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UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
LIBRARY

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1897-98

J' R A N S A C; r IONS

w 0 R (1 1: s T in t CO u n t y

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

REPORTS OF THE OFFICERS

P^OR THE YEAR ENDING NOVEMBER 1, 1897,

ESSAYS FOR SEASON OF 1898.

PRESS OF CHARLES HAMILTON
31 1 MAIN STREET.

18 9 8.

LIBRARY

INIVERSITY OF
MASSACHUSEHS

AMHERST, MASS.

6 3 2., 0 (i

W ^1

8<?7- ? ^

CONTENTS.

Page.
Report of the Secretary, A. D. 1897 5

Report of the Librarian 15

Report of the Treasurer 18

Essay by 0. B. Hadwen, President 23

Essay by Robert Farquhar 32

Essay liy Prof. L. F. Kinney 35

Essay by Miss Helen A. Ball 38

Essay by Arthur J. Marble 53

Essay by C. F. Hodge, Ph.D 62

Essay by Prof. A. A. Brigham 82

Essay by Rev. G. W. Kent 96

Essay by Edward W. Breed 114

Essay by Mr. Lathe 131

Essay by Prof. John W. Claris 140

Annual Reunion and Social Gathering 147

'^%N,

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Cor '"''^'

WORCESTER COUNTY

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY,

A. D. 1897.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

To the Members of the

Worcester County Horticultuual Society :

In presenting for your consideration the Annual Keport of the
proceedings of this Society, I am as well aware as yourselves
tliat I am not qualitied to wear the mantle that graced the
Atlantean shoulders of our late Secretary, Edward Winslow
Lincoln, who for thirty-four years prepared a report as no
other man could have done.

I can only hope to tell you what the Society has been able to
accomplish in the interest of Horticulture during the year that
has passed, and give you in detail a report of the meetings which
have been held.

The annual meeting of the Society was held Wednesday,
November 4 ; President O. B. Hadwen presiding.

The first business was the election of the officers, a list of
which will be found on the covers of the various publications
of the Society. The reports of the Treasurer, Librarian and Sec-
retary were read and referred to the Committee on Publication.

Voted, That there should be no charge of admission for mem-
bers to the Chrysanthemum Show.

Henry L. Parker, for the Committee on revision of By-Laws,
reported, and after considerable discussion, it was voted to print

6 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897.

five hundred copies of the report, to be mailed to each member
as tar as their address may be known, and further discussion
deferred until Thursday, January 7, 1897, at 2 o'clock, to
which day and hour this meeting was adjourned.

E. W. LINCOLN, Secretary.

Annual Meeting of the Trustees called immediately upon the
adjournment of the meeting of the Society ; President O. B.
Hadwen in the chair.

The first business was the election of connnittees and judges,
a list of which will be found with the officers.

It was voted to appropriate the following sums for premiums:

Flowers and Plants, $700 00

Fruit, 600 00

Vegetables, 400 00

with the addition of $300 to be divided between the departments
for new features.

For Library and Publications, . . $250 00

For Winter Meetings, 250 00

and Henry L. Parker, James Draper and F. A. Blake were
appointed a committee to arrange for the same.

Also voted, That the judges remain a reasonable length of
time after making their awards.
Dissolved.

E. W. LINCOLN, Secretar^j.

A special meeting of the Trustees was held on Wednesday,
December 16, 1896, to take action on the death of Mr. Lincoln.

President O. B. Hadwen presided, and on motion of Mr.
Paine, Mr. A. A, Hixon was elected Secretary 7>ro tern.

The action of the Trustees at this meeting has already been
printed and distributed to the members, so it seems unnecessary
to repeat the details at this time.

The adjournment of the Annual Meeting was held on Thurs-
day, January 7, 1897, for the consideration of the revision of

1897.] TRANSACTIONS. 7

the By-Laws ; also, for the election of otUcers to till vacancies
occasioned by the death of Mr. Lincoln.

President O. B. Hadwen i)resided, and the following were
elected to lill the vacancies: —

Secretary :
Adin a. Hixon.

Member of the Finance Cohimiltee:
Henry L. Parker.

Member of the Library and Publication Committee :
Joseph Jackson.

Mr. James Draper tendered his resignation as Judge of Fruit.

It was voted to hold a Chrysanthemum exhibition.

As the question of revising the By-Laws at this meeting could
only be considered, and that action could not be taken legally,
it was voted to postpone further discussion until the next annual
meeting. The Secretary was instructed to insert in the call for
the meeting that a change in By-Laws would be considered.
No other business was presented. The meeting was dissolved.

A special meeting of the Trustees legally called was held
on Thursday, January 14, 1897, for the election of a Judge
of Fruit, and the transaction of any other business properly
presented.

The resignation of Mr. Draper as made at a previous meeting,
upon which no action had been taken, was accepted, and a vote
passed thanking him for his faithful service in the office he had
so satisfactorily and impartially filled.

Henry Phelps was chosen to fill the vacancy.

It was voted, That the Committee on Library and Publica-
tion procure a picture of Mr. Lincoln and have the same bound
with the transactions of the Society containing the last report of
our late secretary.

Also ; voted. That all entry-cards be made out by the Secre-
tary or his Assistant.

8 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897.

It was further voted that Mr. Frederick H. Wesson who sev-
eral years ago was debarred as an exhibitor be reinstated.
No other business being presented it was voted to adjourn.

A meeting of the Trustees legally called was held Saturday,
February 27, 1897, to take action on the following letter: —

Worcester, Mass., Feb. IS, 1897.
Mr. Adin a. Hixon,

Secretary, Worcester County Horticultural Society.
Dear Sir : — At the meeting of the joint committees of the Massachu-
setts State Grange and Worcester Agricultural Society, held on Satur-
day, February lo, it was unauimously voted that an invitation he
extended the Worcester County Horticultural Society to unite with the
Massachusetts State Grange and the Worcester Agricultural Society
in the holding of a joint Fair at Worcester, Aug. 31, Sept. 1st, 2d,
3d, 1897.

It would seem that in view of the objects which the several associa-
tions mentioned desire to obtain, that much benefit and pleasant
associations could be secured by this cooperation at this time. Trust-
ing the invitation may receive your early and favoraljle consideration,
I remain, yours repectfully,

JOHN B. BOWKER,
Secretary, Worcester Agricultural Society.

Pursuant to the above invitation, it was voted, That we
accept the invitation of the Massachusetts State Grange and the
Worcester Agricultural Society to unite with them in holding a
joint fair on August 31st, September 1st, 2d and 3d, 1897, with
the distinct understanding and upon condition that the Worcester
County Horticultural Society should incur no financial responsi-
bility in so doing. That this Society contribute the sum of one
hundred dollars towards their premium list in the Horticultural
Department. That we tender them the use of our hall and such
other property of this Society as they may desire during the
days of their fair.

Acknowledgment accepting the conditions as above stated was
received from Secretary Bowker, March 10, 1897.

It was further voted, That this Society postpone its exhibition

1897.] TRANSACTIONS. 9

of September 2 one week, and that on September 9 an exhibi-
tion 1)0 held embracing the schedule covering both dates.

Also ; voted, To instruct the Librarian to prepare a list of
members and have the same printed.

No other business being presented it was voted to adjourn.

A meeting of the Trustees legally called at the request of the
Finance Committee was held Thursday, September 23, 1897, to
consider suggestions made to the said committee by the Board
of Underwriters concerning minor improvements to the property
with a view to a reduction of rates on our building. To attend
to a renewal of insurance expiring October 1, 1897, and such
other suggestions as our Finance Committee might make, and
take action thereon.

It was voted, That the Finance Committee be authorized to
make such improvements as they may consider for the best
interests of the Society, and to use so much of its funds as are
necessary to complete the work, and to cause expiring insurance
to be renewed.

It was further stated that the lease of the west store expires
January 1, 1898, while the lease of the other does not expire
until January 1, 1899.

The company occupying the east store have not sufficient room
for the successful prosecution of their business, and desire a
lease of both stores, provided they can be practically made into
one store. The changes they require necessitate an alteration
of the front of the stores and the removal of part of the division
wall.

Voted, That the Finance Committee be authorized to make
the required ch:mges, and to lease the stores provided the same
shall not be less than the present annual rental with the addition
of a reasonable percentage of the cost of making the changes.
And that they have full power to act and borrow such sums as
may be necessary to complete the work.

10 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897.

Also ; voted, To instruct the Secretary to notify members of
the annual meeting by postal card.

The above in brief is the action of those who have the man-
agement of the business of this corporation.

Heretofore this has been dealt with in a general way. I be-
lieve every member of the Society should know what has been
done by its trustees and others authorized by them to transact
their business, without being obliged to refer to the secretary's
records. I have therefore incorporated the same in this report.

The Society has received from the executors of the will of
our lute Secretary, Edward Winslow Lincoln, his portrait, by
Billings, which was bequeathed by him to us, and speaks more
eloquently of his affection for this Society than any other of his
many acts of devotion to its interest. I think every member
feels a sense of obligation as well as gratitude to Edward
Winslow Lincoln for this beautiful gift — a fit sequel to all he has
done to win our love and thanks. The hours he has given to
advance the interests of this Society as well as to inculcate in
every heart the love of horticulture, his affection for every tree
and shrub and flower, and his devotion to their intelligent culti-
vation and care, have won the admiration of all with whom he
came in contact — either as the foremost representative of our
organization, or in his broader capacity as chairman of the Parks-
Commission which he served so faithfully.

Among our number whom death has claimed during the past
year is Mr. Freeman M. Marble, who has long been identified
with this Society, and was always active and earnest in its sup-
port. For many years a prominent contributor of some varieties
of fruit, and a man of most excellent judgment. He served
faithfully many years on various committees and on the Board
of Trustees. He was one of the first to recognize the merits of
the Bosc pear, and through his efforts it is more largely grown
than any other pear, and it has proved to be one of the best for
this locality.

1897.] TRANSACTIONS. ll

Winter Meetings. — The essays, so far as they were written,
are ah*eady in your hands, in print, and arc equal to those of
former years.

We were unfortunate in not securing better reports of the
essays of Messrs. Ellsworth, Sawyer and Bailey, —each spoke
extemporaneously, having no manuscript. They were interesting
and instructive and should have been preserved entire, and I
would sugijest that the committee having the winter meetinsfs
in charge employ a stenographer, that all the essays may be
preserved, together with such suggestions as the discussion fol-
lowing may bring out. Many statements relative to the success
or failure of plant growth are presented in these discussions,
that, if preserved, would be of practical advantage to our
members.

We have been pleased with the interest taken in this year's
series of meetings. The attendance has largely increased, and if
it continues the coming winter will make it necessary to use the
main hall, as the capacity of the Library was taxed to its utmost
to accommodate those present.

Of the exhibitions held this year they have been far better
than usual. At our first exhil)ition, the show of apples was in
excess of anything heretofore shown. Over one hundred and
fifty plates were on our tables, embracing nearly every variety
grown in the country whose keeping qualities, unaided by the
improved methods of cold storage, were sufficient to carry them
through the season.

The following month many of the same varieties were on
exhibition. There has never been a year when the exhibits
were of better quality, and there was a noticeable absence of
anything inferior in fruit, tiower or vegetable.

At the date of the schedule for roses there were but four con-
tributors, owing entirely to the lateness of the season •, and by
the consent of those exhibiting, gratuities were awarded, and
the competition carried over to the next week, at which time one
of the best exhibitions of roses was held. Strawberries were
a little late this year but the showing was good.

The show of peaches was unusually fine, and the quality of

12 WORCESTEK COUNTY HOTITTCULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897.

the fruit was much better than for many previous years. The
showing this year would indicate that the Japanese plum was to
be an important factor in that particular branch of fruit culture.
There seemed to be but little if any appearance of blight or
curculio.

In pears, the exhibitions of Anjou and Bosc were particularly
fine, while all the varieties were fully up to the average.

Mr. H. A. Cook of Shrewsbury and Mr. F. A. Blake of
Rochdale showed seedling carnations of their own raising which
were very meritorious, and a Certificate of Merit was awarded
to each.

Mr. O. B. Hadwen placed on exhibition 12 stalks of Monarch
Rhubarb which weighed 22^ pounds.

The Protective Union showed a plate of oranges, grown in
California, to which was awarded a gratuity; the 12 on exhibi-
tion weighing 15 pounds, while the box containing 64 weighed
78 pounds.

The Exhibitions of Wild Flowers were a success, and the
uncultivated were a splendid addition to the display grown l)y
florists and amateurs.

On one occasion one person contributed 164 varieties. The
inducements ofiered by our Society for their collection is cer-
tainly an advantage ; if for no other reason, it is conducive to the
health as well as the pleasure of those who strive to win its
prizes, and must bring in its results an increasing and abiding
love for horticulture, and at no distant day I look to see among
our best exhibitors of the garden varieties those who commenced
by bringing those grown in our fields and woods.

For the first time in the history of this Society, premiums
were offered for native mushrooms and it has proven a success.
The interest taken in Mycology, as a special study, has been
something beyond the expectations of the most sanguine in that
department.

The study to discriminate between the edible and the poison-
ous mushrooms has been carried on with an enthusiasm never
dreamed of by those who first suggested that this Society, for a
brief term, add it to the schedule. The interest continued un-

1897.] TRANSACTIONS. 13

abated until the season had entirely passed in which any recog-
nition could be expected in the way of premiums, and for many
weeks, when they were omitted from our schedule, hundreds of
varieties were shown upon our tables.

That this feature of our exhibition has come to stay admits of
no question, and the result seems to be that an effort will be
made to procure in larger quantities the edible varieties for use
in the homes of our members.

I am glad this matter has been encouraged by us, and hope
the same may be continued in a larger way hereafter, that what-
ever of good comes through it, we may be among the pioneers
in pushing its development.

It may not be known to all the members of this Society that
at the time of the organization of the Massachusetts Fruit Grow-
ers' Association, the Finance Committee, through its chairman,
Mr. Lincoln, tendered its promoters the use of our rooms with
the understandins^ that the annual meeting of said Association
should be held in this city. By an understanding between the
executive officers of the two societies, it has been so arranged
that their annual meeting should occur at the time of our
reunion, and its oflScers, by this plan, have in some sense been,
on that occasion, the guests of the Society.

We have received from the Fruit Growers' Association,
through their officers, thanks for the courtesies received, and
expressions of gratitude for the favors extended to them.

There are two other societies whose membership is largely
drawn from this Society, and known as the Worcester County
Market Gardeners' ^Association, and Worcester Mycological
Society, who occupy our rooms for their meetings.

Both of these societies are aids rather than hindrances to the
work of this Society, each covering an important line of work
and science of horticulture, and each are entitled to all the aid
we can give them.

There has not been the slightest objection or criticism of the
action thus far taken towards them, nor is there any probability
of any being made should the same practice continue in the
future, but there are some who feel that the importance of the

14 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897.

field which they fill, being auxiliary institutions to our own Soci-
ety, calls for a tender to them of our rooms, by a vote of the
Society, at such time as it will not interfere with our contracts.
The receipts from the Hall during the past year were within
a few dollars of the largest ever obtained ; and when we consider
the depression in business of last winter and the number unem-
ployed, who in former years and under other conditions were
our best patrons, we feel that we have done all that could be
expected of us. With the encouraging outlook for business
prosperity in the near future, we feel that a better showing will
be made the coming year.

In conclusion, I desire to thank the officers of the Society for
their uniform courtesy, their timely suggestions and valuable
assistance in the performance of the duties required by the
ofiice, and to each and all the members for their loyalty to the
Society, and the devotion they have exhibited to the science
of Horticulture.

Respectfully submitted.

A. A. HIXON, Secretary.
Horticultural Hall,

Worcester, Mass.,
November 3, 1897.

REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN.

To THE Members of the

Worcester County Horticultural Society.

During the past year the Library has been open every clay,
proving a convenience, not only to those wishing to consult books
and papers, but as a place of meeting for those interested in Hor-
ticulture and more especially to our members living out of the
city.

The interest shown this season has been mostly in Mycology
and Native Flowers ; though the latter part of the season there
has been considerable interest shown in Bees, — more particularly
among those interested in artificial fertilization of plants.

The following Books, Periodicals, Papers and Bulletins have
been added to the Library during the past year ; —

United States Department of Agriculture : Farmers' Bulletin No.
54. Some common birds in their relation to Agriculture. 1897.

Accessions to the Department Library. Bulletins, October, 189G,
to Juue, 1897.

Bulletin, October, 1897. A Bibliography of Poultry.

Reports of the U. S. Commissioner of Education; Vol. 1, 1894 and
1895. Vol. 1, 1895 and 1896.

Reports of the Civil Service Commission, United States : 10th, July
1, 1892, to June 30, 1893 ; 11th, July 1, 1893, to June 30, 1894.

Eleventh Census of the United States, 1890 : Statistics of Agricul-
ture. Agriculture by Irrigation. Statistics of Fisheries.

Report of Special Commission of the United States Senate on the
Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Land. Vols. 3 and 4 in one vol.

Field Columbian Museum Publications : Botanical Series, Publica-
tion 15, Vol. 1, No. 3. Annual report of the Director to the Board
of Trustees, 1895 and 1896.

IG WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897.

Monthly Bulletins of tlie Bureau of American Republics, November,
1896, December, 1896. Vol. 4, No. 5; Vol. 4, No. 6.

A Hand- Book on the Annexation of Hawaii, by Lorrin A. Thurston.

Report of Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture and Experi-
mental Station, 1896 ; William R. Sessions, Secretary. 20 copies for
distribution.

Massachusetts Crop Reports. Bulletins Nos. 1 to 6, inclusive.

Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass.

Hatch Experimental Station. Bulletins Nos. 42 to 48, inclusive.

Hatch Experimental Station, Ninth Annual Report, Jan. 1, 1897.

Meteorological Reports, Hatch Experimental Station. Bulletins
Nos. 94 to 103, inclusive.

Cornell University Agricultural Experimental Station. Bulletins
Nos. 122 to 128, inclusive.

Michigan Agricultural Experimental Station. Bulletins Nos. 136
to 140, inclusive.

New Jersey Agricultural Experimental Station. Bulletin No. 116.

West Virginia Agricultural Experimental Station. Bulletin No. 46.

Scientific American Supplement, Reference Catalogue. Munn & Co.

Who invented the Reaper? R. B. Swift.

Announcement of the Bussey Institute. Harvard University, 1897
and 1898.

Reports of the Trustees of Public Reservations, 4th, 1895, and oth,
1896.

Worcester Society of Antiquity: F. P. Rice. Town Records, 1833
to 1836; 1836 to 1840; 1841 to 1844.

Old Worcester. From and by Lieut. Samuel Hathaway.

Report of the Board of Trade ; Worcester, 1897. Secretary Squiers.

Report of the Worcester Parks Commission, Nov. 30, 1896.
Edward Winslow Lincoln, Chairman.

Sargent's Sylva, Vol. X.

Illustrated Flora of the Northern States and Canada. Vol. 2. 1897.
Britton & Brown.

A History of Gardening in England. 1896. Hon. Alicia Amherst.

The Water Garden. 1897. William Tricker.

