
gardeners and are more energetic than the natives.

.Jamaica is certainly full of interest to the tourist who goes
with a d(>sir(^ to study the very extensive flora and to learn
from the people their habits and customs. The island has
justly been termed the Gem of the Antilles.

3rd March, A. D. 1904.

ESSAY

BY '

M. SULLIVAN, Revere, Mass.
Theme:— The Ideal New England Market Garden.

The modern market gardener is a man of ideas; the successful
market gardener is always a man of practical ideas; and those
ideas are studied as a problem beyond the experimental stage,
and then become a standartl beyond question as the best to
adopt.

The New England climate, so variable and so liable to sudden
changes, is a local study of which the market gardener should
have a fair knowledge. He must necessarily understand, not
only the outside climatic changes, with which he is at all times
contending, but he must also understand how to create them
artificially under glass, in order to produce his crops. The
temperature required to grow crops of lettuce, under glass,
differs materially from the temperature required to grow the
cucumber. So he becomes a weather scientist, and studies
temperature both under glass, and in the open. There is no
other business which requires preparation more than market
gardening. All operations must be thought out, and worked
in advance. So preparation is one of the essentials to success.
The four seasons, then, he should understand, and are the
keynote to the market gardener's success.

All over New England are locations where the soil and
climatic conditions, markets near by, or cheap transportation
to and from those locations, are to be found.

When a suitable and satisfactory location is decided upon,
here then the ideal market garden or farm, the future home,

1904.] ESSAY. 87

the business venture, the indc^jH'udent Hfe, tlie iiuhvidual
effort, Ijegins. JAkv one wlio fislies in the ocean and from
his ex])erienee knows where the best fish are, so the tiller of
the soil finds his spot, his ideal location, in suitable soil and
surrounduigs, and liere he pitches liis tent.

First of all the home, and all else to follow, should be made
to conform to this. Year after year the generous soil, con-
tributing its bountiful harvests, brings gladness to the heart
and joy and happiness to the home and to the family.

The resident of the city, with all its frivolous life, who only
lives to consume and carries in his purse about all his source
of supply, can never realize the contented mind, the joyfulness
and the happiness of the independent farmer and his family.
This when his barns and store-houses and cellars are full, who
but the farmer and market gardener can best realize and tell
of this?

Again as to the location. Who of the first settlers on the
then so called Povert}^ Plains, in Arlington, could foresee what
today can be seen there, a veritable " Garden of Eden/' spoken
of by the visiting German farmers, during the past year, as
showing the most fertile, scientific and highly cultivated section
seen by them during their fourteen thousand miles of travel, —
a barren waste of land made to blossom as the rose; horticul-
tural science built up and constructed on entirely new and
modern lines. So location may be incidentally made to conform
with surrounding circumstances.

THE HOME.

First of all then should come the home, and all else that
may follow should be made to beautify, to build up and to
conform to this.

Trees grow while we are sleeping, they add value to the
home, they beautify and shelter, and they stand long after
those who planted them, as a living contribution to posterity,
their monument, appreciated for their grateful shade. Plant
trees then about the home, for they are the outside sentinels,

88 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

bearing fruit, guarding, protecting and beautifying nature and
our living home.

Having conceived his ideal market garden, having planned
and framed in his mind, and then on paper, what he may
yet sometime see in reality. For every business has its ideal, —
the ideal manufacture, the ideal newspaper, the ideal school,
why not then the ideal market garden and farm? First of
all, no matter of what extent or limit his acreage, here he
plants his home, for the very nature of his business compels
him to locate as near the centre of his operations as he possibly
can, for his very success necessarily demands his presence here
as near central as it is possible to be.

Home then, and its surroundings, must be considered, and
here the idealist expends his best thought, practical conven-
ience and comfort, in all things, for the family means much, —
location of buildings, one of these.