Revue Horticole. French. 2 Vols. 1895 and 1896.

Mushrooms and their Uses. 1897. Charles H. Peck, State Bot-
anist, New York.

British Fungi. 2 Vols. 1886. Rev. John Stevenson.

Students' Hand-Book of Mushrooms of America. Edible and Poi-
sonous. Thomas Taylor, M.D. Pamphlet No. 1, 2, 8.

1897.] REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN. 17

Exchanged with George E. Francis, JM.D. For the Sphagoaccie
or Peat Mosses of Europe and North America. 18<S0. Braithwaite.

HKGULAR rUBMCATIONS.

Amateur Gardening. Springfield, Mass.

Americau Florist.

American Gardening.

Country Gentleman.

Florist Exchange.

Farm and Garden.

Gardening.

Garden and Forest.

New England Homestead.

INIassachusetts Ploughman.

Meehan's Monthly.

Rural New Yorker.

State Board of Health, Nashville, Tenn. Bulletins.

Worcester Daily Spy.

"Worcester Daily Telegram.

English :

Agricultural Gazette.

Garden.

Gardener's Chronicle.

Gardening Illustrated.

Received from the "Country Gentleman" a picture of Luther H.
Tucker, who died Feb. 23, 1897; editor-in-chief of that paper for 24
years. Which I have had framed and hung in the Library.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

ADIN A. HIXON, Librarian.

HORTICULTUKAL HalL, WouCESTEK, MaSS.,

October 31, 1897.

REPORT OF THE TliEASURRR.

The Treasurer of the Worcester County Horticultural Society
presents his annual report, showing the receipts and disburse-
ments for the year ending November 1, 1897.

The income derived from the rent of the Hall is about the
same as for the previous year.

Fifteen hundred doUars has been paid on the mortgage loan of
the Society during the year, and but for the fact that the trustees
have authorized certain repairs and alterations in the building
still more would have been paid. It is confidently expected
that after the repairs have been made and paid for, there will be
a larger reduction in the debt for the coming years.

The F. H. Dewey Fund is now $1081.80, having been in-
creased a little the past year by the accumulation of interest, no
charge having been made against it.

Nathaniel Paine, Treasurer, in account with

WoRCESTEu County Horticultural Society.

Dr.

1896.

Nov. 1. Balance as per last report, " $2,330.85

1897.

Nov. 1. Receipts to date :

From rent of stores, $6,250.00

rent of Hall, 4,790.00

membership fees, 137.00

Chrysanthemum exhibition, 155.50

For tickets to annual banquet, 148.50

interest on bank deposit, 77.50

1897.]

REPOltT OF THE TREASURER.

19

Nov. 1.

Prizes for chrysanthemums :

From O. B. Hudwen,

$25.00

H. F. A. Lange,

25.00

F. B. Madtius,

15.00

F. A. Blake,

15.00

Edward Hall,

15.00

C. D. Thayer,

15.00

Total,

110 f)(\

i. iU.UU

$13,999.05

Cr.

1897.

Nov. 1. Payments to date :

City taxes and water rates.

$ 81(5.86

Premiums paid,

2,069.86

Paid the judges,

150.00

for gas.

1,003.19

Salary of treasurer,

150 00

A. A. Hixon,

1,333.33

janitor,

500.00

A. A. Hixon (Hall expenses),

305.19

For card catalogue.

84.70

books and periodicals.

28.42

Sundry expenses (safe, &c.),

165.97

Repairs at Hall,

484.09

On account of annual banquet,

257.80

Paid on mortgage loan,

1,500.00

Interest on loan,

502.92

Paid for printing, publications, ^

&c., 409.28

Total,

$9,761.61

1897, Nov. 1. Cash balance.

4,237.44

$13,999.05

NATHL. PAINE, Treas.

JSFovembev 3, 1897.

20 worcester county horticultural society. [1897.

Worcester, Nov. 8, 1897.

We the undersigned, Auditors of the Worcester County
Horticultural Society, hereby certify that we have examined the
account of the Treasurer, and find the same to be correct and
properly vouched, and that the cash balance is accounted for.

F. H. CHAMBERLAIN.
HP:NRY L. PARKER.

ESSAYS.

A. I). 1898.

WORCESTER COUNTY

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

6th January, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

O. B. HAD WEN, President.

Subject : — Rural Adornment with Trees and Plants.

Here and there in the suburbs of cities and country towns are
seen many attempts at rural andornment and ornamentation
with trees and plants, delighting with their unexpectedness, and
pleasing by their simplicity, and harmonizing with nature in
every degree of landscape.

Also a neglect of these attractions is conspicuous along the
highways and byways which are by far too manifest, by the
utter want or neglect to use the means which God and nature
and sunshine have so abundantly placed within our scope. And
yet the trees, the flowers, the lawn, the water, and a thousand
kindred charms which only await development when nature is
assisted by man, are to ripen the instincts and cultivate the finer
art of rural life, and encourage the more delicate graces of home
and rural surroundings.

What prevents giving our farms, our homes, our public and
private grounds, an air of simple or elaborate adornment, in
accordance with the means and time at our disposal ?

We may make our grounds, however situated, large or small
in area, so fitted to its exposure, its altitude, its simplicity, so
governed by judicious planting and neatness, so rich in leaf and
flower, an enduring and refining feature in the landscape that

24 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

Heaven itself will commend, and sunshine and showers will
nourish, and the passer-by will forever praise, and the grounds
are themselves the primary and important feature in rural and
city life.

The liberal use of deciduous and coniferous trees and plants
is imperative in landscape art, but should be carefully studied
and selected with a view to the most charming effect. It is an
art that should be accompanied by practical training in planting
the many different kinds of trees, widely differing in their
habits, by exposure and soil, to thrive well, and for years.
Holes for trees and shrubs should be large and well prepared,
giving the roots plenty of room for development, and a mound
in the centre of the hole for the tree to rest upon, giving the
lateral roots a downward tendency, and preventing an open
space under the tree, an important feature very much neglected.

Judicious pruning should be given at the time of transplant-
ing, vigorous pruning with hard wooded sorts, and while they
are unsightly at first, they amply repay with increased growth
and luxuriant foliage.

In planting parks with a view to their future development and
general use for the public, the raw materials of no two parks or
grounds can be found alike ; good soil is one of the chief requi-
sites for all grounds, if they are to be adorned with permanent
trees or shrubs, to keep in harmony with the natural contour of
surface, and the face of nature should be the guide to its embel-
lishment. The higher art is simple in expression, and trees or
plants should be placed in moist or dry situations, as experience
teaches best suited to their growth and longevity. Planting for
immediate effect or crowding trees together is not well adapted
to openness, in part essential to permanent landscape. It must
soon be followed by severe thinning out, the unshapely trees
and shrubs always out of harmony where beauty should reign
at every turn. For God makes the trees and man makes the
harmony.

Parks are of use to bring the city and country in closer prox-
imity, and to contribute the greatest enjoyment for the greatest
number should be the law. The best parks are simple in their

1898.] ESSAYS. 25

expression, the best adornment is with groups of trees or shrubs
found to thrive in the locality, either naturally or ])y art.
Simplicity of design and economy of maintenance are essential
conditions too often overlooked. If possible, ornamental water
should be a feature, as no landscape is complete without ponds
and bridges. Fountains and jets often are exceedingly beauti-
ful, commending themselves to the well-trained eyes of practical
people.

Now then, what are some of the best trees and shrubs to
plant, for the development of landscape is always commensurate
with the advancement of the most cultivated thinkers and gen-
eral knowledge between numbers of men engaged in this pursuit?

The maples, both indigenous and exotic, comprise many sorts.
Indeed, there is no family of trees more extensively planted or
that gives greater satisfaction. Their shapely form and variety
of foliage, with most exquisite coloring, renders them popular.
Among the Norway fomily of maples the Schwedlerii is proving
a great acquisition, with its robust habit of growth, large and
luxuriant leaf opening in spring a bright crimson, unlike any
other maple in its season, in autumn turning to a delicate
bronze, in happy contrast with the autumnal tint of other trees.

Then there is the Reitenbachi, almost the exact counterpart
of the Schwedlerii, opening green in spring and gradually
turning to bright crimson in autumn.

The Geneva, a native of this country, of the Norway type,
comes out a rich crimson purple in spring, retaining its color
through the season.

The Sycamore maple, variety Pupuria, is of vigorous habit.
The leaves arc a fine green on the upper side and colored purple
on the under side, a beautiful tree in a gentle wind.

The Ginnala is a charming maple of shrubby growth, with
deeply cut leaves and intensely bright crimson in autumn.

I have growing on my place eighteen sorts of maples, giving
great variety of form and coloring.

We have no more impressive tree than the oak, often retain-
ing its foliage during the winter. They are more difficult of
transplanting than the Maple. They require hard pruning when

26 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

planted, almost to the pole. The White oak, Scarlet oak, Red
Oak, Yellow oak. Chestnut oak. Pine oak, are the leading
sorts. There is no class of trees that grows so stately and are
longer lived than the oaks.

The Beeches (Fagus) are very valuable trees for ornament,
differing in their variety from other trees, being peculiar in their
tendency of retaining their leaves during the winter ; and, either
green in leaf or browned by frost, form a picturesque family the
year round.

The White, a native beech, is indigenous here on high or
moist places, but rarely bears nuts as it does further north.
The branches extend outward from the trunk in a horizontal
position ; the leaf, a light green, is graceful in its eflfect.

The English beech is more compact and of slower growth, is
stronger in form and the foliage of deeper color, remaining on
the trees during the winter and until the new leaf puts forth in
the spring.

The Purple beech is so strikingly beautiful in the opening
leaf that it is desirable in any grounds, and always an object of
admiration. They prove to be long lived but will bear liberal
dressing of manure, which has a marked effect in the color of the
foliage.

If I ever coveted a tree, the property of another, it was the
Purple beech ; and I am not prepared, either for the lawn, or
for a conspicuous position in any grounds, to assign the Purple
beech a second place. It is said to have its origin in Germany.
When properly grown, it has so many desirable characteristics
that no grounds of any pretensions should be without it. I
know of a tree where the lower branches extend fifty feet. In
early spring, when the leaves are intensely purple, and when
agitated by wind in strong sunlight, its brilliancy is unequalled
by any of the tree family, and would vie successfully with any
of the goro-eous tints of other trees in autumn.

The Fern-Leaved beech is the most charming and shapely of
the beeches ; with its leaf so artistically cut, and furnished in
the greatest abundance, it makes a striking object of symmetry
and beauty, and withstands the ice storms without injury ; a

1898.] ESSAYS. 27

very pleasing tree to the cultivated eye, and sure to be marked
in any collection as one of nature's best works in the beeches.
Its growth is slow unless planted in good soil, when it makes a
vigorous growth.

The American beech, found more or less over our northern
regions, is much admired for its singularly neat and airy foliage,
which often adheres to the branches during the winter. When
in groups, they are delightful in their many excellent features ;
always in full foliage, as but few insects injure them.

The lindens (Tt'Iia), once so popular, are now much less
planted. The American, commonly called Bass, makes a stately
tree, with a large leaf; and in July their flowers fill the air
with delicate perfume.

The birches are an ornamental class of trees quite distinct in
their habits of growth and foliage, prove well adapted to many
situations and are charming in the landscape.

The Cut-Leaved birch is most esteemed and more largely
used for planting. It makes a graceful tree of upright and
partially weeping growth. The graceful sweep of its pendulous
branches, with its beautifully cut and varnished leaf and with its
snow-white bark, it must rank queen of the birches.

The Canoe birch about here is in its southern limit, and does
not attain the same diameter of trunk that it does in more
northern regions. I have watched the growth of one specimen
for nearly forty years, until it is now almost two feet in diame-
ter ; its clear white papery bark giving a marked effect to the
trunk, well furnished with branch and leaf. Where it flourishes,
it is truly a picturesque tree, of spreading, graceful form, and its
cultivation should be encourag-ed.

The Black or Sweet birch is the very first of the family that
the boy learns to recognize, as he bites the fragrant bark. The
tree has many fine features, and is beautiful in its golden
racemes and airy leaf; it is deservedly finding its way from the
wild to cultivated grounds, and thrives therein.

There has been recently introduced, I believe from England,
the Purple birch. Both bark and leaf are intensely purple,
promising to cope with the Purple beech. With purple tint and

28 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

glossy leaf it is conspicuous. My own is quite young, but of
thrifty growth, and thirty-five feet in height.

The Magnolia. — A few of them thrive here and are among our
most beautful trees. 1 have thirteen different kinds growing
on my place. The Magnolia Acuminata grows perfectly well,
is profusely clothed with large green leaves, and in June flow-
ers ; the fruit resembling a small cucumber.

The Magnolia Tripetala, after the first few seasons of growth,
is found hardy, its beauty being in its very large tropical leaves,
with large white flowers six or eight inches across.

Magnolia Soulangeana and Conspicua. — But few, if any, trees
are more ornamental than these, when in bloom ; being filled
with white and pink flowers, four or five inches across, before
the leaves unfold ; they are particularly well adapted to small
grounds.

The Tulip Tree ( Liriodendron tulipifera). — The tulip is a
great favorite on extensive grounds, and being of rapid growth
soon becomes a tall, stately tree, with leaves of peculiar cut
and freshness. The flowers open late in June, are fine, tulip
shape, of greenish yellow tint. I have seen trees near Philadel-
phia with trunks nearly four feet in diameter. They are, by the
way, a difficult tree to transplant.

Then I admire the Gingko, or Salisburia, with all its foreign
caste, its Oriental primness and precise regularity of growth and
habit, with peculiar shell-like leaves of pea green, seemingly
bearing the stamp of its native country, patient and polite.

The Larch ( Larix) is considerably planted as an ornamental
tree ; its rapid and symmetrical growth soon gives shade and
shelter.

The beautiful class of trees commonly known as coniferous
evergreen, are indispensable in the landscape during the winter
season. With the newer sorts of more recent introduction they
are becoming great favorites with many planters. Their various
shades of color during the year places them in the very front
rank in ornamental planting.

The Pines, Spruces, Cedars, Firs, Arborvitses are so well
known that I will omit them to make room for some of the new

1898.] ESSAYS. 29

sorts : Picea Pungens, or Colorado Blue Spruce, growing at an
altitude of eight to ten thousand feet above the sea level, is one
of rare beauty ; its silvery-blue color and well-furnished
pyramidal form render it one of the most conspicuous and
charming of the evergreens, the very Conifer of the storms.

The Concolor is from Colorado, and one of the finest and
most graceful, and often as blue as the Pungens. It is slowly
but surely taking a high rank in ornamental planting.

Nordmans Silver Fir, when well established, is an impressive
evergreen, of strong, symmetrical habit, dark, massive foli-
age with lighter shade underneath.

The Douglas Spruce, Engelmanni, is indigenous in the Rocky
mountains. Also we have from Japan a few sorts that are
not only proving hardy but more pronounced in many ways
than others. Abies Veitchii is one of the finest. Abies Alcock-
quiana is a magnificent tree of the greatest value. Picea Polita,
a Japanese variety, with a pleasant shade of deep green, quite
distinct. The Umbrella Pine, also from Japan, with long,
leathery leaves and very compact, forms a very singular tree.
Two fine specimens may be found at Elm park. It is too high
priced for general use.

FLOWERING SHRUBS AND PLANTS.

No grounds are complete without them. Each part of the
shrubbery should have a distinct character of its own, which is
easily done by grouping instead of mixing several sorts in one
group. Large grounds may have combinations of groups, but
plenty of space is indispensable for well-grown plants. The
charm of a garden of hardy plants is complete only in the con-
stant change in the season of bloom from spring until late
autumn. Each week to find some new phase of floral beauty,
and the expectation of what plants will be in bloom the follow-
ing week, develops increasing interest through the season. It
is well for small growers to commence with a few kinds most
easily grown and add to them as interest develops from season
to season.

Among the hardy flowering shrubs that are always satisfactory

4

30 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

may be mentioned the Deutzias, Spireas, Azalias, Rhododen-
drons, Berberis Thunbergii, Japan Quince, Weigelia, Exochorda
Grandifiora, Forsythia, Hydrangea Paniculata, Syringa, Rosa
Rugosa, and Hybrid Roses, the Lilacs, double and single,
Viburnum plica turn, and Viburnum Tomentosum from Japan,
the Laurel, upright and climbing Honeysuckles, Wisterias, &c.
Among the hardy herliaccous plants are the Pasonies, with hun-
dreds of distinct sorts, Irises, Lilies, perennial Poppies, Prim-
roses, Anemones, Narcissi, Campanulas, Pyrethrums, Phloxes,
and very many others, forming a succession of bloom from
early to late. Color, fragrance and profusion of bloom may be
had throughout the season as experience broadens the mind of
the cultivator.

There are no grand or well-grounded rules which must be
rigidly followed in planting. The due blending of colors should
be well considered in planting both trees and flowering plants,
with a view to the most pleasing efiiects. Indeed, there is
scarcely an end to the simple or artistic combinations with which
grounds may be adorned.

One of the chief phases of adornment of our grounds is to
keep in close alliance with nature, with the unwritten law which
governs and adorns each place unto itself, "as nature assisted
by man"; which will invent and form those pleasing surround-
ings that men are delighted in ; out of this develops a certain
unconscious intelligence, as yet rarely taught in school or college,
but emanates from hard thought, largely intuitive, which is born
with a sense of beauty of form and harmony of arrangement.

The time is coming, even now is, when the value of every
farm or homestead will be measured by the art and adornment
of its surroundings ; where men spend the most important years
of their lives, there is an intrinsic value measured by the refin-
ing influence, especially to the young. The sanctity of the
home is measured by its surroundings, without as well as
within.

Ornamented grounds are yearly encroaching upon former
neglected homesteads ; tasteful dwellings are seen within plant-
ings and groupings of coniferous and deciduous trees, with their

1898.] ESSAYS. 31

exquisite sheen, which gives them such attractiveness and quiet
beauty. Roofs that shelter the manly and gentle virtues that
are nurtured in refining homes, the intelligence and influence
generated around these hearthstones, are the lineal descendants
that contribute to the useful pursuits of life.

Home grounds and farm lands are only waiting in anticipation
the finer charms of adornment which will mark their future, by
the simple application of more educated tastes and rural aptitude
are sure to bring forth, to quicken the fine instincts of civil life,
with an array of good sense, and beautiful objects to behold in
the landscape, which is beautified if in true accord with nature,
and helps to adorn her. Wherever I see good tree-planting and
well-kept grounds, I know they teach the value of rural life,
that brings men into daily contact with nature, for every place
must have its especial adornment, its own interpretation of the
skill of the planter, and the amount of care bestowed, and those
who cultivate best will be quite apt to get the most out of life.

I will close with the oft-repeated advice of the old Scotchman
to his son : " Jack, Be planting a tree, it will be growing while
you are sleeping."

I3th January, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

ROBERT FARQUHAR, Boston.

Theme: — 77^6 Yellowstone Park, Oregon.

Illustrated with Stereopticon Views.

Last season I devoted my vacation to a trip to Oregon and
Yellowstone Park with a camera and notebook, the result of
which I will try and give to you this afternoon.

The natural endowments of Oregon are apt to strike the east-
erner with amazement. He finds himself in a land of great
forests, of lofty mountains, noble rivers and an atmosphere so
clear that the Pacific ocean is visible at a distance of seventy
miles. The soil of the valleys is remarkable in fertility, and
although there are great extremes of temperature, fruits and
vegetables attain an enormous size. The legislature has been
particularly careful of the horticultural interests, and laws for
the inspection of seed and imported plants have had the result
that insects, troublesome in the east, are unknown there.

The raising of prunes is a recent industry, and promises well,
ordinary soil yielding a uniform profit of $100 per acre. Fruits
in great variety are raised in Oregon, and the display represent-
ins: the State at the world's fair in Chicago was among the best
exhibits of fruit seen at the big fair.

Seattle and Portland are the New York and Boston of the far
west, and are destined before many years to become great centres
of industry and population. In the great falls of the Willamette
River, which washes the suburbs of Portland and falls into the
Columbia, that city has the second largest single water power of

1898.] ESSAYS. 33

the country, Niagarii alone excelling. The falls are capable of
furnishing 75,000 horse power. Already large power works are
constructed and furnish electric lighting and power service and
drive the machinery of many mills and factories.

We climbed the steep sides of Mount Hood, the famous land-
mark which towers in the clear air fifty miles east of Portland,
although it seems much nearer. The crater is quiescent, but not
dead, for steam issues from the crevices of the rocks, and in places
it is hot enough, though far above the snow line, to cook on the
rocks.

Returning to the great river the party ascended in steamers
and got a good insight into the vast salmon fisheries. Some of
the big fishwheels net their owners as much as $30,000 each year
by their catches. As the fish cannot make headway against the
mighty current, the machines are built along the banks, where
the stream turns the framework wheels armed with wire net
flanijes.

The fish, swimming into the nets, are carried up and thrown
into a big pit, whence they are scooped out by machinery and
loaded for transportation to the canneries. Last year 15,000,000
cans of salmon w6re shipped out of Oregon for consumption in
nil parts of the world. The fish are so plentiful that Indians
with long poles armed with sharp hooks spear the fish and make
$4 and even $5 a day by selling the fish at two cents a pound to
the canneries.

The scenery along the Columbia cannot be excelled by any
river scenery in the world. Its cliflfs dwarf those of the Hudson
and the Rhine, as the river rushes through great gorges of basal-
tic rock that have been worn into peculiar formations by the action
of the torrent for ages. The great falls of the Columbia through
the Cascade Mountain range are passed in canals and locks, and
the smaller steamers are thus enabled to mount high up the big
river.

The Indian associations of the Columbia are plentiful and
interesting. The aborigines are long-lived, and it is not uncom-
mon to see men and women who have passed the century mark.
But their lodges and manner of life show no improvement from

34 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

contact with the whites. Rattlesnakes abound in Oregon, and
the Indians of the old days used to inoculate pieces of flesh by
getting the snakes to bite, and then they dipped their arrow
points in the poison to give a death wound to their enemies.

The Indians of that locality buried their dead for generations
on an island in the river, which is covered with a multitude of
skeletons of bodies placed there on slight wooden platforms,
which have fallen, leaving the place a wilderness of skulls, bones
and battered sticks.

I would advise anybody going to the Yellowstone to carry
materials for preserving flowers and grasses, of which the pro-
duction of the famous region is luxuriant and greatly varied,
from tropical growths of the hot midsummer to the little flowers
that flourish only alongside the ice and snow. While visitors
are not allowed to touch cultivated flowers, no interdict is placed
on the wild flowers and handsome grasses, and a splendid collec-
tion may easily be obtained.

From the great fall of the Yellowstone River for twenty miles
the caiion winds in and out between high walls so steep and lofty
that from the bottom the stars can be seen at any part of the
brightest day.

In the park is one of the most unique hothouses in the country.
It is a strong wooden building constructed over a hot spring, and
although in midwinter snow from fifteen to thirty feet deep buries
the building from sight, the spring is perennial and keeps the
temperature of the interior at summer heat, and the caretaker
in the spring finds the lettuce and other crops ready for salad
making, in spite of the snow on the roof.

20th January, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

Prof. L. F. KINNEY,
Of the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station.

Theme: — Rural Economy.

Science consists largely in the collection and classification of
facts. Viewed in this light it cannot be said that we have as
yet a science of horticulture, although about fifty men in our
country are studying the subject scientifically. We have pro-
ceeded in this study far enough, however, to be privileged to
say something about rural economy. Civilization is the off-
spring of economy, and economy consists in the judicious
expenditure of labor and capital. Consequently, real economy
demands that the production of the necessaries of life shall
be accomplished by the shortest and quickest methods. As an
example, take the crop of winter lettuce, which is grown by a
limited number of men, but it has reached a development in
this country higher than anywhere else in the world. Lettuce
o-rown in the field all winter is not much better than cab])age.
Lettuce was grown that way probably by the early Romans.
But there was no progress in lettuce raising until about the
middle of this century. The plants simply lived in dormant
condition in the earliest hothouses.

Cold frame lettuce was raised in the decade from 1850 to
1860, and by that time the market was well supplied and the
improvements came to a standstill. Next the farmers put the
lettuce into the hot frames in September, and got three crops

36 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

out of the year. Then from the hotbed to the hothouse was an
advance that required more capital. The next step in the evolu-
tion was substitution of larger panes of glass and smaller sup-
ports, then hot water heating and last steam heating.

From the start the cost of production of lettuce has been
decreased. You can buy lettuce in the markets at half what
was charged fifteen years ago, still leaving a profit to the farmer.
The result is that lettuce is no longer a luxury, but a common
article of diet.

The culture of celery, a vegetable which was unknown until
modern times, and was always grown in trenches until 1884.
At that time the two self-blanching varieties — the "Paris
Golden" and the " White Golden" — were introduced, and since
with these varieties the blanching was done by boards instead
of by the laboriously heaped trenches, the industry has received
a great impetus. For a short time the retail price remained the
same, and the pioneers in the new process grew rich ; but now
over-production has ensued, and only in the most favored locali-
ties is celery grown at a profit.

Grape-vines do not flourish well in Southern Rhode Island,
while spinach does. That is one thing we ought to study more
on our farms, for it is certain that particular crops flourish in
certain localities and under certain climatic conditions.

They say a man who causes two blades of grass to grow
where one grew before is a public benefactor, but I can't see it
unless the raiser makes a profit thereby.

The peach, for instance, is peculiarly susceptible to conditions
of environment. Application of this principle brings about
prosperity.

Considering the building of roads, it may be that the labor of
building a stone road may amount to more than the amount of
labor set free by the completed road. So it seems to me, that
the back districts should be encouraged to build the easier forms
of road. It is a truth that more a road is used, the more easily
it can be repaired.

About $1,000,000,000 worth of forest products are being
consumed annually in the United States, and thus far there

1898.] ESSAYS. 37

is no systematic effort to conserve the supply. Is it not econo-
my to use the roadsides to plant trees ?

Trees should be planted along the roadside. They make the
country attractive for pleasure seekers, — thus indirectly helping
the farmer. It is not economy to use expensive machinerj' for
small farms, which wears out by disuse and neglect in winter
so rapidly that its utility in summer is not adequate com-
pensation.

27th January, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

Miss HELEN A. BALL, Worcester, Mass.
Theme: — Birds of the Farm and Garden.

I AM very glad indeed to hear that there is an interest in the
Society in the study of birds. It seems to me that if a money
value could be placed upon birds, as Mr. Kirkland has placed
one upon the toad, that there would then be no question as to
their being protected. I mean, of course, a money value upon
the live bird, unfortunately the dead bird has a money value,
but the dead bird or feather is very perishable property that
rapidly depreciates, as when one has purchased a dead bird she
cannot sell it at the end of the season for what she paid for it at
the beginning. I think we only need to prove that the live
bird is more valuable than the dead one to ensure its protection.
In the case of the toad, very definite data was obtained by Mr.
Kirkland from stomach examination, and upon that he bases
his money value — from the number of cutworms alone that he
destroys. He said that it was worth $19.88 to the gardener
every season. We have not just the data to place a value upon
each bird in just that way, but very definite examinations have
been made by the Department of Agriculture, and so we have
exact statements to make in regard to the value of the bird and
the insects they destroy.

The Bluebird is placed at the top of the list by systematic
ornithologists and is really one of the first birds in importance
in its destruction of insects. Nearly three-fourths of its food is
animal, — one-sixth of the food is of caterpillars, and one-fourth,

1898.] ESSAYS. 39

grasshoppers and crickets. The rest of the food is mainly of
wild berries. There is no cultivated fruit at all on the list of
this bird's food, and it is one of the most valuable. Fortunately,
this last year it seems to have regained in numl)ers what it lost
two or three years ago in the winter when he suffered so much
from frost in the South, and the cold weather cut off the food
supply there, and great numbers of them died from starvation.
It is often worth while to know the vegetable foods and fruits
that it lives upon so as to be able to plant them in order to
attract birds. The Bluebird enjoys choke cherries, dogvvood,
bush cranberry, huckleberry, greenbrier, Virginia creeper, juni-
per, bitter-sweet, pokeberry, false spikenard, partridge berry,
and the wild sarsaparilla.

The Robin is a very familiar bird of the gardens and orchards,
and is accused of eating cultivated fruits to a large extent, but
examinations show that less than five per cent, of his food is
grown by man. Nearly one-half is animal, including wasps,
ants, bugs, spiders, angleworms, and a large per cent, of
grasshoppers and crickets and caterpillars. He also eats great
numbers of March fly larvse, so preventing injury to the hay
crops. He has been supposed to feed largely on angleworms
from his well known habit of running over the grass, but we
find that the angleworm forms a small per cent. He picks up
a number of cutworms and an army of insects that lie in the
larviu state in the ground. Professor Forbes has asked the
question : " Will the destruction of seventeen quarts of aver-
age caterpillars, including at least eight quarts of cutworms,
pay for twenty-four quarts of cherries, blackberries, currants
and grapes?" and someone else makes the statement that " He
is a poor business man who pays $10 for what he knows must
later be sold for fifteen cents or less." Yet I have known of
instances where a robin that had saved from ten to fifteen bush-
els of apples that were worth a dollar a bushel, by clearing the
trees from canker worms in the spring, was shot when he picked
one of the apples that he had saved for the ungrateful owner.
The Robin is fond of wild fruits, and these may l)e planted to
draw his attention from the garden fruit — dogwood and wild

40 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

grape, wild black cherry, choke-cherry, mulberry, cranberry,
blueberry, huckleberry, hoUyberry, elderberry, hackberry,
service-berry, spice berry, hawthorn, bittersweet, Virginia
creeper, mountain ash, barberry, pokeberry, strawberry, bush-
berry, juniper, and bayberry.

The two Thrushes that we have here through the summer,
that is, the Wood Thrush and the Wilson Thrush, are almost
wholly insectivorous. They teed to some extent upon wild
fruit and do not come so close to the orchards as the other
birds, but still they are never far from the habitations of man.
The Thrushes here come every year by Millstone Hill, and
Green Hill, and I know that they are in the south part of the
city and also in the west. I found a pair of them at Elm Park
one spring. The shrubbery has all been cut away just where I
found them. It is very unfortunate to lose the lower branches
of the trees and the thick shrubbery where the birds go for
food. They seek those places especially for protection and need
them to resort to. They do a great deal of good in eating the
larva3 of a great many insects.

The little Kinglets are very valuable. They are the gleaners
of trees especially, and we usually see them about the trunk
and the limbs of the trees, pecking in all the crevices of the
bark. They are very industrious indeed. The Golden-crowned
Kinglet is a winter bird and is here all through the winter, and
the Ruby-crowned comes in the fall and the early spring. The
Ruby-crowned has a wonderful song for so tiny a bird. It is
one of the most wonderful things to find such a volume of song
coming from such a scrap of a bird.

The white-breasted Nuthatch is quite common here and is a
resident, that is, lives here the year round. It is distinguished
from the Woodpecker by having almost no tail. The wings
come down even with the tail. Its habits are quite different
from those of the Woodpecker, and it is almost always coming
down the tree or hanging from the inside of the branches. The
small one of Canada comes to us in the winter and last winter
was very abundant indeed. It was found in large numbers by
the Lake, and in the western part of the city. The winter

1898.] ESSAYS. 41

birds are apt to be variable in coming to us. The white-
breasted Nuthatch gets its name from its well known habit of
fastening a nut into a part of the tree and hammering it with his
bill to break it, in order to get the grub of the insect inside
rather than for simply food itself.

The Catbird is a common bird of the garden, and is often
looked upon as an unwelcome visitor because he enjoys fruit.
Experiments have shown that he prefers mulberries to straw-
berries and cherries, hence, if Russian mulberries are planted
in henyards or pig-pens, the hens and pigs will not only be
provided with excellent food, but the Catbird will be attracted
thither, in this manner protecting the more valuable fruits.
The Catbird arrives about the first of May, and during that
month he does valuable service. Ants form eight per cent, of
his food ; thousand-legs, ten per cent. ; May beetles, eight per
cent. ; ground beetles, eight per cent. ; caterpillars, eight per
cent. Through June about the same proportion is maintained
of animal and vegetable food. As soon as mulberries, rasp-
berries, cherries and strawberries ripen, the birds naturally
forsake the dried fruits, that is, those that have dried through
the winter. About this time in May one-third of its food is
gleaned from berries of the previous summer, — sumach, smilax,
and other fruits that have been hanging all winter. As soon as
grasshoppers come, grasshoppers and crickets form a large pro-
portion of the food, for ten per cent, of all the food taken
during the latter part of June is of grasshoppers and crickets.
During the first twenty days of July, the Catbird is believed to
take the maximum of cultivated fruit. Raspberries and black-
berries are the favorites, but by the middle of August these give
way somewhat to Ijlack wild cherry, dogwood, and elderberry.
The Catbird's food consists of three per cent, of carniverous
wasps and wild bees that carry pollen from fiower to flower, but
this is counterbalanced by the destruction of weevils, thousand-
legs, and plant-eating bugs. Catbirds have a liking for the
easily obtainable predaceous ground beetles which are supposed
to be beneficial to the farmer, but the loss of these insects is
made up for by the destruction of beetles related to the May bee-

42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

ties. The Catbird subsists largely on fruit of which about one-
third is taken from cultivated crops. It eats caterpillars,
grussho})pers, and crickets, with a small percentage of leaf-
eating and click beetles. The volume of these insects destroyed
is equal to only one half of that of the cultivated fruit eaten.

The Brown Thrasher, which is a close relative of the Catbird,
is certainly more valuable, as the results of investigations show,
as to the fruit it destro3's and the injurious insects. The quan-
tity of food taken from cultivated crops amounts to only eleven
percent., eight per cent, of which is fruit and the rest grain.
The farmer is more than compensated for this loss by the de-
struction of an equal bulk of May beetles which if allowed to
live would have done much more harm than the Thrasher, and
left a numerous progeny for next year. Grasshoppers, crickets,
weevils, click and leaf beetles form a large proportion of the
food. It destroys twice as many caterpillars as the Catbird.
The Brown Thrasher has a fine soft note, especially contrasted
with that of the Wood Thrush in the ecstacy with which he
pours it forth. The Brown Thrasher is often called the Brown
Thrush, but it is not a Thrush properly. The Brown Thrasher
and the Catbird belong to the Mocking-bird family. They are
certainly characterized by the song that differs very much from
the strain of the Thrush. Thoreau speaks of the Wood Thrush
as having a song of fine modulation. He gives vent to a beau-
tiful strain, and then pauses in order to enjoy it himself perhaps,
while the Thrasher pours forth a perfect volume of ecstatic
song, and then at the end of the nesting season, a very brief
period of song, he seems particularly depressed in spirit and
skulks away and hides among the bushes.

We have a large number of little Warblers that are wholly
insectivorous, and do a great deal of good in the orchards, in
picking up the tiny insects that infest the buds and plants, the
flower buds on fruit trees and all the cultivated plants. These
Warblers are called the Myrtle Warblers, and have three or four
distinct spots of yellow. They are migrants, coming to us in
the spring and in the fall, and last fall I found a large flock of
them. We have a large number of them beautifully colored.

1898.] ESSAYS. 43

They hiive not so fine a song as many of the other birds, but it
is very sweet. The Wihl Canary, the Redstart, the Bhick-
throated Blue, and the Oven bird that is very familiar from its
call, all these are very valuable, simply from the number of tiny
insects they destroy.

The Vireos are common. This is the Ked-eyethat is common
in all of the shady trees in the city streets, and so common
throughout the country everywhere. It is often called the
"Bird of the Maples" because he seems to prefer that tree
to any of the other hardwood trees. They build their nests in
the bark of the l)ranches, and they usually use some newspaper
for this purpose. Birch bark is used in some cases, but they
are quite sure to use a bit of newspaper. Vireos rank next to
the Cuckoo in the destruction of caterpillars, and they are of
great value from their fondness for bugs, weevils. May beetles,
inch-worms, and the leaf-eating beetles. There are three or
four varieties that are known here. This is the Yellow-throated
that is almost as common as the Red-eye. It has a song very
closely resembling that of the Red-eye. We might say that the
Red-eye's song is inspiring and the Yellow-throated's loud in
quality, but they are very similar indeed. There are also the
Blue-headed or Solitary Vireo and the Warbling. The War-
bling is very common indeed in elm trees.

This is a bird that visits us in winter, coming north late in the
fall and staying until the first of April. The Shrike, or Butcher
bird has rather a bad reputation, because he kills small birds by
paling them on the thorns of thorn bushes. It is not known
exactly for what reason he does this, as he does not seem to
return to them. The thorn bush is often spoken of as the
" Shrike's Larder." The Shrike does a great deal of good in
catching mice and also in catching English Sparrows and disas-
trous caterpillars, also some other noxious insects. It has
really a sweet song, a sweet note, and is said to imitate the song
of a number of birds for the purpose of attracting them and
getting close enough to catch them.

There are the sweet and beautiful Cedar birds, or Cedar Wax-
wings — Waxwings from the bit of red at the tip of the wing

44 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

feathers, which looks like a bit of sealing wax. This is only
apparent in the mature birds. It does not come in the first
year. The Cedar birds are also called Cherry birds, and they
are looked upon with great disfavor because they come in cherry
time. They are said to eat a great many cherries and so are
shot, but their food is largely animal. Out of one hundred and
fifty stomachs that were examined only nine had any traces of
cherries, and the food is as a whole entirely of noxious insects,
caterpillars, grasshoppers, spiders, and the elm leaf beetle ; it
is particularly valuable in destroying that beetle. Mrs. Mary
True speaks of one village where the elm trees had sufiered to a
o-reat extent from the ravages of the elm leaf beetle, and after a
time a flock of Cedar birds came and destroyed the beetles, so
that the trees quite recovered ; and someone makes the calcula-
tion that twenty Cedar birds would destroy nine thousand worms
durin<J^ the season when the cutworm is exposed. They do
a great deal of good in destroying noxious insects.