The dwelling house, when possible, on the most prominent
and highest elevation, for convenience and drainage, as well
as oversight, and view of his surroundings and operations.
All this is essential, and adds pleasure to his business and
comfort to his home. Out-buildings separated, but at con-
venient distance from the dwelling. There are many things
to consider in the location of the principal out-buildings. Con-
venience in all things for which they are required, comes first
of all; comfort of the live stock; disposal of the manure;
and first of all the cellar should be made most convenient,
as the receptacle for storing and preserving fruit and vegetables
to be sold during the winter months. In our severe winter
climate, frost-proof cellars are absolutely necessary to success
in preventing great loss in perishal)le produce; walls made
rat proof, and cellar bottom cemented. To say, in after life,
when all is completed, the home that I live in, the out-buildings
and store-houses, the plant and greenhouses, — all those have
been built by me, or under my direction. This in itself consti-
tutes much in l3uilding up the ideal farm. You may call it
sentiment or what you will, but is there anything in this life

1904.] ESSAY. 89

that can ^Wv our <2;r('at(M' pleasure (liaii: "This is my conccplioii,
I haA'o built my houu'."

Tho baniyaid is always of the utmost importance, therefore
its location should receive all due consideration, for on its
convenience nmch labor can be saved. This important
auxiliary, when possible^ should be located in the rear and
connect(Ml with the barn; tiie manure from the live stock,
all refuse and decaying vegetable matter, deposited here.
Also wher(> the poultry are kept, the hen-yard and poultry
houses, should adjoin, for there is nmch benefit in convenience
in the care and management by this concentration, besides
the greater im])ortance of continuously adding to that impor-
tant factor to success, the manure heap. The range of the
poultry may be a part of and connected with the barnyard.

Thorough and complete drainage must be provided for the
out-buildings as well as the barnyard. Proper division of the
barn, cellar or storage cellar, is absolutely essential to prevent
the absorption of odors by the fruits and vegetables that may
be placed therein. There has been very great loss and dis-
agreeable consequences come from this, and this applies also
to all outside pits, where the celery crops are stored, where
all impurities either in the covering material over the pits,
or in fact within, should be absolutely avoided. Celery, apples,
pears and practically all of the fruits and vegetables which
are used by the consumer without cooking, should l^e protected
to prevent absorption.

The cold storage houses where chemicals are used in their
process of manufacture of cold air, are as yet unable to prevent
this, causing much dissatisfaction to the seller, as well as to
the consumer. Cold storage houses, this comparatively new
addition to civilization, is here and has come to stay. In
looking back to the primitive dugout of the backwoodsman,
and the most modern cold storage plant, one is reminded of
the advantages over the past, also which the speculator has
in these days over the farmer in storing his crops. One of
our l^est and largest onion growers raised and stored away his crop
for higher prices, in those earlier days, calling in one of the largest

90 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

speculators and business men in the Quincy market to see-
them, he remarked: "We do not like to see you doing this,
because you are now doing what has been done by us hereto-
fore." "Capital," I said, "allows me to do this and I, as
producer, will compete in the market with you as to price."

The competent market gardener requires intelligence to
construct, to lay out, to cultivate, to harvest and to sell his
products. His own individual ability and intelligence comes
first of all. His plans are premeditated, for about all his
operations are outlined in advance. His crew are what he
himself selects, he always remains the captain, he plows the
main furrow, and he stands responsible for the result. It
requires now the educated brain, the skilled and trained hand,
to bring the best and the largest results from an ever generous
soil, and this more than super-abundance of muscle. Still
this also must be in fair supply. But where the market garde-
ner's operations are large or fair to medium, the ability of
his lieutenant should always correspond fairly well with that
of his own.

In this age of agricultural machinery, America undoubtedly
leads all the world in the perfection and durability of construc-
tion, and how to apply properly the various machines to field
and garden. Operations will require intelligence second to no
other, even to that required in general manufactures. This
then is why the best help to be had is generally hired, even
at a somewhat higher price than that obtained on the ordinary
farm. And yet something more may be added, permanency
means settlement and location near one's home. Your work
people are your neighbors sometimes.

And this also brings a factor in the construction of the ideal
market gardener's home. The schoolhouse is soon called for;
the workmen's children, as well as one's own, soon demand
attention, and this desirable addition should never be denied.
This is another most important reason why those who are to
be employed should be the very best help to be had. The
boys and girls are soon the men and women, and will take
your place and mine.