The Scarlet Tanager also is a very valuable bird. It is a
summer resident, and is very well known. Perhaps the female
is not so well known as the male. It shows clearly the protec-
tive coloring given the female. When the male is especially
bright, it always follows that the female is sure to be very dull
in color. If the females were colored like the males and they
were to build a nest and sit upon the eggs, the nest would
be quickly discovered by hawks above and man and boy below.
The Tanager is useful in destroying a great many weevils, wire-
worms, and the gipsy moth.

The winter Grosbeak is one that comes occasionally. We
are not sure of it every winter, as the winter migrants are nmch
more uncertain than the summer ones. We can always know to
a day when the summer birds will come to us, but it seems of
great uncertainty when the winter birds will come to us. The
Pine Grosbeak is very fond of wild berries. Those that were
here two or three years ago were feeding upon the moun-
tain-ash berry, and the seeds of the maple, elm, and ash. They
are beautifully colored, and have a sweet rather plaintive note.
The summer Grosbeak, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, is particu-

1898.] ESSAYS. 45

larly valuable because he is fond of potato beetles. He also
eats the gipsy moth, and a great many other noxious insects,
and also grasshoppers and crickets. This bird comes from the
middle to the last of April and spends the summer. He has a
tine song, a song that is perhaps next to that of the Wood
Thrush in the beauty of its strains. This is quite abundant
about Green Hill and Millstone Hill.

The Sparrow family is a large one, that is, the Sparrow
family, I should say, including these Grosbeaks and all birds
with strong beaks that can feed upon ground beetles and upon
seeds and nuts. They do not seem to be so valuable perhaps
in destroying insects, though they feed their young upon insects
and so consume a great number in that way, but they are very
valuable in destroying the seeds of noxious weeds. The Savanna
Sparrow, a bird that is distinguished by a pale yellow line over
the eye, is very much like the Song Sparrow otherwise, in its
coloring. It comes early, about the last of March, and is a
summer resident, though I think it is not so well known as the
other Sparrows. The Song Sparrow, of course, is the best
known of them all, as it comes very early, sometimes in Febru-
ary, and is here until late in the fall, occasionally perhaps win-
tering. It builds its nest upon the ground, and the song is one
of the sweetest notes of all the springtime and the middle of the
summer. It has a very varied song, and it is hardly possible to
describe it, to say definitely, as I often hear it said, that he
begins with three opening notes, a trill, and three high notes at
the end. I have heard it begin with three notes and four, and
with simply an upward slur. The song is very much indeed
like that of the Vesper Sparrow, and its color is very much like
it only it has white lateral tail feathers. The White-throated
Sparrow is here only in the spring and in the fall. It is a
misfrant, ofoing farther north into the White Mountains and
Maine to nest. It has a fine song, one of the most beautiful
perhaps of the Sparrow family, clear, long, high notes, followed
by trills rapidly given and very sweet. Its note gives it the
name " Peabody Bird," from the four words that can be said
with it, '* Old man Peabody, Peabody, Peabody." It is really
5

46 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

very abundant. I found it in very suprising numbers in the city
in the fall, scratching about under shrubbery, where it finds its
food.

The Junco birds come to us in the fall and stay through into
the spring. They are often called the Black Snow bird or
Slate-colored Snow bird, but they are not Snow birds properly,
that is, they are not the Snow Flakes or Buntings that come to
us from Greenland in the winter. These go farther north into
the Provinces and Maine to nest, but not so far north as the
Snow Bunting. Junco is a very good name because the}'^ feed
upon seeds and weeds and grass. As they fly they show white
lateral tail feathers and are easily distinguished by those. They
are usually in flocks and fly up as anyone approaches, showing
these tail feathers.

The Fox Sparrow is the largest of the Sparrow family, and
comes very early in March, and then again very late in October,
November, and sometimes in December. It goes far north to
Labrador and west into the Middle States to nest. It has a fine
song, fuller and more ringing than that of the Song Sparrow,
and is quite differently colored. The Fox Sparrow has the
reddish color of the fox as no other Sparrow has.

The Chewink is another Sparrow that is a very common sum-
mer resident. It comes about the time the Catbird does, and is
very common along stone walls wherever there is thick shrub-
bery to go under. It is a ground bird, having strong feet, and
is often called the " Ground Robin." It has three colors, black,
red and white. It has a very pleasant song, and the common
note gives it the name of *' Towhee," and it is often called the
" Towhee Bunting." Its note is heard very often in huckleberry
pastures. It is also called "Chewink," a name corresponding
to the trill.

The Indigo bird is still another sparrow that last spring I
found very common indeed over near Stone Hill. The female
is colored very differently from the male in this case. They are
ground birds in the sense that they keep very close to the
ground, as really so many birds do. Naturally they feed and
nest within a few feet of the ground.

1898.] ESSAYS. 47

The Bobolink of the North visits us in the sunniier. The
female is a brown bird and the male is of the same color in the
winter, so that the people of the South call them the Rice birds.
As the females are in great excess of the males the southern
people think it is perfectly right to eat so many of them. The
Bobolink changes his plumage as he comes north in the si)ring,
and is a very different bird in appearance from the Reed bird of
the west and the Rice bird of the South that is so troublesome in
the colonies. Here where it nests it is really very valuable and
does a great deal of good work eating the insects that are found
on the ground and in the trees. He is certainly valual)le here
for his fine song. Thoreau says, "As he flies over the meadow
it is all bespattered with melody." He sings finely. A song on
the wing is fiir more wonderful than one in the top of a tree.

The Bobolink begins the Blackbird family, and the Meadow
Lark is also a Blackbird, though its color does not suggest that,
but the bill and other points have proved it to be a Blackbird.
It is a brown bird, a terrestrial bird, having strong feet for walk-
ing over the grassy fields. The Meadow Lark is perhaps a
good name because he is distinctly a meadow bird, although it
is found as much on the hills especially where there are strips of
grassy fields as on Newton Hill. It builds its nest in the grass,
often making a little arched covered way to approach it. The
Meadow Lark is one of the most valuable of the birds in the
food it eats. He has been accused of eating clover seed, but
ninety-nine per cent, of the food taken in clover time is found
to be mainly of grasshoppers. It is estimated that the value of
the grass crop, saved by the Meadow larks, on a township of
thirty-six square miles, each month during the grasshopper sea-
son is about $24.00. It also eats May beetles, ants, bugs, cater-
pillars, curculios and leaf beetles. So we see that far from
being injurious in any way, it is one of the most useful allies to
agriculture, standing almost without a peer as a destroyer of
noxious insects. The bird comes very early in March, and it is
quite easy to be seen then although the color does harmonize
so well with the background that at first it is quite diflScult to
find the bird, but when you have once heard one singing it is

48 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

easy afterwards. He walks about very leisurely in the grass.
The flight is peculiar, a very beautiful hovering flight, a little
soaring like the hawk perhaps, and as it flies it shows two very
distinct white tail feathers. Then it has a fine song, it is a
rather piercing note perhaps and in a manner strained, but it is
one of the sweet notes of the springtime.

The two Orioles, the Orchard and the Baltimore, are very
valuable. Both have an undisputed reputation as destroyers of
insects. They eat about equally perhaps great numbers of
caterpillars, the tent caterpillar among others, and bugs, grass-
hoppers and beetles that feed upon the locust and the apple
trees. Then the Baltimore eats the wire-worm and the larvas
of the elaters. They are vegetable feeders and live upon the
roots of grass, wheat, corn, potatoes and garden vegetables.
Generally their eggs are laid in pastures and on the ground
where the surface is undisturbed or in the vicinity of rotten
wood. The wire-worms are very hard to kill, so that we should
be most grateful to the l)irds that destroy them. The Oriole is
a favorite of poets and people in general. A story is told that
Lord Baltimore — the first Lord Baltimore, George Calvert — was
so pleased and cheered by the presence of the large number of
these birds in the trees of Maryland, that he adopted their colors,
the black and yellow of the Oriole.

The Crow Blackbird or the Purple Grackle is very common
here. The Purple Grackle has a purple irridescence all over
the plumage, while with this variety that we have here, the
colored purple irridescence comes oft' quite early and the rest of
the plumage has a brown slatish appearance. These are common
birds in pine trees, and we often find them walking about on the
ground. In the West they are very troublesome, going there
as they do in great flocks of thousands. There they do a great
deal of damage to the grain crops, but we have no such trouble
from them here and they often follow the plough over the fields
and afterward when their stomachs are examined they are found
to be crammed with the grubs which they have picked up. Then
they eat a great many destructive insects — the rose beetle, May
beetle, grasshoppers, caterpillars, crickets, and locusts.

1898.] ESSAYS. 49

The Blue Jay has a somewhat bad reputation, like the Crow
he is accused of pulling corn and eating small birds, but, how-
ever, out of 280 stomachs examined the remains of birds' ejrirs
were found in only three and of birds in two. 17 per cent, of
the food of the year was found to be corn, but 22 per cent, was
found to be of insects, such as grasshoppers and caterpillars ; so
the verdict would seem to be in his favor rather than against
him. He is very fond of the nuts of the oak, beech, and other
fruits of the woods, and as this is just at the time when corn is
most plenty, so that it would show that if he could get the fruit
he likes, he would not touch the corn, and it is very certain that
they destroy very few birds or birds' eggs, and the same is true
of the crow. A very bulky pamphlet on the croAv has just
been issued by the Department of Agriculture, showing how
much good the crows really do and how well they deserve pro-
tection instead of being shot for their depredations.

The Fly Catchers are very numerous and do a great deal of
good. They are almost wholly insectivorous. The Phoebe is
very common through the summer season. It is often called the
Bridge bird from his habit of building his nest under bridges
and over streams. The four Fly Catchers that are very common
here are the King bird, the Phoebe, the Wood Peewee, and the
Least Fly Catcher, a tiny little bird that is very common in our
orchards. These have a peculiar flight, always starting from a
perch where they keep a sharp lookout, making a sudden circle
and coming back to the point from which they started. The
Phoebe lives mainly on animal food, and weevils that are so
injurious to beans and wheat, flies. May beetles, caterpillars,
squash beetles, elm leaf beetles, and grasshoppers. There are
so many weevils, between eight and ten thousand species, that
every bird that eats weevils should be carefully protected.

The Chimney Swift is very familiar. It is often called the
Chimney Swallow, but it is not properly a swallow at all, its
nearest relatives being the Humming-bird and the Whip-poor-
will and the Night Hawk. They are birds of very strong powers
of flight, and swoop through the air, taking all the insects that
they find. The Swallows, properly speaking, the White-breasted

50 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

that is so common, and the Barn Swallow, are very valuable
indeed, not only as fly catchers but as catchers of flying ants and
a number of moths.

The Woodpeckers are very valuable in gleaning from the trees
the grubs and larva? of a great many insects. The Flicker is a
very common bird of summer. It has a great many different
names — it is the Golden-winged Woodpecker, and the Flicker,
and it is known by a number of other names. It is perhaps
almost as much a ground bird as it is a tree bird, for it is very
frequently found feeding on the ground, and 50 per cent, of its
food is of ants — three thousand were found in one stomach. The
Downy and Hairy are two small Woodpeckers. The Downy is
the smallest of all and is very common all the year round in the
shady trees of the city streets. The Hairy is marked exactly
like the Downy but is a few sizes larger — the Hairy is about the
size of the Robin — and not one of these three Woodpeckers
shows a questionable trait. They are all very valuable and
should be protected and encouraged in every way. The yellow-
bellied Woodpecker, that is known as the Sap Sucker, perhaps
does a little damage to the trees as it bores so many holes and
strips off the bark, but it does a great deal of good in destroying
insects, it seems suflScient good to balance the harm it does.

The Black-billed Cuckoo is very valuable indeed as it eats so
many caterpillars, grasshoppers and spiders and also potato
beetles. This is the bird that is often known as the Rain Crow
because it is supposed to give a call or note just before rain.
But I think that hardly holds good. He sings at all times of the
day and in all kinds of weather. The note is a little peculiar,
it sounds more like "Kuk-out" than "Cuckoo". It is a shy
bird and is often found feeding upon nests of caterpillars. This
bird has none of the traits of the European Cuckoo at all. It
builds a shabby nest it is true, but it builds its own nest, and
cares for its young.

The Hawks and Owls are looked upon as birds of prey, and
are usually considered perhaps as doing much more damage than
good, if they do any good at all, but the Owl, and especially the
little Screech Owl, is very valuable, and it is very sad indeed to

1898.] ESSAYS. 51

see its head upon a hat. Nearly three-fourths of its food is of
injurious mammals, together with grasshoppers, crickets, and
rats, mice, chipmucks, cut-worms, and small reptiles. He also
devours night-flying beetles, and no other Owl, except the
Burrowing Owl, destroys so many noxious insects. It is one of
the most nocturnal of our species, choosing dark cavities in
hollow trees during the day. This little Owl does not migrate
or even wander far from its habitation during the winter months.
It is known to be an expert fisherman, one hole was found to
contain sixteen horned pouts that the Owl had caught through a
hole in the ice. It was a mile from the hole in the ice to the
hole in the tree where it stayed during the winter. They often
go about the city and do good work in destroying English
Sparrows as well as mice.

The different species of the Hawk should be carefully dis-
criminated. There are three that are injurious, as they attack
poultry to a large extent, and perhaps do more damage in eating
poultry than in destroying mice and small reptiles — they are the
Sharp-shinned, the little Hawk that flies through the trees so
swiftly, Cooper's Hawk, and the Goshawk. The Red-shouldered,
the Red-tailed, the Broad-wing-ed, and the Rough-legged are
very valuable. The Red-shouldered and the Red-tailed are often
called Hen Hawks and are shot at mercilessly, but they destroy
a great many of the smaller rodents that do so much harm. They
kill mice, rabbits, frogs, snakes, half-grown squirrels. The
Broad-winged hawk is especially useful as it flies in the dusk
and destroys great numbers of the larvas of the larger moths
that smaller birds either cannot take care of or do not care for.
The Rough-legged hawk comes to us in the winter and always
keeps just south of the snow line, and is valuable in destroying
mice.

We have just one bird that seems not to be valuable in any
respect, that is the English Sparrow. A pamphlet has just been
published in England showing investigations that have been
made there. Investigations had been begun there, but were
abandoned shortly before it was introduced into this country.
It seems very unfortunate that the matter should not have been

52 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

more carefully investigated before it was imported. On one
estate in England, the sparrows had been destroyed regularly
and the gardens and orchards there seemed directly to flourish
very much better. The insectivorous birds being protected do
their work fully and do it very much better. The English spar-
row is very pugnacious and drives off the other birds. It is
found not to be insectivorous. The result of stomach examina-
tion shows this very fully. He eats grain, and is known to be
graminivorous almost wholly, and so, in a way, destructive.
But in places where the English Sparrow has been driven away,
that is, systematically killed oif, as it has been at Green Hill,
our native birds do their work finely. I do not know whether
there is any other place near here where they are driven away,
but they are not allowed at Green Hill, and that is one of the
best places in Worcester to find our native birds. Our native
birds are so valuable economically and aesthetically that certainly
they deserve complete protection, and in order to protect them
it seems that a great deal might be done in planting native
shrubs. Unfortunately, the New Englander in his zeal to have
everything trim cuts down the underbrush and that is just what
the birds need. An ideal farm would have all the native shrubs,
the berry-bearing shrubs, along stone walls with all the natural
undergrowth, and this too along the roadsides. This is so per-
sistently cleaned out that the birds do not have the opportunity
to do their best work, because the larvje of so many insects
takes that form either on or in the ground and the birds must
work about the ground in order to pick them up. So if we can
only have this shrubbery, — the hackberry, that is so productive
to birds, the pokeberry, a great many birds enjoy that and it is
really a beautiful shrub with wonderful color in its branches,
and if it only came from foreign parts would be greatly prized,
viburnum, the dogwood, bittersweet, and a great many other
of the native shrubs, — and far fewer English Sparrows, I am sure
the birds would do a great deal of work that has to be done now
by hand in order to get rid of the noxious insects.

3d February, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

ARTHUR J. MARBLE, Worcester, Mass.
Theme: — Pear Culture.

Mr. Pres^ident, Ladies and, Gentlemen: — I was in hopes that
something might be said today on the cultivation of pears that
would be of benefit to some of our Society, but when I look
upon those who are assembled here l)efore me, and see the
venerable and gray heads, I feel that there can be more said
perhaps in the audience in the way of instruction in pear culture
than can be said from the speaker's table. It might be asked
why we should stop at the present time to consider this question
of pear culture. Those of you who attend our exhibitions have
noticed perhaps that in some of the more popular varieties there
are exhibited from thirty to forty, and sometimes from forty to
fifty plates. The first in the order of merit and rank of the first
ten of these plates are usually very fine specimens, and as has
been said by one exhibitor, " And when you go beyond that, the
majority of the plates are useful to us only as an object lesson of
what we ought not to raise, and if any prize at all were to be
awarded, it would be what is sometimes called the booby prize."
Again, the difiference between the fine specimens of fruit which
are exhibited here and what you so often see heaped upon the
fruit-stands and in the market is very marked. You and I, at
least I, frequently when standing in the hall, have heard people
say, " Well, why don't we find such fruit as that in the market?
Why do we not see it on the fruit-stands?" This goes to show
that there is a difference, and a great difference, in fruit culture

54 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY. [1898.

and especially in the culture of pears, the particular object of
our talk today.

To succeed in pear culture, I think you will agree with me,
one should have a natural taste for it. He should think more
of the tree than of what grows on it. He should be more inter-
ested in trimming and thinning the flower and fruit than he
should in eating the fruit after it is matured ; and in addition to
this, if he comes of an ancestry of similar tastes, so much the
better. In my case, my earliest boyhood recollection of my
ftither, who was even then a member, and an interested member,
of this Society, was seeing him with his hired man selecting,
sorting, and setting out his pear trees ; and I can remember even
then that the names of Samuel H. Colton, John Milton Earle, D.
Waldo Lincoln, Jaques and others, were household words.
What they said about this pear, and what they said about that
pear and that tree was authority to be launched at anyone who
dared to doubt or differ. On this home-place nearly or quite
one hundred varieties of pears were grown, which, as a boy, I
had full freedom to range, cull, and sample, and educate my
taste for future life.

In cultivating pears, I think the first point that we have to
consider is that of soil. Now there are those who hold that the
only soil to raise pears on is heavy black clay soil. Downing,
our authority on fruit, says a rich, mellow loam, but does not
qualify that by saying whether his loam is clayey or sandy ; but
I know when I began my last cultivation of pears, which was in
this city, that my soil ranged from sand to gravel, and some of
the gravel was pretty coarse, and a pear expert claimed that
while I might be able to get some pears that would do to eat in
my family, I never would be able to produce them in any
number which would be fit to exhibit in competition in the halls
of this Society. To those who have soil of that nature, sandy
or gravelly loam, I would say they need not be discouraged,
and that with intelligent cultivation and plenty of fertilization,
that soil can be made to produce and compete with any soil, not
only so far as looks and appearance is concerned, but I do be-
lieve, Ladies and Gentlemen, that the flavor of all fruits and

1898. J ESSAYS. 55

vegetables that are grown on a sandy loam is vastly superior to
that which is grown on clay soil. And I think this early ex-
perience about which I speak was on a black clay soil, which
was capable of raising two tons of hay to the acre, and the pear
trees grew very thrifty, but the flavor of the fruit was not such
as we get on a sandy soil. Therefore, I would suggest, as one
point in my opinion in pear culture, that to develop and bring
out the finest quality and flavor of the fruit a warm sandy loam,
well fertilized, is the proper soil to have. Those who already
possess that soil need not be discouraged, but may feel that they
have about the right thing. I do not know but that it would be
evidence in that regard, that from that soil during the year of
1897, I succeeded in this hall in getting the first premium on
the Bartlett and the Bosc, and on the Anjou and the Seckel the
second premium, which shows at least that the soil is not to
blame if we do not succeed.