1904.] ESSAY. 01

All this I havr oxporiencod in my forty years of Now England
farm life, and the boys of yrstcM'day are the men of today.
Side by side at our public town meetings, they whose parents
were yours and my emj^loyees, are in the councils of the town
and city governments. No one now raises a question as to
the impoi'tance of the public schools in any town or city. The
old-fashioned method universally' adopted forty years ago, of
boarding and lodging the help, making them members of the
family, is now, where possible, discontinued, and no one thing
has contributed more to the comfort and happiness of the
family than this.

Many years ago I adopted the plan now almost universally
used of providing tenements for married help, and they caring
for and providing a home for the unmarried ones. This plan
is most satisfactory, and contributes very largely towards
making and building up the ideal New England market garde-
ner's and farmer's home.

WHOM SHOULD THE FARMER OR MARKET GARDENER EMPLOY?

The market gardener, whose occupation requires the l3etter
type of intelligence to conduct his business, must employ the
best, and in his section only the elements which by natiu'e
and from natural instincts are best fitted for his business.

Plain, ordinary or general farming has a class of laborers
which fits that line of agriculture, and the compensation corres-
ponds to the requirements of his work, which neither requires
or expects the steadiness of employment nor the wages that
are paid in first-class market gardens. Permanency of labor,
continuance of employment, is perfectly natural to lx)th men
and women, and all others who depend upon their daily toil
for their living.

Then first of all in the employment of the kind of labor
required, is good judgment to get help because of the possibility
of the permanency of the employee. But it may be asked:
"Why is this permanency necessary, and why more than in
ordinary farming?" I, myself, am a graduate from both,
and think I am well qualified to answer the question, because

92 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

I have done plain farming, kept a dairy of forty cows, raised
stock, both horses and cattle, and so being qualified T may
answer the question, why this difference? Because the risk
of very great loss in the business of market gardening, the
risk undoubtedly is large in so many ways. Great losses can
and do occur. A case in mind, where a gardener lost through a
drunken employee letting his fires go down on one of those cold
nights recently, destroying, in a night, years of toil. Therefore
the utmost vigilance at all times is required to be the successful
market gardener, who should always plow the main furrow,
or hold the reins.

Market gardening is an ideal occupation. The utmost
vigilance and perseverance under difficulties, system in all
things, judgment in classifying crops, and preparation, — all
these are necessary for complete success.

While, in the general farming industry, it may be said that
it is not run on business principles, this is not so, and does
not apply to market gardening.

A system of bookkeeping best fitted to each man's business
generally prevails, and this according to the volume of the
business done. That market gardening can be brought down
to, and made a thoroughly systematic business, reference can
be made to those now engaged in the business, by such market
gardeners as W. W. Rawson, of Arlington; Hittinger Bros.,
of Belmont; Frank Cooledge, of Watertown; and many others
who are now supplying the Boston market with the leading
products of the garden, the orchard and the farm. What
manufacturing, or any other business, is it possible to work
successfully without adopting, first of all, method and daily
rule in doing one's work?

Commencing with a daily noting in the calendar the tem-
perature taken from a first-class thermometer once or more
each day: 1st. clear or cloudy. Snow or rain. Then the
degree of heat or cold indicated by the thermometer, and you
have a most pleasing knowledge acquired by a few minutes'
loss of time, which gives you a record, not only good for future
reference, but also a daily knowledge that is of much value.

1004.1 l^.ssAY. 93

How many, for iiislancc, \\v\v in tins audicnco can tell from
memory that in Jajniary, of the present year, there wovo eigh-
teen clear days; five, cloudy; seven, snowing; and ()n(>, raining.
February: clear, seventeen; cloudy, five; snowing, four;
raining, three. Who, then, but those who note dc^wn upon
their calendar the daily temperature and weather conditions
can possibly recall this useful and practical knowledge?