Having selected your soil, the next thing to do is to prepare
it by thorough and deep cultivation, with plenty of fertilizers.
After you have put in what seems to you a great plenty of
fertilizer, put in just as much more, for the pear tree is very
hearty and a gross feeder. I do not know of anything that will
stand as much and as rank fertilizer as the pear tree. I never
saw a soil yet that was too rich for the pear tree, if it was
properly drained and kept in cultivation.

Having selected and prepared your soil, you want to make
up you mind what varieties to set out. Downing, our authority,
the official authority of the Society, names nearly three thou-
sand varieties, I think, in his last edition, which was in the
latter part of the eighties. There are a great many more varie-
ties which Downing has not mentioned. We may say that out
of something over three thousand varieties of Belgian, French,
American, English and Russian, there are, roughly speaking,
about twenty varieties which are fit to grow, so our President
and I think, and we care to grow only ten. It would be well
for the novice in pear culture to ascertain what the standard and
selected varieties are, because our tree agents who travel around
are generally blest with more ability to sell than they are to tell

56 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

whether what they have to sell is the right thing for the buyer.
Their ambition is to make sales, and I have sometimes had them
come and recommend to me trees and varieties which I know
are not worthy of our attention. Of course, it may be said
that tastes vary, and some pears which our President and other
members of our Society and I might not include in our list
would in the difference of taste seem very desirable to other
people. But when I speak of varieties that are desirable to
grow, I am speaking in the popular sense, those that will appeal
to the majority of people. I know that I have at least one or
two that I am pleased to grow myself as a sort of individual
recreation and pleasure, just as another has some varieties that
he loves to grow which everybody does not care to grow and
which it would not be profitable for everybody to grow.

Having selected your trees, the next question is to set them
out properly. Now there is quite a difference in the setting out
of a tree ; some people cannot set out a tree in April and have
it live, while others can set one out in January and make it grow
and thrive. Do not dig a small hole as if you were about to
set out a fence post. Of course, I am assuming now that your
land has been ploughed, and ploughed deeply and thoroughly,
and well fertilized. In digging your hole to set up your tree, do
not dig a small hole, but dig a hole that is two or three times as
large as seems necessary. And I might say here, that my
remarks to-day are not so much for the professional fruit raiser
as for the amateur who desires to cultivate for his own pleasure
and to exhibit. Having dug the hole, take the tree, and setting
it in the hole, spread the roots around very carefully. I think
it is a good idea to turn what you have taken out of the hole
upside down and put that which was at the bottom on top,
which with proper care and fertilization will become as good as-
that which was formerly on top. There is one other point
which I would mention, and that is that the trees may come to
you properly headed in and trimmed ; but if they are not, you
want to be sure to cut off from the head of the tree as much as,
or a little more than, was lost in the roots. Alwa3^s the roots
will lose more or less, and it is necessary that a balance should

1898.] ESSAYS. 57

be maintained with a little in favor of the roots after it lias been
transplanted.

Speaking of setting out a tree in January, eight years ago
last month at the south end of Main Street at the corner of
Beaver, they were excavating the cellar for what is now known
as. the Beaver Block. It was about the first week in January,
at least not later than the tenth, and was what you would call
an open winter. On the land stood a very thrifty pear tree
which was about ten or twelve feet high. It was a nice looking
tree ; and I said to the man who had charge of the excavation
that when he got to the tree I desired him to take it out with
what care he could, striking ofi' as little of the roots as possible,
and leave it at my place. He did so, and finding it there I
took care of it that night and the next morning proceeded to
prepare a place for it. I took off two-thirds of that tree and I
set it with considerable care, and after that I gave it a vigorous
pruning. I never saw a tree which was set out in the spring or
fall that did better than that tree set out in January, and the
tree was a Rostiezer. I believe that I have had the pleasure of
getting the first premium for the Rostiezer from a tree set out
in the month of January. I do not know whether this has been
accomplished very often or not, but I would not like to set out
a pear tree in January this year.

One method of getting extra fine fruit I have found very
successful and that is what we call double-working a tree, so
much so that I have got where I do not care to raise pears in
any other way. I presume most of you understand what
double- working is, but there may be some here who do not
know what the term means, and for their benefit I will explain.
The singled-worked tree is where the standard stock is budded
and those are quite small, and when they get to be about seven,
eight, nine or ten years old, according to the variety, they get
into bearing condition. Now, to double-work a tree is to take
a tree when it has attained a size suflScient, and that is generally
the time when it will come into bearing, and cut oflf those limbs
and graft on the scions of the variety that is desired, and my
experience has been, both in the clay soil of my boyhood and

58 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

on the sandy soil which I have used in my maturer years, that
in no other way can we get such fine pears, quality and quantity
both considered, as we do in double-working.

In the early fifties, when Mr. Hadwen was a young man and
I was a boy, there was a pear which I think you will agree
with me in saying was one of the finest pears we have ever had,
and that was the Flemish Beauty. A disease called the pear
crack attacked it and it became for a long time and perhaps
forever, with here and there an exceptional case, valueless ;
that is to say, the pear cracked up to that extent that they were
good for nothing but to feed to the stock, but we do not raise
pears for that purpose but rather for dessert. Now we have
found that the Flemish Beauty is one of our most valuable trees
for double-working. It is a fact that it will produce, so far as
my observation and experience go, better pears than budded
trees or single-worked trees. Particularly is this true in the
case of the Bosc which is, perhaps, next to the Bartlett, our
most popular pear. Now the Bosc, budded or single-worked,
is a tree of very slow growth. It takes a long time to grow the
Bosc on the standard stock and when you get the tree the
results are such that many people get discouraged and give up
trying to grow it. But take the Flemish Beauty of a size that
can be properly handled, and another good stock is the old
Vicar and another is the Bousock, — pears that we used to grow
forty years ago, but which are very little grown now, — and they
make excellent stock for double-working, especially for the
Bosc. Some of the finest specimens I have ever seen came
from the Vicar and the Flemish Beauty.

On the same soil, within five rods of each other, I set out a
very handsome Bartlett tree, a tree that was sold to me by a
nurseryman as one that would come into immediate bearing, and
a Flemish Beauty that was grafted with the Bartlett. Those
two trees I have had about ten years, and I have come to this
conclusion, that the Bartlett which was single-worked was no
good as a Bartlett. On the contrary, the Flemish Beauty which
was grafted with the Bartlett produced very handsome Bartlett
pears with a very fine flavor. I think you will agree with me

1898.] ESSAYS. 59

in deciding in favor of tlie Bartlett that was grafted on to the
Flemish Beauty. I have grafted the Bartlett over and am try-
ing to make a Cornice of it, and I never saw any Cornice that
was single-worked or budded that compared with the growth of
the Cornice which I am getting on this Bartlett tree. Perhaps
I am very near solving the question of how to raise good Comice.
I think it is a matter of considerable interest, for the Comice is
one of the finest pears that we have, and if we can only get them
by double-working them on the Bartlett, it is going to be a thing
of great value. It is denied by many that the stock into which
the graft, the scion, is set, has an intluence on the graft and on
the fruit we get from the scion. It may be that those who take
this position are right. But this is my experience. About four
rods apart in one direction, and two rods in another direction,
I have three trees, and all three are grafted with the Bosc. Two
of these trees are the Flemish Beauty and the third one is a
Bousock. On the Flemish Beauty trees the russet of the Bosc
gives the pear a golden and pink tinge, and in some cases it is
almost as pink as the pink of the Flemish Beauty ; while the
Bosc on the Bousock is green, a very dark green, and does not
average as large as those on the Beauty. It is a little singular
that we should have such a coincidence. I would say that other-
wise the trees have stood a fair showing. They were vigorous
and thrifty and had the same care and cultivation, and all stood
in a sunny situation. Of course, if one of those trees had been
on the north side of the barn, in the shade, that might explain
the light and dark color, but the conditions were equal except
the difference in the stock.

In pear culture, I believe that we ought to look for quality
rather than quantity. Now, I have plenty of neighbors who go
out and put up all kinds of poles, sticks, ropes, and chains, to
hold up their pear trees when they are laden down with pears,
but I have one invariable rule, — never to allow a limb of a pear,
tree to carry any more pears than it can hold of its own strength.
Instead of propping or tying, pick them ofl\ People say, " We
cannot do it ; we cannot waste those pears." Why, they are
worse than wasted when they are allowed to stay on the tree.

60 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

When I have two bushels of pears on a tree, I pick off one
bushel, and those that are left are worth twice as much. There
are two ways of thinning a tree. If you love your tree, and if
you think more of the tree than of the fruit that grows on it, go
out and look up into the trees in the springtime, and if you find
that the buds are too thick, pick off one here and there — that
helps more than the thinning of the fruit. On more than one
occasion I have seen a man bring in a dozen good pears as speci-
mens, but they were not a dozen selected out of a bushel ; he
had plenty more just like them. All good ones will bring a
double price, so there is no money lost.

Now there are other questions which, of course, any beginner
or amateur, in raising pears, will run up against. I will say, in
reference to the question of what is called the pear blight, that
1 do not think I ought to go into that extensively to-day. It is,
I believe, attributed to two causes, — one is that the sap becomes
unhealthy, and the other the ravages of a small insect. We
have found, however, that some varieties are more subject to it
than others. These are very rapid growing varieties, and always
grow very late in the fall. Two which have come under my
particular observation, and which would be very fine pears, and
generally liked, if it were not for the pear blight, are the Clapp's
Favorite and the Lucrative.

Then comes the question of picking the pears and ripening
them. We will try to condense what we have to say on this
point. There is one pear that is better ripened on the tree than
off', and that is the Seckel. Every other one that I have had
experience with, is better taken off of the tree and put in a cool,
dark place, preferably in the house ; or if you have the right
kind of a cellar, a cool, dry one, in the cellar. The quality is
very much beyond that of a pear which is allowed to ripen on
the tree. The September and the early October pears, with the
jcxcci)tion of the Seckel, if left on the tree would rot at the core
and would not be fit to eat. So you want to take this as a prin-
ciple— that you must ripen your pears off of the tree.

Then might come the question as to what our best varieties
are. Well, this Society has the best five and the best ten, in

1898.] ESSAYS. 61

its opinion, but other people have their ideas, and it is as I said
before, entirely a question of taste. I will take you into my
confidence to this extent — the ten which I am cultivatinij are
the Rostiezer, Clapp's Favorite, Bartlett, Seckel, Sheldon, An-
jou, Cornice, Lawrence, Bosc, and Dana's Hovey. Somebody,
perhaps, may drop one of those and put in Frederick Clapp,
and some one else may drop another and put in something else,
and so on. But I will say that I grow the Rostiezer and the
Clapp's Favorite only because they are the two best pears on an
average that get ripe before the Bartlett. The Bartlett, Bosc,
Sheldon, Anjou and Lawrence, because of their quality, and the
Comice I grow because it is a hard pear to grow and of the best
quality when you get it; indeed, its quality is unsurpassed by
that of any other pear. That is my taste ; another man may not
think so, but all will agree that it is of the very first quality,
even if they do not care to grow it.

Another thing that I would say before I drop the subject of
pear culture is that there are very few of these varieties which
I have mentioned that are of recent production or origin. The
Dana's Hovey and the Frederick Clapp are the only pears which
I have mentioned here that we did not raise iifty or sixty years
ago ; so there are only two varieties that we have got in the last
thirty or forty years. Occasionally a new variety flashes upon
our attention and we hear a great deal about it at the time, as
for instance, the Idaho, which was heralded all over the country
as the "coming pear." It was a great pear; it was coming to
till a place and a want that had never been occupied before ; it
was going to stand at the head of the list. Now we havp tried
it in New England, and whatever it may be in the South or in
the West, I can say that here I have never seen any specimens
of it that were over third-class ; I have never seen any I would
call second-class ; therefore the beginner in pear culture had bet-
ter try some of the standard varieties that have been grown for
thirty or forty years, rather than to take some of the new varie-
ties which are heralded with so much noise by tree agents.

loth February, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

C. F. HODGE, Ph.D.,

Or Clark University, Worcester, Mass.

Theme : — Horticultural Interests in Relation to Public Education,

Mr. President and Members of the Society : — Personally, I
should very much prefer to hear a discussion from the members
of the Society on the relations between horticultural interests
and education, than to try to tell you anything about them my-
self, and I hope that we may have a discussion of the subject
which may be of great value to myself and to the city at large.
I am, however, encouraged to take up this subject by the fact
that in reading over the reports of the Society, as I always have
from year to year, it has seemed to me that I am not bringing
forward anything that flavors of innovation. The Society has
certainly fought a good tight for over fifty years, and in all that
time the sole purpose and aim has seemed to be purely and
simply educational. It has existed strictly as an educational
institution, a veritable college of horticulture, in the very best
sense of the word.

I hope the country is now waking up to the fiict that there are
different kinds of education, good, indifferent and bad; and
very different qualities of knowledge in consequence of different
methods by which we educate. For this we have the luminous
discriminations in Holy Writ between the " knowledge that
puffeth up " and " the excellency of knowledge that giveth life,"
" knowledge that is to be desired rather than choice gold" and
knowledge of which Isaiah says, " Thy wisdom and thy knowl-

1898.1 essays/ , 'V ^' 63

edge, it huth perverted thee." Yrs^kee'- sagacity ^as aj»ways
looked with distrust on "book learning,^'- still it ha8.jy3fr1e to be
the vastly predominating kind of learning in our public schools.
And why should this be? The idea that the child knows some-
thing when he has learned to say it from a book is the great stum-
bling block now in our public education, and the only hope for
our present situation, the only remedy for this parrot-like edu-
cational farce, seems to lie in the direction of improving the
quality of knowledge taught in the school.

As a matter of education, do we ponder enough and learn as
much as we might from the way a little child begins to study the
world in which he finds himself? A baby sleeps most of the
time the first year and still at the end of three years it has been
estimated that he has made more actual progress and learned
more things than in thirty years following. At the end of this
early period, the brain has grown to be about five-sixths the size
of the adult, and the development of this important organ is
completed, so far as weight is concerned, by about the sixth or
seventh year for girls and the eighth or ninth for I)oys. In this
very early period, before formal schooling is begun, the child
learns by what we call the natural method. He learns things,
realities about him, by direct contact ; he feels, smells, tastes,
sees, hears the objects about him, soaking in unconsciously, as
it were, an infinite amount of information At the end of this
period, our school system changes rather abruptly, a child's
method of learning from the real and natural to the symbolic.
In place of studying things, he must study numbers, arbitrary
figures which represent things, and woi'ds which tell about
things.

We may represent the natural method of education and the
symbolical by this simple example : Suppose we had set before
us the task of learning a furnished house outside and in. We
nn'ght sit down to a book as thick as a dictionary and study
through it page after page, learning it faithfully by heart, all
about the arrangement of doors, windows, outside grounds,
everything of that sort ; and even after we have done all this,
what would such knowledge amount to? Suppose instead we

64 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

visit the house and look it over, take in the outside appearance,
pass in review the things in the different rooms. We have
learned the house at a glance, almost unconsciously, almost with-
out effort. It would have taken us days, possibly weeks, to
learn so much about it by the symbolical method. Further than
this our book knowledge, as we have it in mind before coming
to the house, may prove an absolute incumbrance, from the
fact that there would be a constant tendency to refer things to
the book. For instance, we would be repeating, "The book
says, 'Five feet from the front door there is a window, four feet
from the ground, with twelve panes of glass.' Oh yes ! that is
the window," when at a glance we have seen it and taken it all
in. Most of this is a waste of time. This illustration is not so
different from the case of a child who is under the necessity of
learning something of the world about, him, and my only reason
for presenting it to you is to raise the query, whether elemen-
tary education might not be made more substantial by continuing
as long as possible in the natural method of learning. But we
must bear in mind that we cannot go far without the use of
symbols. When things become too numerous and cumbersome
for easy manipulation, then the mind will naturally come to sub-
stitute the word and symbol, and these by reason of long past
experience will have about them the quality of reality.

An important feature of the natural education of the child is
that it is so largely active rather than passive. He learns by
acting, doing, and trying to do all manner of things. In uni-
versities and higher schools, we are returning to this method of
childhood in the laboratory courses, and in the manual training
and cooking ; and at the other end of our educational scale, we
are trying to realize its ideal in the occupations of the kinder-
garten. The great movement at present is towards drawing out
the best activities of the child, and we need this throughout the
grades from the kindergarten to the college. As Dr. Burnham
has expressed it, " The great maxim of modern reform in edu-
cation is the activity of the pupil instead of the didactics of the
teacher." You see from this what I mean when I say that the
Worcester County Horticultural Society has been an educational

1898.] ESSAYS. 65

institution, a true college of horticulture of the best type. From
the first foundation in the early forties to the 1897 report of
Secretary Lincoln, saturating every report, permeating every
exhibit, is that clear educational purpose to '^^ advance the science
and to- encourage and improve the practice of horticulture."
Thus knowledge and action have gone from the first hand in hand
as they always should. Socrates and Plato taught as a founda-
tion for all educational systems that knowledge is the first step
toward virtue, and the doing of knowledge is its perfection.
And if we could have this kind of education, the kind of educa-
tion that the Worcester County Horticultural Society has been
standing for all these years with relation to the subject which
it teaches, permeating the population of our city, we might have
less of this flimsy style of education that serves to unfit so many
for real efficiency and the best enjoyment of life.

To what extent the Society has had in mind active co-operation
with the public schools, I am unable to say ; many of you could
speak more to the point on that subject. I could, however,
quote many instances where such relations are hinted at. "Your
Secretary," says the Transactions of 1897, "would put his faith
in the Common rather than the High School, where both cannot
be had. He would educate the mass, at public expense, instead
of a class. He would ^Advance the Science and improve the
Practice of Horticulture' so that each family, in possession of its
own homestead, should lea7m ho7v best to cultivate its ai'ea, how-
ever contracted."

In an earlier report he also reminds the Society : " Our older
members are rapidly passing away ; is there promise that their
places will be filled? Certainly there can be no hope of it from
a county which, save in title, has ceased to maintain any distinct-
ive connection with the Society. But looking straight ahead,
what reasonable prospect is there of keeping up — let alone ad-
vancing— the position and repute of the Society in Floriculture ?"
We also read in our own Transactions : ' ' The highest mission of
the Horticultural Society is to lend its strongest influence to the
educating of children to a love of flowers which will lead them
to be willing to give time and labor for their cultivation."