The question may be asked: " ^^'hat does this information
amount to, and how applied, to assist one in market gardening
and farming business and taken but once a day?" Go hito
the average greenhouse, successfully growing either flowering
plants, or that demanding equal or higher scientific skill or
knowledge, that of growing and maturing a vegetable crop,
either lettuce or cucumbers, in mid-winter, and you at once
see the absolute necessity for this study, whether the opera-
tions are upon a large or medium scale. The daily temperature
in greenhouses, and that of out-of-doors should be recorded
side by side where the crop is growing, and this is the compass
which directs and instructs the skilful grower.

The old time market gardener grew a variety of both fruits
and vegetables. His market from house to house was laborious,
but very pleasing, his customers always welcomed him, for
he dealt honestly and served them well. The open market of
the present day, or the commission houses, which are now selling
largely the products of the gardens or farms, have superseded
the old way, but this change also requires honest dealing
in the packing, in presentable form, of the products of the
farm. ''How have you built up such a large trade in selling
my celery?" said I to one of the largest dealers in the Quincy
market. "Because we can sell every bunch right down through
the box," was his reply.

Then honest dealing, in the open market, as well as with
your commission house, is another of the necessities that bring
success.

I am a great lover of fruit growing and try to study the
unfolding bud, the expanding leaf, the beautiful blossom and
the matured fruit. One of my resolutions is yearly to plant

04 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

a tree or to plant a vine in any available place, spring or fall,
care for them to maturity and rejoice at their fruiting. There-
fore plant fruit trees, and if you do not live to enjoy the fruit,
someone else will. But more than all else the apple, the pear,
the peach, the plum, surrounding the ideal New England
market gardener's home, will add to its value and remain long
a reminder of his true worth.

Specializing is now prevailing, so that the grower of many
varieties of yesterday, is today the producer of only one or
two. The market gardener becomes the florist, a degree higher
perhaps in scientific knowledge, but not in the enlightened
mind and progression, which must always lead in the growing
of the necessary and substantial fruit and vegetable products.
I am a fruit grower because I like and am in love with the
business; this branch of which occupies perhaps one-half of
my premises, and is the very ideal of the pleasure in my lousiness.
The acquisition of great wealth, now prevailing, is as nothing
in comparison to pleasure in one's life, found only in content-
ment of mind and being in love with his business. The great
Bismarck, asked to define "Happiness," replied: "The gardener
in his own garden, pruning knife in hand."

To specialize means investment of capital, a venture in a
few rather than in the many crops. This question, is it best,
is for the individual, his surroundings, his advantages and his
capital, but greater and above all, brains, the educated, scientific
common sense.

The question once asked was : "Is the greenhouse necessary
for the market gardener and the farmer " ; while at the present
time, "Is the farm necessary for the greenhouse?"

The use of immense quantities of glass for floriculture and
vegetable growing will still continue to multiply, for soil sterili-
zation has settled the question as to the safe investment of
capital in this business, beyond a reasonable doubt. There is
no doubt of the fact that this discovery of partial sterilization
of the soil by heat applied through perforated steam pipes
up to a temperature of 212 degrees will cleanse the soil of

1904.] ESSAY. 95

insoet and fiui<2;us diseases, leaA'ing it in condition to i)r()duce
the best greenhouse ero])s.

There are good niark(>t gardeners who still avoid the green-
house, but use hotbeds for plant growing, and are sueeessful
in the instructions which are acquired in growing, in this nuieh
more simple form, plants and crops suitable to tlu>ni. Hut
the greenhouse in comparison with the hotbed is like tlie
college to the primary school. The market gardener wh.o
can step up from the hotbed to the greenhouse and woi'k this
successfully, has reached the highest degree, scientifically, in
the horticultural profession.

To be a proficient, up-to-date market gardener requires some
education, but if deficient he soon gets there, for he is always
a student. President Charles KYioi, of Harvard College, would
make an excellent horticulturist because he is an idealist. The
great university is his ideal, for there he is now engaged in
conceiving and building up a magnificent structure for the
education of coming generations.

The market gardener should be well read, not alone in the
agricultural magazines and newspapers, but also in the very
best standard books on agriculture, horticulture and the raising
of stock. The old time gardener and farmer cared but very
little for book information, and no wonder, for in his day there
was* but little to be had, but today no question in agriculture,
the science of horticulture, the raising of stock, the dairy and
the science of poultry raising but are to be had; and all this
at so slight a cost that no progressive producer can afford to
be without the books, the modern publications, without which
the market gardener would be like a ship witliout rutlder or
compass, her captain endeavoring to navigate the seas.

It is by reading that we learn what has been done in the
past; and prepare for the future by as broad a knowletlge as
possible, how seeds are raised, plants are grown, whether from
seed or cuttings, and wliicli are best. All this can be learned
from reading.

Let the farmer and horticulturist then consider his occupa-

96 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

tion amongst the blest, for in this great country, hving in
his ideal country home, surrounded by his family, enjoying
the fruits of his labor, he may well say: "I am a king, for
the independence of my occupation makes me so. I help to
feed the masses, to fill the poor man's basket, bringing abun-
dance to his door, and to the man of wealth, the delightful
luxuries for his banquet table. But greater than all, and above
all else, I am enabled to live a better life, to stand among men,
because out of the generous soil, with hard, honest toil I produce
enough for my living and my home."

This then I give you as my ideal New England market garden
and home.

gth March, A. D. 1904.

ANNUAL REUNION AND SOCIAL GATHERING.

64th Anniversary of Organization and
62nd of Incorporation.

Committee on Reception: President Hadwen, Secretary
Hixon, C. L. Hartshorn, Edward W. Breed, Nathaniel Pame,
Henry B. Watts, Charles Greenwood, Mrs. A. A. Hixon, Mrs. W.
DeWitt Manning, Miss Minnie Ellam and Miss Laura Joudrey.

An informal reception was held from six to six-thirty under
the direction of President Hadwen and Charles W. Wood,
toast-master for the evening, after which the company
marched to the banquet hall above.

Those seated at the head table were: President 0. B. Hadwen;
Mayor Walter H. Blodgett; Mr. and Mrs. Chas. W. Wood;
Marcus M. Burdick of Providence, President of the Rhode
Island Horticultural Society; President Jonathan Eames,
of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers, vSherborn; Burton
W. Potter of the Worcester Agricultural Society; J.
Lewis Ellsworth, Secretary of the State Board of Agri-
culture; F. A. Waugh, Horticulturist of the Massachusetts
Agricultural College of Amherst; William P. Rich of Boston,
Secretary of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; Mr. and
Mrs. Geo. S. Ladd of Sturbridge, Master of the Massachusetts
State Grange; W. ^y. Rawson, President of the Market Gar-
deners' Association of Boston; Prof. H. T. Fernalcl of the
Massachusetts Agricultural College; C. W. Smith, Secretary
of the Rhode Island Horticultural Society; Michael Sullivan,
Revere; Benjamm P. Ware, Clifton; George Cruikshanks,
Fitchburg; A. W. Macomber, H. R. Tiell, Bristol, Rhode

98 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

Island; Mr. and Mrs. James Draper; J. K. Greene; Secretary
Adin A. Hixon and wife.

President 0. B. Hadwen called upon Mayor Blodgett to say
grace, in place of Dr. Willard Scott, who appeared later in
the evening.

President Hadwen called to order at seven-forty o'clock,
and welcomed the guests and members of the Society.

In our organization there is but little pride of family or
wealth. Men and women are rated by their merits, by their
zeal and intelligence and industry in promoting the objects
that the founders of this Society and those of their associates
and successors, have done for the improvement and profit of
the community.

At this Society meeting it is our privilege to learn from each
other, and to discuss the best methods of improving our homes,
our lands, our fruits and our flowers, culling year after year,
from our gardens, from the wisdom of scientists and thinkers,
from our exhibitions and from the experience of practical
workers.

Let us strive to make labor respectal^le and respected for
both sexes. The idea that labor is degrading is anti-republican
and void of good sense. Many lady members of this Society
are engaged in horticulture, cultivating their own gardens, and
are even more accomplished in all phases pertaining to good
living and to good society, with their practical knowledge of
horticulture.

This Society is large enough, strong enough and able enough
to take a commanding position with reference to all matters
that pertain to the interests it represents, and was incorporated
to foster.