66 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

I feel at some disadvantage in speaking upon these points,
since we all realize that theory and practice should go hand in
hand, and facing so many of you and being obliged to confess
that throughout the history of the Society, although I have
attended the exhibits, I have not produced a single thing to
exhibit. I plead guilty on that score, and would say that the
position of a teacher working for a salary is not that of a citizen
in a home of his own. It has been my bad luck to move from
place to place a good deal, and it has not been my good fortune,
as is the case with most of our good Methodist preachers to drop
into a parsonage which has already received some attention hor-
ticulturally. It has been my lot, rather, to find a place where
the wilderness has not been very much disturbed, and I can
really say, to clear myself on this point, that in the last ten
years it has been something like five different places that I have
inhabited, and whereas they were generally found in a state of
gravel banks or patches of brush and sod, I have left vines and
trees in all but one of them. You see, however, the disadvantage
that a man taking a place of that sort has in competing with any
of the older gardeners who have their soil in cultivation and
everything in fine bearing shape. But as possibly some of you
know, I have not kept my hands absolutely clean from mother
earth, and there is nothing I enjoy really better than going out
and digging in the garden, so that I can say from the bottom of
my heart that what we want as a Horticultural Society is to pro-
mote the knowledge of horticulture in the city, and cultivate the
will and the purpose, the ability and the practice, of successful
horticulture.

We are now ready to take stock for a moment of our city's
horticultural interests, and note how these may be increased, and
promoted possibly, by the co-operation of the Society with the
public schools.

It is probably the greatest horticultural interest, the solidest
and most valuable, that each house lot be provided with the best
flowers and the best fruits for the health, comfort and happiness
of the family and the community. Manj'^ parts of Worcester are
extremely fortunate in the education which this Society has

1898.] ESSAYS. 07

largely disseminated, and we have a tine array of floral decora-
tions in the gardens and very generally a goodly supply of fruit.
That applies to certain parts of the city. The most serious
drawback, the most insurmountable obstacle to the full develop-
ment of this great interest, as has been pointed out many times
by your late Secretary, is juvenile vandalism. "This evil," he
says, " is rapidly developing as our city grows in population,
with a portion of which it would seem to be an accepted theory
that there can be no private property in flowers or fruits. Their
cultivation will have to be abandoned, however reluctantly, until
juvenile trespass and theft can be eflfectually arrested."

This is a matter the seriousness of which I referred to on a
former occasion, and it cannot be overstated for a city like this.
I have never lived in a city where the people are so pestered
by the juvenile population as here in Worcester. What are
we to do about it? What position is the Society taking in
regard to this matter, and what steps is it taking to remedy the
evil ? Do we realize fully that the best way to meet this difficulty
must be to encourage the children in the cultivation of flowers
and fruits of their own ? A child who has planted and reared
something of his own can appreciate, as he or she can hardly be
made to appreciate in any other way, the rights of ownership.
We may in this way, by encouraging the child's cultivation of
things, lay a solid foundation for conduct which no amount of
law, preaching and punishment can ever do.

A second solid interest consists in our roadside and park trees.
It is a matter of profound regret that Mr. Draper in his excellent
discussion of trees for roadside decoration is obliged to rule out
the chestnut and the walnut on account of the clubbing and abuse
of the boys. It is a pitiful commentary on parental control
if that is the way we must settle the question of our roadside
trees, — in the negative against such trees as the chestnut. Now
the evil of just this thing is so widespread that we may dwell on
it for a moment. I have talked with a number of farmers and
the voice is universal, the vot^e unanimous, that we are ol)liged
to cut our chestnut trees, our nut trees generally, to clear them
out from wherever they may ofl'er temptation to trespassers.

68 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

Can that be the final settlement of a question like this? I really
hope not. For myself, I would be willing to pledge a hundred
dollars to any farmer who is annoyed in any way from the tres-
passing of a boy of mine, and if all the parents in the city would
do the same, what might we have in just this respect? We might
have our roadsides and our pastures so full of chestnuts and
walnuts that we could gather them to burn. What is the state
of the case now ? I saw a man walking under a large chestnut
tree at the corner of Woodland and Charlotte streets, kicking
the leaves up as he went along, and just as he passed me, I
heard him growl, "Four boys to one chestnut, no use," and so
it goes. The world might be very much better if we took hold
of the sources of these evils which lie in the proper education of
the young.

Following now the horticultural interests further, we find that
they divide into two branches ; each covered by an organization
in the city of Worcester. There is a great horticultural interest
which connects itself with our birds. They are the protectors,
the stewards, the saviours, of our orchards and gardens, therefore
it would be perfectly legitimate for a Horticultural Society like
this to encourage in every way possible the protection of birds,
and the education of children with reference to the value of the
different species to the community. It has been said by an emi-
nent French naturalist that if birds were destroyed entirely the
world would become uninhabitable within nine years' time
through the ravages of insects ; and this in spite of all the spray
pumps and insecticides we could get. We make little enough
of this horticultural interest in our education, still this lies in
the line of work to be done by the Natural History Society.
And so with another great horticultural interest, the methods
of dealing with the insects themselves. We have them, for
observation and for study by the child population of the city, all
the time with us, and it would cost nothing whatever for labora-
tories or apparatus in the schools to make the study of insects
such that every child in the city, by the time it had completed
the ninth grade work, would know possibly a hundred of the
insects which have most influence on our horticultural prosperity.

1898.] ESSAYS. 69

He could know the coddling moth and the l)est thing to do with
respect to it, the tent catcrpilhirs, the canker worms, cut worms,
ajihids, rose beetles, our flies and mosquitos and a host of
others. He could learn about them without going outside
of the city limits, by simply seeing what is going on in his
own back yard. This work belongs equally to the Natural
History Society, and I am happy to see that it is being taken up
by that organization. In planning work of this sort, we must
remember that the school courses are already being over-
crowded. This is a point we must take into careful considera-
tion. It is, however, a good thing; for we are under the
obligation, whenever we attempt to add anything to school work,
to make it a thing so good that the people will be glad to let
something be dropped which is not so good in the school course
that this may be taken up. In this way, only the best possible
lines of work for the children can be introduced into the
schools.

As I say, the Natural History Society has taken up this mat-
ter, especially for the study of insects and birds, and it is to be
hoped that a great deal can be done in this line. Boxes and
cases have been provided by the Natural History Society.
These will be left in the different schools where teachers desire
to take this up as a part of their nature work. The children are
to be encouraged, and they are anxious to do this kind of work,
to collect insects, bring them in, and they may be allowed to
spend some of the time after their other lessons are learned in
preparation of these cases, in the mounting of the insects and
the study of live insects in cages, feeding upon the leaves of
our different plants, all of which can be easily provided in the
school-rooms.

Many of our moths and butterflies readily lay their eggs in
confinement. These with the eggs which the children can bring
in from outside may be allowed to hatch. The children may
then rear the larvae, feeding them with the leaves of their vari-
ous food plants. When full grown, they may be seen to spin
their cocoons and undergo their transformation into pupte and
finally to emerge as the adult moth or butterfly. The class may

70 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

thus have in living form under their own eyes the whole life
stories of many of our more interesting and important insects.
In the higher grades, and wherever practicable, they may study
and estimate the damage which a single pair of insects can do in
a season and get clear practical ideas of methods of destroying
them. During the study, series of specimens, the egg and egg
cluster, caterpillars or larva? of different sizes and ages, cocoons,
and chrysalids, and the male and female adult, may be perma-
nently mounted. The next year the class may work out some
other species in the same way. I should begin with the insects
that do the most harm or the most good and work from those
down to others of less importance, and we should find enough to
keep the child population busy, with something new and inter-
esting each year, for at least one hundred years to come.

The Natural History Society offers to furnish convenient cases
in which the specimens may be preserved, to store and care for
the collections and to issue them to the schools as they are
needed. A great many valuable specimens are collected every
year, but the teachers and pupils go away in June and do not
come back until September, and when they do come back, it is
only to find a little pile of dust underneath where the specimens
had been to show how well the museum pests had enjoyed their
feast. But if we can have them saved from year to year by the
Natural History Society, we shall have in a few years collec-
tions, and plenty of them, of the insects which we want to know
most about right here in the city, collections which every child
can have in his hand some time during the year and study by
the natural method. This will result in the dissemination of
knowledge throughout the city which will be of untold value not
only educationally but horticultural ly as well.

Of course you know better than I do the ravages which these
insects create. Take the coddling moth for example. I have
had a lot of apples counted this winter with the result that
something over ninety per cent., as they go in the ordinary run
of market apples, were wormy. Other pests in the way of the
railroad worm, the canker worm, the white marked tussock moth,

1898.] ESSAYS. 71

the tent caterpillars, and many others are better known to the
members of this society than to myself.

Then the birds and insects, we may leave with the Natural
History Society, and I suppose too we should leave to that
organization some other very important matters connected with
our horticultural interests. Take for example the bats. Those
are Natural History specimens of course, but what the bats do in
a country is undoubtedly a horticultural interest. We have the
birds to take care of the insects — the swallows and the fly-catch-
ers in the air, the perchers and warblers in the trees, and a
number of birds on the ground — but all of these are day feed-
ing. A great many of the insects have dodged the birds by
taking recourse to the night, so that many of our most noxious
and destructive insects are nocturnal, like the coddling moth
itself. Bats are the only animals which can serve us for
night-flying insects. They fly from dusk to early morning,
collecting insects much of the time. We have no idea how much
good one of these little creatures does in a community. Night
after night I see them about the orchard, and the value of one of
these little animals, I think, might easily amount to fifty dollars
a year. And still our education on just this point fails, when it
is possible for boys, as I found only a year ago, to go into a barn
where bats are colonized and poke them out and knock them
down with hay rakes, " for the fun of it." On such points as this
our horticultural and our educational interests should be made to
focus. We should teach the children in what way they are con-
travening important interests of the community by action of this
sort. It is really a lack in education, and there is no blame to
be attached to the children, and I do not think there is any
blame to be attached to them for stonins: and clubbing the chest-
nut trees. It is all, it seems to me, a matter of quality of
education ; and our problem is to give them a quality of educa-
tion which shall make such vandalism impossible.

Again, too, as to our common toad ; its work in the city con-
stitutes a great horticultural interest, very little appreciated, but
which every child should know. The damage and annoyance
caused by insects is something enormous. At a recent meeting

72 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

one of our members stated that the destruction of robins in the
South during a recent winter led to greater loss in Massachusetts
on account of the increased ravages of cutworms than that
caused by the frosts in Florida. It is true our robins are fairly
efficient destroyers of cutworms, still they only feed by day,
while cutworms work at night, and robins can get at them only
in the late evening and early morning. The toad feeds all
night and only on the ground, where the cutworm is at work.
Furthermore, as we learn from Mr. Kirkland's recent work
(and this is something well worth the entire cost of our Agri-
cultural Experiment Station for the year, if the people are
wise enough to utilize his results) cutworms form a considerable
part of the toad's food. From examinations of a large number
of toads' stomachs Kirkland estimates that a single toad may
destroy over 2,000 cutworms during the months of May, June
and July, and that from this item alone a single one of these
harmless creatures may well do a gardener service to the amount
of $19.88 each season. A number of our experiment stations
are at work upon some method of ridding gardens of cutworms,
and they have tried various poisons and devised various ways of
applying them ; but what we really need is sufficient public edu-
cation to protect and properly utilize our valuable little friend,
the toad.

In order to illustrate what I mean by education in such lines
allow me to instance the following example. Since coming to
Worcester, my feelings have been greatly outraged every spring
by the way the boys clubbed and stoned the toads in the little
pond in University Park. Toward the latter part of April or
the first few days of May the toads of a neighborhood gather
in the nearest stagnant water to deposit their eggs. Since most
of the natural pools in a city are either filled in or drained, they
crowd into the remaining ponds literally by the thousands. If
the weather is warm the eggs are laid within a day or two of
entering the water and the toads return, probably to the same
yards and gardens from which they came. In the particular pond
in question they gather in shoals in which a single blow of a stick
might kill half a dozen and a stone could hardly fail to mutilate

1898.] ESSAYS. 73

one or two. Diflerent individuals coming from varying distances
naturally reach the water at difFerent times, so that the breeding
season generally extends over two or three weeks. Almost any
hour of the day, during this time, the children could be seen run-
ning round and round the pond clubbing and stoning the toads.
Great numbers were not killed outright and could be seen struir-
gling about in the water with legs broken and dangling and entrails
exposed or eyes crushed out. In walking once around the pond,
I counted 200 dead or mutilated toads, and a little boy told me that
the day before he and another boy had killed 300 by count and
carried them off in an old milk can. I do not suppose that this 500
represents more than one tenth of the whole number wantonly
destroyed by the boys each year in this single pond. Further-
more, for each female toad killed at this season we lose the 8,000
to 12,000 eggs that she would have laid. A system of parental
and public education which makes possible any such wanton
cruelty and destruction of valuable life is certainly faulty in the
extreme. And a community in which it exists ought to be
pestered to the limits of endurance by mosquitoes, flies and
gnats, and have the greater share of its flowers, fruits and vege-
tables destroyed by insects. It is too light a punishment to fit
the crime against nature.

Such being the condition of aifairs, what can rational education
do to better it? A great many croakers answer: "Nothing.
The passion to kill is so strong in children that all education is
powerless to stop them." The following, however, are the facts :

On the 31st of March I gave a brief statement to the Worces-
ter papers pointing out a few of the interesting facts in the life
history of the toad and asking the school children to learn the
value and use of the animal to the community. The toads came
to the pond to lay April 25 and, the weather turning cold, num-
bers could be found in the water up to May 14. During this
time I visited the pond daily, especially at times when the
children passed to and from school. The children gathered in
groups and watched the toads with great interest and gathered
hands full of eggs to take to school, but I did not see a child
oflfer to harm a toad. More than this, I found no evidence that

74 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

any had been wantonly killed. People living in the neighbor-
hood and the man who takes care of the park remarked to me
that the children were not killing toads as in former years.
A boy was overheard to say: "The kids are not killing the
frogs as they did last year." I asked him why it was. "Oh,"
he said, " they read something in the papers, I guess."

I should have been satisfied, if such a result had been attained
in five or ten years ; but, here we had it within a month. Cer-
tainly nothing in recent years has given me more encouragement
and demonstrated more clearly the possibilities of rational edu-
cation than just this little circumstance. If we can keep it up
and have this kind of education in all lines of nature study we
can soon have a most remarkably comfortable city to live in, and
it would l)e worth in actual fruit, flowers and vegetables saved
to the community a large part of what our public schools are
costing.

I mention these things in the hope that by appreciating the
wide range of our horticultural interests, by realizing their inti-
mate relations to the education of the young, we may as a
Society widen our sphere of influence to even more actively
encourage and support this living kind of knowledge, for which
we have done so much in the past.

Turning to still another line of work, if possible, even more
specifically horticultural we may ask, How can we interest and
encourage children in the cultivation of fruits and flowers ? We
are often told that it is difficult to interest children in raising
flowers, and this is true. It is probably safe to say that horticul-
ture is a love which generally develops later in life. Still there
are many exceptions to this rule. We not infrequently find
children of even four, five and upwards with a veritable passion
for planting things, and I am inclined to think by beginning
young enough and by adopting suitable methods, we might not
only interest the children but establish in them a life-long love
for the culture of flowers and thus greatly increase the number
of amateur horticulturists in the city.

For suggestions as to ways and methods to this end we may
cite again the policy by which this Society has kept its exhibits

1898.] ESSAYS. 75

flourishing and its own members active and interested for more
than fifty years. I refer to the matter of offering prizes for the
best specimens grown. This has introduced helpful competi-
tion, thus making the progress of the Society an interesting game,
already more than tifty years long. Bringing in a little fun, a
spice of rivalry, used to make spelling, and dull old-fashioned
parsing, interesting. To stand at the head or foot of the class
sufficed to make the old spelling class the most interesting and
enjoyable exercise of the whole day, simply because we made a
game of it, and this is one the elements of the natural education
which I hope is coming. By all manner of moralizing or
preaching we might fail to get a child to put his whole soul into
the raising of a plant ; and very possibly we could not succeed
in hiring him to do it. But make a game of it, and the children
take to it like ducks to water. The experiment was tried in one
of our schools last year, and, although from lack of experience
the plan followed was not as good as it might have been, I was
agreeably surprised at the results. The experiment consisted in
giving to each child who wished to try, in all the rooms in the
building, a certain number of flower seeds from the same
packet, offering small prizes for the best plants brought in
at the end of the spring term. I have found it somewhat
difficult to get the public to grasp the purpose of this work.
The idea is not so much to raise a beautiful plant. We
can hardly expect this, especially at first, from children who
have never planted a seed in their lives. All we can expect is
that each child shall rear the best plant that he can. It is a mat-
ter of no great consequence whether the plant be June grass or
some rare flower. The putting of his whole soul into making it
grow as well as he can, better than someone else, in order to
give it the character of a game, this is the real purpose of the
work.

Think for a moment what a large lesson we have given our
child. In order to master it properly, how much he must learn
about soils, plant food in the soil, the influence of warmth,
moisture and sunlight, the prevention of plant diseases and the
destruction of injurious insects. It is in fact the lesson of the

76 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

whole human race in learning the influence of all cultural condi-
tions upon plant growth ; the problem of making two blades of
grass grow where only one grew before. In giving this lesson
we thus place the child in the great tide of human effort which
has done more than anything else to advance civilization. There
is no bottom and no limit to the amount a child or a man, a
horticultural society, or a human race, can learn in such a lesson
as this. And, we may add, from throwing about his little plant
the best possible conditions of life and growth, it is only a short
step, it is in essence the same thing, to placing around any
human life that may be entrusted to his care the most favorable
conditions for growth, not only physical, but mental and moral
as well.

As a matter of fact, with the kind assistance of your Secretary,
a list of about ten plants were selected which would grow rapidly
and bloom by the middle of June, thus giving the children gin
added satisfaction. Each room was given seeds of the same
plant, something very easy, dwarf nasturtium, for the first grade ;
and we attempted to distribute them so that the ascending grades
would each have a slightly more difficult task. Still the highest
grade had dwarf petunia. This is certainly easy to rear, but
not one child in the room succeeded in raising a plant from
his seeds. As intimated above, the plan of conducting the ex-
periment was faulty, as to choice of varieties in the first place,
but especially in the fact that the children were not told what
kind of seeds had been given them. The idea being to let them,
as it were, read a continued story and be eager to see the out-
come. But neither parents nor children knew what to look for
as the plants came up, and not recognizing them, in many
instances, pulled up the flowers and saved the more showy
weeds instead. And weeds formed a large part of most of
the exhibits. In fact, nothing but weeds were exhibited in
the highest grade, and, I fear, the worthy members of this
Society who were kind enough to act as judges, Mr. Hadwen
and the Hon. Henry L. Parker, considered the experiment a
failure. To my own mind, nothing could more fully demonstrate
the value and the absolute necessity of such work. Think of it !