It has recentl}^ discussetl the encouragement of school gardens,
to teach the young the use of their hands in the cultivation
of the earth, to produce something that will add largely to
future enjoyment of life; that will interest every member to
make active workers for the future benefit of the Society and
the public at large, and a distinct educational value to those
engaged in the good training of both head and hand.

1904.] ANNUAL REUNION. 99

PivsidcMit Iladwcii referred to the old-time idea that little
kiiowletlgo was necessary to cultivate the soil, and the
changes in that respect. He reconnnended a course of study,
in which agriculture and horticulture should have increased
attention in the public schools.

He expressed the opinion that the time is rijx; for the school
garden, a sentiment which was received with api)lause. He
t()ld of the past good the Society has done, especially the record
for the past year, and predicted better work in the future.

President Had wen introduced Gen. Charles W. Wood as
toast-master, and that gentleman was received with applause,
which was repeated all the way through the speaking, as he
got in a delicate jab at some one of his victims, and in turn
was made to realize there were others, when the speakers
turned on him.

Gen. Wood dwelt on the desire of the fatigued dweller in
the cities for a life in the country, and then introduced Mayor
W. H. Blodgett as the first speaker, saying he was always
the mayor of the Society, and now has merely a broader field.

The mayor was received with applause, and told of the
different positions which he has had and wondered since he
was asked to do the work of a minister at the dinner, if he
was a minister and did not know it.

He praised the Society and the farmers of Worcester county,
and said it was partly owing to the influence of the Society
that JDctter fruit is raised in this section than formerly, but
some of the influence undoubtedly came from the kicks of
the marketmen, a sentiment which evoked laughter. He
believed in organizations, and referred especially to the Grange
and the work he has seen it do here and in New York. He
urged a setting of high ideals and a constant endeavor to attain
them.

W. W. Rawson, Arlington, Mce-President of the Massachu-
setts Horticultural Society, President of the Boston Market
Gardeners' Association, Selectman of Arlington, largest market
gardener in America, and head of a large seed store, was next
introduced and responded with some good stories, a poem,

100 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

and urging for study of new methods and use of brains, rather
than manual labor, in order to attain better results. He told
of the debt the Massachusetts Society owes to the Worcester
Society, and the success the exhibitors from Worcester have
had at Boston.

Prof. F. A. Waugh, Horticulturist at Amherst College, was
the next speaker, and he kept the party laughing most of the
time by his admonitions to always stand up for one's own
methods and ways, and he illustrated how this could be done
to the confusion of the outsider who tries to get ahead of the
New England man in horticultural matters.

President Burton W. Potter of the Worcester Agricultural
Society got square with the toast-master for a starter, and
then dwelt on the changes in the itleals of the people, who
formerly regarded a residence in a city as the better thing,
but who have learned to regard the country as the place afford-
ing true living. He gave figures to demonstrate the superiority
of the country as a place of residence over the city from many
standpoints.

Joseph K. Greene was called on, and he kept the gathering
amused by his observations on horticultural and other topics.
He regretted one thing, which has not been preserved or canned
up to the present, the boyish appetite.

There was applause at this point for Rev. Dr. Willard Scott,
pastor of Piedmont church, who came in late and took a seat
at the head table.

Mrs. George S. Ladd, Sturbridge, was called on to speak
for the State Grange, as her husband, who is the head of the
order, was unable to do so. She spoke for the Grange and
its usefulness, from the standpoint of the farmer and his wife
as well, and eulogized it as a great factor in the country's life.

Rev. Dr. Scott was the next speaker, and he briefly told
of his pleasure at being present, and then got after the toast-
master in a keen and witty style which brought out laughter
and applause.

Michael Sullivan, Chairman of the Revere Selectmen, who
is trying to combine horticulture and politics, told cheerfully

1904.] ANNUAL REUNION. 101

of his success at it, and ]iis liking ior horticulturo, and the
necessity for clean j)()liti('s in his town, which has doubled its
population in the past six years, and which is a scene of cosnio-
})olitan confusion at the present time.

Gen. Wood exi)lained why he did not call on Secretary J.
Lewis lOllsworth of the State Board of Agriculture, the hour
being later than was scluMluled for the closing of the speech-
making.

After the close of the session in the banquet hall, there was
dancing in the main hall, to music by Bicknell's orchestra.

The floor director was Arthur J. Marble; and his assistants
were, A. M. Powell and W. K. Stanley; and the aids were,
Edward A. Bartlett, Fred H. Hammond, Henry E. Kinney,
Myron F. Converse, Robert B. Rich and Allyne W. Hixon.

The committee in charge of the winter meetings and the
reunion was: Arthur J. Marble, Edward W. Breed of Clinton,
C. L. Hartshorn, President Hadwen and Secretary Hixon.

loth March, A. D. 1904.

ESSAY

BY

JOHN W. CLARK, North Hadley, Mass.

Theme: — Cold Storage for the Orchardist.

Commercial orcharding on an extended scale is of recent date
and the markets of today, instead of depending on the local
supply as in years past, receive fruits from the most distant
parts of our land.

This has been made possible by the increase of railroads
and adoption of refrigerator cars and cold storage, which makes
possible the marketing of the most perishable fruits hundreds
and even thousands of miles from the place they were grown.

Passing over the benefit cold storage is to fruit growers in
other parts of our land, let us see what advantage can be de-
rived from it in the handling and marketing of the products
of our orchards.

The old way of storing the apple crop in cellars and ordinary
buildings, subject to the daily variations of temperature, is
becoming a thing of the past among the most progressive
orchardists, as too uncertain and wasteful; and in their place
houses are being built especially for storing fruits, where the
inside temperature can be controlled and held without variation
at the desired point.

In taking up this subject of cold storage let it be distinctly
understood that cold storage does not of itself add anything
to the quality, quantity or value of the fruit. It simply holds
the fruit without variation at a certain degree of temperature
(with the apple 32° F. is considered the best), and dees net
insure against loss from decay or spread of disease.

1904.] fissAY. 103

'rh(> growor oi- haiidlor, and not the ono in charj2;o of tlio
storage, is rcsi)onsible for all loss fi-oni these two sources.

Fruit that is well grown, free from disease, picked at the
right time and placed as soon as picked in cold storage, will
conthuie sound for a long time; while fruit that is pooi-ly
grown, diseased and over-ripe when stored will come out in
poor condition; as disease and decay are not entirely checked
whil(^ in cold storage, unless the fruit is kept continually frozen,
but will continue to increase, though more slowly than when
stored in the common way.

The advantages to the orchardist of having a building in
which the temperature can be regulated in which to store his
fruits can be summed up under four different heads: —

1st. The crop of fruit can be gathered and housed in a
much shorter time with the same amount of help than when
it is barrelled and shipped at the time of picking. The advan-
tage of this is much greater than those who have had but
little or no experience in handhng a large crop of fruit imagine.
For with a large crop of fruit, and help scarce and hard to
get, the loss caused by storms and by the fruit getting over-ripe
and dropping from the trees often amounts to one-third or
one-half of the total crop. While the market value of a dropped
apple is not over one-half or two-thirds what it would have
been if picked.

2nd. The dropped and short-lived fruit that must be dis-
posed of at once can be held until this soft and cheap grade
of fruit, with which the markets are often overstocked during
the time the crop is being harvested, has been disposed of,
when better prices can usually be realized.

3rd. The work of assorting and barrelling the fruit can be
done during winter, when help is more plenty and cheaper
than at the time the crop is being gathered.

4th. It puts the orchardist in a position where he is not
compelled to sell his fruit at a sacrifice on a glutted market,
to prevent loss from decay, but gives him an opportunity to

104 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

watch the markets for the best time to dispose of his fruits.
It also gives a longer time in which to handle the crop.

The orchardist intending to store his fruit to get the best
results, should grow it free from insects and disease; care
should be taken to give the fruit plenty of sunshine and air
while it is growing, that it may be well colored when picked,
as color is of great importance to successful storage of fruits,
as that which is of poor color is more subject to scald while
in storage than fruit which is well colored. The degree
of ripeness at the time of picking is an important factor in
storing fruit; it should be well colored, but firm and not over-
ripe.