1898.] ESSAYS. 77

Children growing up in a civilized community, who have never
planted a seed, who do not know the dili'erence, who cannot tell
a flower [)lant from a weed ! Recent investigations have revealed
the Tact that most of our tramps are not foreign born, as we are
wont to suppose, but arc native Americans, the legitimate pro-
duct of our boasted public school system. During the past year
I have been studying tramps a little for my own enlightenment.
The great majority of them have been through our grade schools.
Some have even attended the high schools. Nine out of ten,
about, when asked whether they have ever planted a seed and
reared a plant will answer: "No." Put to work in the garden,
very few can tell weeds from garden plants. Most of them
don't even know beans, until they are baked. As far as know-
ing how to do a little something practical for old Mother Earth,
they are paralytic incapables. With our artiticial city life are
we not allowing ourselves to drift unnecessarily far away from
man's safe anchorage and universal source ot supply, the soil ?
This Society has surely been the sheet-anchor of Worcester in
this respect ; but can it not greatly increase its efficiency and
influence by gaining a hold on the children, before they have
drifted too far?

In the experiment of flower raising, just described, some of
the older children hung oft' last year. This year it is being tried
again in the same school and every child has taken the seeds.
And their interest and eagerness in the work is almost pathetic.
In the room which had bachelor's button seeds the children were
given five seeds apiece, but the last little boy had only four;
and for two or three days, until a larger supply of seeds could
be obtained, he daily came to his teacher, almost with tears in
his e^'es, to ask : " When is my other seed coming?" So far,
the experiment has demonstrated how generally and how easily
children may be interested in raising plants, if approached in
the right way. And it seems on the face of it so valuable, the
children get so much real and delightful knowledge out of it,
that I am in hopes that the plan may be adopted as a feature of
elementary botany work throughout the schools of the city. I
should certainly prefer that a boy of mine learn how to raise one
7

78 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

plant well than to learn the names of a hundred. The part that
I hoped the Horticultural Society might take in the work is
simply to ofler a few of its prizes, say in connection with two
exhibitions, one in June and the other in October, for the best
Yjlants raised by children in our public schools. Then the prize
winners in the different schools might compete with one another
in these exhibitions. This would increase the interest, unify the
work of the whole city, and give the Horticultural Society the
position which it ought to hold, a position foremost of all our
civic organizations in "advancing the science and in encouraging
and improving the practice of horticulture" among the whole
people of our city. As a policy to enable the Society to reach
the whole city, to encourage horticulture generally, and to draw
the best young men and young women to its membership and its
life-long support, I can conceive of none more strategic than this.
<'Our older members are rapidly passing away; is there prom-
ise that their places will be filled ?" Would not the adoption of
such a policy enable us to answer the oft repeated question of
our lamented Secretary more hopefully? I am aware that your
committee has decided not to undertake the work this year. On
the whole, I think the decision has been wise ; for the plan has
hardly been sufficiently developed as yet in the schools. I am,
however, glad of an opportunity to present the matter in this
general way to the Society, and I hope, when the time is ripe,
that the children will not reach up in vain to the Horticultural
Society for a helping hand.

Time does not permit me to even indicate the wide range of
subjects that may be taken up and the great importance of the
horticultural interests involved.

In planning the school course there are plants enough, as
many as you please, and as easy and as hard to raise as need be.
We may begin with nasturtiums and bachelor's buttons in the
lower grades and give them a try at carnations, begonias and
roses in the higher grades. In the high school we may go on to
subjects like hybridization and the origination of new varieties.
The plan is looked upon very favorably by our professional hor-
ticulturists in Amherst, from whom we may hope for the newest

1898.] ESSAYS. 79

and best information and much substantial aid in the near future.
Professor Mayuard sees no objection to asking the children to
undertake the cultivation of fruits as well as flowers. Encourage
a child, for example, to plant a bed of strawberries. If it was no
more than a yard square, or even a single plant, he might learn
their manner of growth and propagation ; and, with some of our
best varieties, would certainly surprise his teachers and parents,
as well as himself, with the size and quantity he could grow.
Arrangements have already been made to begin this in some of
the schools the coming spring. Then there is the whole list of
small fruits, — raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries,
— as well as grapes, peaches, cherries and even apples, each one
of which any child might have something to do with actually
propagating and growing during his school course.

But the subject is even wider. In the study of each plant
the children will find it necessary to learn something about the
insect pests that feed upon it and the numerous fungous diseases
that attack it. At this point, we come to the chief reason why
the Horticultural Society should take hold of the work, and why
it could not do better than to operate through the public schools.
The reason is that many of these insect pests and fungous dis-
eases cannot be successfully dealt with by single individuals.
They are no respecters of city lot fences, and it is useless for
one man to begin the fight, unless his neighbors all join in.
The great need at present is the laying of a solid foundation of
common knowledge about these things underneath the whole
community. How can we do this, except by working through
our schools? It is a splendid system, and the only one we have,
which touches every home in the city. I am aware that in try-
ing to introduce new lines of, so called, science work into the
school course, parents are apt to say : "I did not have to learn
any of this stuff, and what was good enough for me is good
enough for my boy." I used to think this was a hard way of
looking at things, but now I am glad people take this view of it.
It simply necessitates that we make the work so good that
parents will say instead : "I had no chance to learn these things

80 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

and have no time to learn them now, but I wish my children
might learn them and tell me all about them."

It is high time we faced these problems. Since the occupa-
tion of the country we have been practically spreading horticul-
tural feasts before our worst enemies, insects and plant diseases.
Our leading entomologists already estimate that the insects
divide the crops about equally with the farmer. It certainly is
time that we have as a matter of common knowledge the fact
that if a man keeps a neglected orchard, he may be causing his
neighbors hundreds of dollars worth of damage each year. In
a short time, with proper encouragement, we might have our
school children possessed of sufficient knowledge to clear the
city of these pests, and when the community is able to act as
one man in the matter, it will not be so difficult.

On the side of fungous plant diseases take for a single example
the black knot. Worcester is full of it. How many people
know anything about it? It is really pitiful to see where home-
makers have bought their lot and set out their plum and cherry
trees ; and then as they come into bearing these ugly knots form
and kill the trees. Worst of all, the people lose heart and come
to the conclusion that the world is becoming too rotten to try
to raise fruit in it any more. The black knot forms as a tumor in
the healthy tissues of the tree. This finally sends great num-
bers of filaments to the surface and these discharge clouds of
minute spores into the air. The spores from a single knot, fall-
ing on healthy trees, may thus infect a whole neighborhood.
The only thing to do is to cut out and burn every trace of the fun-
gus as soon as it appears and before spores are set free. Why
not teach such things as these in our schools ? The material is
all about us. It would cost nothing for specimens. And in a
year we might have boys of twelve or fifteen able to clean up
the black knots in their fathers' orchards, and be much the better
both for the knowledge and the work. The same applies to a
great many of our blights and rusts and mildews, but time for-
bids mentioning them in detail.

The subject, horticultural interests in relation to public edu-
cation, has proved far too large to discuss in a single hour. I

1898.] ESSAYS. 81

hope, however, that we may continue to devote some earnest
consideration to the matter. For some time it has seemed to
me that by taking hold of the horticultural education in the
schools, the Society might serve the city as it could in no other
way. At the same time I can see no surer plan by which to
interest the rising generation in the noble purpose to " ' Advance
the Science and improve the Practice of Horticulture,' so that
each family in the possession of its own homestead should learn
how best to cultivate its area, however contracted." A little
prize money directed toward encouraging our young people to
study a few of the problems of most vital importance to the hor-
ticultural interests of Worcester, must bring in returns a hun-
dred fold, both practical and educational, not only to the entire
city, but to our Society as well.

i7th February, A. D. 1898.

ESSAT

BY

Prof. A. A. BRIGHAM,
Rhode Island Agricultural College.

Theme : — Japan.

Illustrated with stereopticon.

My. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I urn very happy to
be with you today and to meet so many of my old friends. I
shall take you a long but quick journey, especially in going and
returning. I will try, during our stay in Japan, to give you
some idea of that strange country, so that by using both your
eyes and your ears you may be al)le to gain information that
will possibly be of interest to you. Better than this, I hope it
will bring us, as a community, into closer communion with the
very delightful people of the "Land of the Rising Sun." It
does not take long for us to cross our own country to the Pacific
Ocean, and after once getting to San Francisco or Vancouver,
we take a steamship which will cross the Pacific Ocean in from
fifteen to twenty days. Passing out from San Francisco, we are
soon upon the broadest ocean of our globe, and right here I wish
to protest against the name "Paci^'c" being applied to this
ocean. I assure you that it was a great mistake of Balboa, when
he discovered this so called ocean, and named it as the Germans
call it, "The Great, Still Ocean." For I firmly believe that
this ocean is never " pacific." It is always on the move, and
generally moving in several directions at once. If you do not
believe it, you should take a trip to Japan, and you will find
that although the ship may be five hundred feet long it will pitch
and roll to your satisfaction on this score and perhaps to your
dissatisfaction in several respects.

1898.] ESSAYS. 83

This ocean oujjht to be called the "Furific" Ocean or the
" Terrific" Ocean, for I assure you that it has motion enough to
bring the dead to life. In proof of this I will say that on the
ship in which we sailed there were in the steerage many China-
men. The boat's company had taken a contract to land these
men, cither living or dead, in their native land. Two of them
died on the passage over, and were embalmed and placed in
boxes. But one night we had a gale and there was so much
motion in the ship that one of these Celestials bounced out of
his box and went rolling around the room, thus proving that
there is enough motion in this Pacific Ocean to bring the dead
back to life. Another case occurred upon another boat where a
missionary and his bride were going out to China. There came
up a terrible storm and at one time the waves were so high and
the winds blew so strongly that the upper cabin was carried
away. This couple were sitting in the dining-hall. As the
upper part of the dining-hall was swept away the young man
was swept along, too, separated from his newly-wedded wife and
carried out toward the ocean. He went just to the rail and
there balanced. It was hard telling whether he would go farther
or come back, but the motion had reached its climax and he came
back to his wife. So you see that a man who was practically
the same as dead, was brought back to life. If you cross the
Pacific you will find that this body of water is indeed terrific in
the amount of its movement.

As we pass over this ocean we have almost no companions on
the sea. During our long voyage of twenty-one days we saw
nothing that had life except the albatrosses. Not even a whale
was visiiile, and it became rather monotonous. Still we had a
good company on board, and after many days we finally came to
this land that I am to speak of this afternoon. This empire, as
it is called, of Japan is a very long land, but is made up of very
small islands, five principal and four hundred smaller ones.
The empire extends between latitudes which correspond on our
side of the globe to those of Newfoundland on the north and
Cuba on the south. The land is in shape very much like a
snake, as you will see by the map. It has a population of

84 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

40,000,000, and since the capture of the island of Formosa
from the Chinese there are 8,000,000 more inhabitants to be
added.

As you approach Japan the first sight, if the sky is clear, is
the top of their sacred mountain of Fujiyama. As we came
near this empire we saw no land that we could recognize as such,
but away up in the clouds the top of this great mountain
appeared, and the sun shone on it giving a crimson tinge to its
snow capped summit.

Here is a picture of Yokohama harbor. We spent several
days near this harbor, which is one of the best in the world, and
you notice on the shore quite a number of the Japanese houses.
As you drop anchor in the harbor, one of the most curious things
that strikes you is the large number of little boats manned by
little Japanese boatmen, who row out to the ship to take you
ashore. Perhaps you will prefer to go ashore on a steam launch
in a civilized manner, but there is far more fun in taking one of
the little boats, or "sampans," and being sculled ashore by one
of these almost naked "brownies," as we might call them.

When you come into the city of Yokohama, it is a question
whether you shall go to a European hotel and have all the luxu-
ries which you would get in the best French hotels, or whether
you shall go to a Japanese hotel. Here is a picture of a Japa-
nese hotel. The main floor is several feet above the ground,
and there is a veranda running around it, and there you see the
rooms inside. Those persons sitting upon the floor are in one
of the guest rooms. The door on the left is one of the sliding
doors that make up the side of a room in Japan. These doors
slide clear to the corners on each side. They may be opened
wide, or taken out as is usually the way in the daytime, in both
their dwellings and stores, so practically the Japanese live out
of doors. It is very pleasant and healthful in the summer time.
Then at night these inside doors are drawn together, and some
wooden doors are drawn together on the outside, and all is
closed for the night. As you go into the hotel you are met by
servants, and they are very happy if they can take oft* your
shoes for you. I had this experience in a genuine Japanese

1898.] ESSAYS. 85

hotel in the northern part of the empire, on the island of Yezo.
Just previous to our arrival there had been a terrible snow-
storm. We came to a Japanese hotel, and I was trying to ask
a man about a train that was to take us to our destination. All
the time that I was trying to talk to the man who had charge of
the hotel, a little boy was working at my shoestrings. At first
I took no notice of the little imp except to move my foot as
though I would push away an obstacle, but the boy kept at it,
and had crot one shoe almost unlaced when I looked down and
told him to stop. He didn't understand English, and kept on
and got them both unlaced and was going to pull off the shoes.
1 ol)jected very strongly and effectively to that, as I didn't care
to have my shoes taken off, because I intended to go out in the
snowy street. This, however, is the way in which you are
met at the entrance to the hotel, and usually there are plenty of
servants around that are trained to remove the visitor's shoes
with ease and expedition.

Your first duty then on entering a Japanese hotel or house, if
you intend to stop, is to take off your shoes, because in their
houses the floors are covered with nice thick, straw mats, and
they do not expect you to come in and injure their rooms.
This is a picture of the hand-maiden. When you have been
told where your room is, she conducts you to it, and is at your
service. Here are some things that are typical of the Japanese
room. In the first place, you have here a little fireplace, and
this is where the heat comes from in most of the parts of Japan
that call for heat in the houses. You are supposed to sit down
by this little stove and keep warm, and the Japanese do it
beautifully, and succeed in keeping perfectly warm, as the only
thing they seem to want to keep warm is their hands. Their
feet do not trouble them if they are cold. They cover them-
selves with many " kimonas," and thus keep warm. One can
keep wonderfully warm with one of these little stoves in the
room. If you cannot keep warm with the ordinary clothing
you have only to call for a "futon," which is much like the old-
fashioned "comfortable" of New England, and you crawl under
this and go to sleep. Many a Japanese has done this, placing

86 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

the little charcoal stove under the blanket with him, and the gas
from the burning coal has caused his death.

Of course it is necessary to eat in Japan ; and in order that you
may know something of what you have to eat, we will go into
the kitchen of the hotel. Here we tind three girls working pre-
paring the dinner you have ordered. One is cutting up some
roots, another is stirring up some sort of combination that you
have to guess at when it comes to your room, and the one stand-
ing up at the right is washing rice, so you get some idea of the
interior of a Japanese kitchen. Here three servants do as much
as one servant in America. The dress of the people in this
picture and the cast of the countenance is all very typical of the
true Japanese. Here is the servant who will bring in the food
that you have ordered. You notice, he has your dinner on his
shoulder, rice soup, fish, and very rarely meat, unless you order
it especially, for the Japanese do not eat meat or anything else
that has blood in it. In his hand he carries a lantern made of
bamboo framework, covered over with rice paper, which is oiled,
and very nearly transparent, and then ornamented with figures.
It is used in the hotels and also on the street when it is necessary
for extra lio:ht.

After your long journey, it is necessary to have your soiled
linen washed. If you would like to have it laundried in the
Japanese fashion, you have only to hand it to this girl and she
will take it to the brook near by. She will take a tub with her
and thinks she is working very hard, but she manages to see
everything that is going on. Anything especially interesting
will cause her hands to stop their work, and she will get all the
enjoyment possible in looking about her.

Here you see the characteristic traits of the poorest class of
the Japanese. You have also in the background some of the
vines that you will always find even in the poorest Japanese
garden. They take care of the little patch of ground, and they
always have something planted there. The Japanese backyard
is a piece of art. It is always kept in perfect order and has
something beautiful growing in it.

Of course while you are in Japan you wish to learn as much

.1898.] ESSAYS. 87

as possible of the interesting things in Japan. One of the most
entertaining things is to have young ladies corae in and read,
dance and furnish music for you. Here are two girls who can
be employed to come in and read from the Japanese books
or play on Japanese musical instruments in your hotel. Here
you have the characteristic dress of the people of Japan. They
dress ditferently according to their class, and according to their
age. The women especially are distinguished by the different
kinds of dress. A little girl will be dressed in the brightest
colors, mostly crimson and blue, and as they get a little older
the colors are less bright, but they are striking. The girl who
is standing there has a sash around her waist. This is the
" Obi," the pride of the Japanese woman. Here is where most
of the money furnished by her father is invested. The sash fits
very nicely and gives her a very graceful appearance. It is
wound round and round her waist (five or six yards of silk or
sometimes velvet), and is tied in a bow behind. You notice the
way her hair is done up. A .Japanese lady never dresses her
own hair. A regular hairdresser comes in and does her hair up
to last four or five days. It is very carefully and very artisti-
cally done.

While we are in our room, it may be of interest to have the
dancing-girls come in. Here are three. They generally belong
to the middle class, and to some extent are of ill repute. But
here they play an innocent role. Their form of beauty is very
striking, a beauty that appeals to some eyes but not to others. I
found the Japanese women to be very beautiful indeed, with
a delicacy of feature and a healthfulness of body. These girls
are dancing and what are called dancing-girls, but their dancing
is very difierent from ours in America. Theirs consists of
posturing, swaying to and fro, and bending and moving the
body, and they do it very gracefully. You see some of the
principal postures of the dancing-girl here. They always have
a fan, and that takes part in their movements and adds attrac-
tiveness to them. You notice that these girls have their hair
done up in the way that I showed you in a previous picture.
They wear a peculiar kind of wooden shoes.

88 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

The floor is covered with rice mats, always three by six feet
in size. When a Japanese house is complete, it must be of" such
dimensions that each room will include a certain number of these
mats. They make the room look very neat indeed. The orna-
ments in a Japanese room are few. Here you find upon the
wall a picture and that is about all you find in a Japanese room.
Any ornaments or treasures are not kept in the house, and the
bric-a-brac is all hidden away in a storehouse and is brought
out when their friends come to see them. In a Japanese house
there is very little furniture. There are no chairs, no stools, no
mantels, with a thousand things upon them, and very few if any
pictures. There may be a few mottoes and perhaps a little vase
in the corner where one little spray of flowers is kept. This
makes the labor of the housewife in Japan very slight. When
she sweeps her rooms, she dusts them first.

After the dancing-girls are through, we will invite the musi-
cians in. Here are two girl musicians. The one on the right is
playing a "koto," which makes a sort of music that Americans
do not appreciate. It sounds like thumping on a barrel. The
one on the left is playing a samisen, an instrument that gives out
more music, but which seems to be composed almost wholly of
discords.

The same room must serve for the parlor, reception-room
and chamber, if in humble circumstances. This is the way in
which a Japanese woman sleeps. She sleeps upon the floor, and
her head rests upon a peculiar kind of pillow which keeps her
head above the floor and thus keeping the hair from getting out
of shape. When cold weather comes they put one "kimona"
or dress on over another until they are warm enough. I
remember hearing one day of a girl in a mission school who
came down to breakfast with thirteen of these kimonas on.
The teacher told her to go to bed if she could not keep warm
without so many of these on.