If there is one thing on which success in storing fruit depends
more than upon another that the orchardist has to do with,
it is to get the fruit from the trees to the storage within the
shortest time possible, for an apple ripens much faster after
it is picked, especially if the weather is warm, than when it
is hanging on the tree. An apple that has begun to ripen
before it is placed in cold storage, will go on ripening, though
more slowly than if it had been kept in the ordinary way.

I am not here as an architect to tell you what is the best
way to construct a building for cold storage, but simply to
give my experience in building and running the house I have,
which was built in 1898.

The main building is forty-two feet long and thirty-two feet
wide outside measurement, with 7-foot posts, with 2-inch by
4-inch studding between. The house rests on a stone and brick
foundation. On the outside the house is boarded with novelty
siding. Building paper was used between the studding ; when it
was boarded with matched pine, this was papered, then 2-inch
by 4-inch studding, which was again boarded ; the 4-inch space
made by this boarding is filled with charcoal dust (using some
500 bushels), this boarding is also papered and 2-inch by 4-inch
studding again put up and again it is boarded, this gives a
wall about 16 inches thick with three 4-inch spaces, the middle
one filled with charcoal dust; the outside and inside space are
dead air spaces.

1004.] ESSAY. 105

In the roof above \hc inuin jiart of the building is an ice
box, 6 feet high and 9 feet wide, running the whole length.
The floor of the ice box is covered with galvanized iron, which
is inclined one inch to one side and carries the water into a
gutter, from which it runs through pipes to the ground into
a drain.

Extending the whole length of the ice box on each side is
an open space 15 inches wide, for the circulation of air between
the main storage room and the ice box.

In each end of the ice box are double doors for putting in
ice, which is stored in an icehouse near the end of the cold
storage.

The ice is drawn up to the ice box by horse and pulleys.
About two hundred 20-inch cakes are used at each filling.
The number of times the house has to be iced depends on the
weather during picking and upon the amount of fruit stored.
I have never filled it over four times in one season. Ice is
kept in the box from the time fruit is first stored in the fall
until the fruit is all taken out in the spring, to keep the tempera-
ture of the storage room from varying during the warm weather
that usually occurs during winter. In the main part of
the building are inside and outside doors at each end. Between
these doors is a sliding door with iron rods 3 inches apart to
keep out intruders when the other doors are opened on frosty
nights to cool the house and save ice.

The floor is of brick, with the exception of the driveway
and walk to the workroom, which is situated at one side of
the main building, with which it is connected by double doors;
this room is 14 feet by 22 feet.

The temperature of the house can be held at about 40° F.,
while the weather is warm both night and day, but when tliere
are frosty nights it can be lowered by opening the house at
night and closing it before the sun is up in the morning, and
as the outside temperature gets colder, that inside the storage
room can be gradually brought down to 32° F. where it can
be held with little variation until spring.

If the fruit is stored each day as it is picked and kept in

106 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904.

a temperature not higher than 40° F. and lowered as frosty
nights will allow, apples will be in as good and possibly better
condition December 1st, than they would have been if they
were exposed to our ordinary fall weather for two weeks before
being put in the most approved cold storage.

One is often asked if apples do not sweat or gather mo* 'ure
while in storage. In running my house I have found no tro. uie
to keep it dry if care is taken not to open the house and admit
the outside air when it is warmer than the temperature inside,
for when a warm atmosphere strikes a cold surface its moisture
is condensed and deposited on that surface; this never happens
when a cold atmosphere strikes a warm surface, and it is my
practice to open all of the doors cold nights in the fall to admit
the outside air to help cool the fruit and save ice.

When storing apples direct from the orcherd as they are picked
without being sorted, I prefer storing in bins rather than in
barrels or boxes, as more fruit can be stored in a given
space; fruit stored in bins will cool sooner than when stored
in boxes or barrels; this cooling of the fruit rapidly is of great
importance.

The time an apple will keep after being taken from cold
storage depends on the degree of ripeness when taken out and
the temperature to which it is exposed.