I will now show you more of Yokohama. There are two
parts to this city, the foreign and the native. In the native or
Japanese part, you see the low houses and the narrow streets.
In the foreign part the buildings are large. Here is a mission

1898.] ESSAYS. 89

school. Here notice the innovation in the shape of a windmill.
There are some very beautiful residences on the " Blulf," as it
is called, where the Americans, Germans and those of other
nationalities live. This is a Buddhist temple of Yokohanja.
The Japanese are a very religious people. Buddhism is the
prevailing religion. Here is an immense image of Buddha, and
if you look very closely you will notice the man standing at the
middle of the image. The man is perhaps five feet tall and you
can judge of the height of this image, which must be fully fifty
feet. The statue is made of copper and iron. This represents
the religion of the Japanese. The face represents the calmness,
cheerfulness and the wisdom of Buddha. The Japanese people
rarely show pain, sorrow or anything of that kind. And if
they have anything sad to tell you, they will tell it with a laugh.
It is not because they have no feeling, but they wish to break it
to you gently. The one who represents their religion is sup-
posed never to be moved by the trivialties of life, but holds
himself firmly above them. A woman must never show sorrow
in public, nor a troubled countenance to her husband or father,
but must try to make things appear as pleasant as possible. It
is curious to note how through the centuries they have been
trained in this way. It has resulted in this perfect politeness
and unceasing care for the comfort of those who are dear to
them. I am sorry to say that the husband does not appreciate
it all, but rather seems to think that the woman is only a servant
and was born only to increase his pleasures. When they go out
for a walk the woman must follow the man and so on. But in
spite of all this the woman is today the hope of Japan. The
men have so much conceit that you cannot expect to teach them
deeply, but the women have been trained to be modest, retiring
in manner, and never to come forward except when l)idden.
One of the tenets of their religion is that they shall never shed
blood.

Here is Tokio, the greatest city of Japan. Here is roof after
roof and all securely fastened, for when the earthquake comes it
is liable to shake half the city down.

Here is the agricultural building in Tokio. It is kept by the

90 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

agricultural department of the government, which shows that
they are well up in architecture, and can build beautiful houses.
It shows that they have been earnest and active in tinding out
what other nations have been doing. They send their best
statesmen out into the world to gather up information. Then
they think it all over, talk it all over, always improve upon
it and work it out in their own way.

In the springtime you must go out of doors to appreciate
Japan. Here is Tokio in cherry time. Their cherry trees bear
no fruit, but they have wonderfully beautiful blossoms. Here
is a street planted with cherry trees. You get an idea of some
of the parks in Tokio in cherry time. The cherry blossoms
in Japan are three or four times as large as our cherry
blossoms.

Here are the cherry trees in full bloom in the country, and it
gives you an idea of a country road. Look around you in this
delightful country and you will find a pleasant landscape on
every side. In some of the gardens of Tokio, you will find the
gardener to be an artist. Here is one of the ways in which the
gardener seeks to make a surprise for his friends. Here is an
ornamental figure made out of morning-glories, and you will
find images of numerous wild boars and lions, and human beings
in different postures, all made out of flowers. I need not
enumerate the beautiful flowers which we have imported from
Japan, the chrysanthemum, the rose, the peony and others.

Some of the ladies, especially of the upper class, have to take
up floriculture as a part of their education. They have to learn
especially about flowers for decorating purposes. Their idea of
beauty in floriculture is not one great mass, a great wreath or pil-
low of flowers made up of all colors, but if they want to illustrate
the very acme of beauty they take one little flower, perhaps a
lily of the valley, with its one leaf, and place it in a little vase,
which is well adapted to receive it, and this will be the only
ornament in the room. They do not try to mass blossoms in a
great bouquet as do we. The longer I lived among this people
the more I believed they had the right idea of floral art. If you
wish to appreciate the true beauty of flowers, you do not want a

1,S98.] ESSAYS. 91

hundred of them all jumbled together, but one in its simplicity.
This gives you the best idea.

I s[)()kc a while ago of the geographical nature of Japan.
You see that it must have an immense coast line, which gives it
an <)[)})ortunity for a large fishing business. Thousands upon
thousands of the Japanese are engaged in the fisheries. The
laboring class live almost entirely out of doors in the summer-
time, and that is, I think, one reason why they are so healthy.
If you were there on a holiday, you would find all ages and
sizes out in the streets and public gardens. Here is a coolie or a
man who works in the warehouses or stores. He has upon his
back a character which designates his position in the store.
Here is a man wearing a native dress and having an American
hat upon his head. They are trying to adopt civilized costumes,
as we call them, and they are many of them doing it by halves.

The people love to get out of doors. They love gala days
and festivals. This is evidently one of their festivals. Here is
a ceremony of a different nature. It is a funeral. The priests
at the head are reading in the rites that take place at a Bud-
dhist funeral. Those on the left are the mourners. This is the
inside of one of their temples. This funeral is at the cemetery.
The coffin is a large white box. The Japanese does not lie in
the coffin but sits in it, and the coffin is usually white. These
ladies dressed in white are mourners. The mourning costume is
almost always white, not black like ours. It is a custom which
I think is ahead of ours. It seems to me that it is the right
color, if you propose to have a peculiar color for so sad a time.

We will go away from this capital city of Tokio towards the
city of Nikko. As you journey from Tokio you can go on foot
or be carried in a jinrikisha, or you can go by rail. If you wish
to see the country you will go on foot. You will find by the
roadside occasionally a tea-house. Here is one. The Japanese
loves to rest and he does not go far in a day. The tea-houses
are scattered at intervals along the road so that the traveller can
sto{) and rest. He sits down and while he is resting the tea is
brought to him. He rests perhaps for fifteen minutes or a half-
hour and then goes on to the next tea-house. These are very

92 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

beautiful resting places. The people are polite and kind and it
costs very little to stop at one of them. A foreigner going to
Japan for the first time should stop at one of these places if he
wishes to study the customs of the common people.

They have beautiful roads in Japan, roads that have been in
use hundreds and hundreds of years.

Here is a Japanese maiden with her usual burden. When a
baby is born it is almost immediately put upon the back of the
orrandmother. Then if another little tot comes along it is placed
upon the back of the first child, and so, in passing through a
Japanese village, wherever there are two feet there are two
heads. It is rather bewildering. If there is no girl to carry
the baby, then it is tied to the boy, and if there is no boy it is
strapped upon the back of the grandparent, the first upon the
grandmother and the next upon the grandfather. If there are
no grandparents, the uncles and aunts are brought into use.
This burden does not seem to trouble them at all. The girl
here will play as if she had no baby on her back.

There are so many blind people in Japan that many years
ao-o the emperor gave them the exclusive right to shampooing.
These blind shampooers made a good living. Their peculiar
whistle was one of the most weird and strange sounds that I
heard in Japan. I came rather to like the noise of it. The
people were very kind to the blind shampooers and they always
have the right of way. Somebody will call out to one of them
to stop and he will go in and perform the massage movement
for anyone who wishes to have his aches and pains taken out of
him, and in this way they get a living.

Japan is the only place in the world where you get anything
like the color of the American maples in autumn. This is a
sort of ambulance on wheels. The lady is in the middle, the
men carry it on poles over their shoulders, and the servants
walk along beside it. The Americans find it very difficult to
ride in these cages, as they call the kagos. It is a good deal
like the Turkish way of sitting on the lower limbs.

As you approach the beautiful city of Nikko you see a great
many beautiful trees that are something like the Redwood trees

1898.] ESSAYS. 93

of California. They make the most beautiful groves and forests
that I have ever seen. In going to Nikko you sec a beautiful
bridge. The emperor is supposed to pass over it once a year
and no one else is allowed to go over it. Gen. Grant was
given permission to pass over it, but he wisely said that although
he thanked them for their kindness and courtesy in offering him
the opportunity, he would go over by the common bridge.
Nikko is very picturesque, it is a city of temples.

Here is a two-wheeled hand-cart or jinrikisha. This man
can go forty miles a day and be ready the next day for forty
miles more. When you first get into one of these carts you
wonder which way it is going to tip. There is something about
the motion that makes you laugh. It is a nice way to travel if
you like it.

The Japanese claim to trace their ancestry back 2500 years.
Their first emperor was supposed to be descended from heaven.
It is wonderful indeed to think that they have been a nation as
long as that. And they sometimes laugh at us when we pretend
to be so much more civilized than they. You find a people who
when we try to teach them claim that they were civilized long
before we were. They were a civilized people when our ances-
tors were in the northern part of Europe, dressing in bear skins
and living in caves.

On the temples you find decorations illustrating fables which
the Japanese mothers tell their children. It is one way of tell-
ing the old, old story. The monkey on the left is holding his
hand over his ears so as to hear nothing bad ; the one in the
middle is holding his hands over his eyes so as to see nothing
bad ; and the one on the right is holding his hands over his
mouth so as to never say anything bad. In Nikko at the very
top of the mountain is a mausoleum or tomb and shrine where
the first Shogun is buried, and that means a good deal to the
Japanese. Way back in the thirteenth century the emperor
was dethroned by his chief soldier, and for centuries the empire
was governed by this chief soldier and his descendants. The
real emperor was put into a palace and his descendants were
kept there hundreds of years, never appearing before the peo-
8

94 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

pie. When a child was born who was the true emperor of
Japan he was allowed to hold the office but always under the
control of this Shogun. And when the young man came to
years of discretion he was compelled to take upon himself relig-
ious orders and become a monk. So the empire passed on to
the next in rank and the real emperor was never actually ruler.
Until forty years ago he was not allowed to come into power
and the nation was really governed by the soldier class. They
had a feudal system and the tyrants ruled, the stronger tyrants
over-ruling the other tyrants, and making them pay tribute.

Here is a man riding on his little Japanese pony. The ser-
vant is at the head of the horse with a bundle of rice on his
back. The man is going on a pilgrimage. It is a peculiar
custom of the Japanese of the lower class to go on pilgrimages
to visit great mountains or shrines, and you will see parties of a
dozen or fifteen of them going on foot to visit one of these
shrines and pay their vows to their deities, and to pray for good
harvests and so forth.

Here is a Japanese dressed in his rain cloak. It is made of
rice straw which will shed the rain perfectly, and the hat on his
head will keep off either rain or sunshine. Here is a Japanese
at work in the field with a hurra or bog hoe. It is a very rough
implement but it is the implement with which the thousands and
thousands of acres of Japan are cultivated. The men will
work for a while and then stop for a lunch. They have to eat
four or five times a day. Here is a field of rice. Rice is the
chief product and the Japanese grow the very best in the world.
These farmers alternate between smoking, lunching, and work-
ing. If a neighbor comes along they have plenty of time to
talk with him.

Plere is a Japanese woman going to market. She has her
basket filled with cabbages, which she is carrying to special
customers. Her basketful is worth two or three cents. She
has to carry it a mile or two and sometimes back again, and
then comes back the next day with another load.

The '■'daikon,'' a kind of turnip radish, is the favorite vege-
table of the Japanese. One way of preparing it is to pickle it

1898.] ESSAYS. 95

and put it away in a casli until it becomes so strong that it
would drive you out of the house.

Here is a Japanese farmer threshing barley. You notice that
this man takes a sheaf of barley and pounds it upon a wooden
block. Here is a Japanese girl reading. Her head o-ear is
something enormous. Here are some Japanese wrestlers. They
are lusty fellows and although they look very plump and fat it
is all muscle. This is one of the greatest amusements. The
wrestlers come in, thirty or forty on a side, and as soon as one
falls another jumps up to take his place, and so they keep going
and coming. The practice of wrestling is hundreds of years
old and it is not considered disgraceful to be a wrestler. They
often wrestle before the emperor himself.

You can always tell the widows in Japan by their short
cropped hair. One of the empresses of Japan, when she took
a husband, made a vow that she would abstain from worldly
pleasures. She blackened her teeth and pulled out her eye-
brows, and this practice became the custom for married women.

Here is the way in which a Japanese woman salutes her
friends in parting, and with this in closing I salute you, thank-
ing you for your kind attention.

24th February, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

Rev. G. W. KENT, Worcester.

Theme: — What the Hoses have taught a Minister.

Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen: — It is not only an
honor and delight to address you this afternoon, but I feel an
inexpressible relief and comfort in times like these, when the
air is thick with threats and rumors of war, to turn away from
it a little space and talk to you who cherish and cultivate that
art which I think you will find through all ages has been the
gentle genius of Peace and Good-will. Indeed, do we not
know that man first began to turn from his wild, fighting sav-
agery when he settled down and began to cultivate the soil ? I
hope to find for you this afternoon, as I trace only a single
chapter in the art of gardening, the better and gentler meaning
which lies, I think, behind the sad secret of man's fierce, selfish,
combative nature.

Let me confess at once I know nothing of the technical,
practical side of your art of gardening. I hardly know one
tree or shrub from another. I feel almost ignorant enouuh of
such things to join the ranks of those who have assailed the
devoted and disinterested service which your l)eloved and hon-
ored President has given to the city, only that I have a little
sense in my ignorance. I simply look up with wonder and
reverence to those fortunate people who have love and genius
for gardening, and I realize that there is health, happiness, and
profit in it if you only can ; I can't, but I can appreciate it in

1898.] ESSAYS. 97

those who can. Just think of fulfilling the old prophetic
vision, comforting earth's waste places, making her desert
blossom as the rose, rendering the wilderness like Eden !
When one's own wilderness persistently remains a wilderness,
and one's little bit of desert refuses to blossom with anything
but a few good-natured dandelions, one can appreciate good gar-
dening in others, I can assure you. The fact is I had a garden
before I came to Worcester ; fortunately I had a good old neigh-
bor, too. I remember I used to toil with exertions that were
something frightful. My back used to ache as his never did.
I used to read up until I could talk gardening in a way that
simply overwhelmed him, and yet my flowers would never
grow, at least never to anything but leaves, and my vegetables
never came to enough to feed the caterpillars and grubs who
forced themselves upon my hospitality. If it had not been for
my good neighbor, I should have fared very poorly indeed.
What a happy man it made him ! I used to envy him a thou-
sand times. He seemed able to forget all frets and weariness
and meanness. He was in politics, and in his garden he seemed
to find some relief even from the turmoil of politics, and things
must be pretty soothing to quiet a man's mind under such
circumstances, as our Mr. Walker could assure you. His
flowers and vegetables seemed to be so companionable, they
never quarrelled, and as you know by your experience, no
doubt, they reward the least attention and kindness a hundred-
fold and more. Being an ignoramus myself, as to the technique
of the art, I have had to content myself with what is really the
minister's main business — the study of relations. Let me show
you what I mean. The manufacturer, the merchant, the me-
chanic, knows immeasurably more about the way, the technique,
the process, the pushing of his business than I do. The
mechanic knows about his tools, and has a skill to use them in
a way that fills me with wonder and despair. The farmer
knows more about crops and cattle and soil in half an hour than
I am afraid I shall in all my life. Even the liquor dealer knows
how to work that miracle, how to make ten-year-old whiskey
in ten minutes in a fashion that I should never dream of. But

98 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

Jthere are certain large relations of each man's business to the
world's business, to society, to human welfare ; and no man
knows so little of those large relations of his business to what
is right and true, as the man immersed in his own business.
He is like the engineer down in the hold of the great ship ; he
can make the thing go, but to pilot it up on deck, to see where
the thing is going, is beyond his power.

There are great meanings flashing out all the time from the
farmer's craft, out of the mechanic's handiwork ; great revela-
tions of truth showing our relation to human life, to the whole
universe, which, I think, it is the minister's business to be look-
ing up all the time. There are bright revealings that I can
trace amid the daily toil of you business men, great shinings
out of honor and mutual trust, revelations of hope and promise,
showing me the way of God. I was always intensely inter-
ested in these larger relations of things, about the technical
merits of which I might know nothing.

When I was a boy in England, there lived almost next-door
neighbor to us a very learned naturalist and scientist, one who
has written a number of books which to a wonderful degree ex-
plain the great problems and secrets of science to beginners,
Mr. Clodd. Many of you have read many of his books. And
it was just at the time, that is when I was a boy, when science
was turning from the endless business of labelling, cataloguing
and classifying all the diiferent species to the immensely better
business, it strikes me, of reading the meaning of the differ-
ences between them. I remember how he used to talk to us
children of the beautiful, the wonderful relation of each little
flower to its fellow and the great life-history of the world, and
that is how I came to find my sermon for today.

If I were to take a text for it, and we ministers can hardly
preach a sermon without taking a text, I should, I think, take
the old Hebrew prophet's hopeful and happy view of the day to
come when " Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree and
instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree." But I
think we English children would like the prophet's hoped-for
day to be postponed as long as possible. I hardly know what

1898.] ESSAYS. 99

the English boys and girls would do without the thorn and the
briar. The hawthorn and the sweet-briar are England's fra-
grant and beautiful gifts to the country-folk in all that little land.
We hardly find a cottage in all her lanes and byways which
has not a bush b}^ its doorway of the sweet-briar. I wonder how
many thousands of Englishmen there are scattered about the
world, in busy American towns, on Canadian farms and Austra-
lian sheep-ranches, and in Indian cotton-fields and African gold-
mines, who, if across their pathway were to come the fragrance
of the sweet-briar, would be carried back, as a perfume will
carry one back, to the scenes of boyhood; loved and cherished
scenes of the little cottage and the mother's ways about the
house. Then the hawthorn ; — I suppose there was not a boy
or girl who did not go Maying, which was, as is meant there
still, to go after the white and fragrant blossoms of the May or
English hawthorn. And what scratching of hands and tearing
of clothes it meant, too !

You are more or less familiar with the hawthorn, and have
seen great bushes, even trees of the cultivated variety, growing
up about our city. It forms those green hedges that separate
the fields and farms and roads in the place of fences and add so
much beauty to the English landscape. Let me say that the
hawthorn hedges almost invariably, in the moist, mild Eng-
lish climate, grow a wall of green to the very ground ; its
white flowers are the joy of the bees, the butterflies and the
children, and its red fruit, or haws as we used to call them,
are equally the joy of the birds in the winter-time and the
hungry children at all times. Its thorns make it a farmer's
hedge which no cattle will try twice to penetrate.

I can remember no happier experience than when the spring-
time came (and in my part of England, down in the South, it
is beginning to come already), and the days grew longer, and
the air sweet and warm, and the hedge-rows blossomed, going
after the May and coming back all scratched and torn, but
bearing triumphantly great masses of the fragrant blossoms. I
wish I could transport you to an English country-side in an
English spring, so fragrant and so musical. It seems to me, —

100 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

it may be a bit of prejudice, however I notice John Burroughs
repeats the heresy, — that our birds sing more in England than
here. It may be that multiplied centuries of the companion-
ship of men have made the birds more tame than here, where
we have not a thickly populated country yet. Then the wild
flowers, in that moist, warm climate are more abundant among
the hedge-rows that meet the sight everywhere. But the joy
of going Maying I know was just in the going after all. And
it is an old, old, wonderful story, this Maying. It leads to
what I want to say to you this afternoon. The English chil-
dren are late comers at it. Why long, long ago, before there
was an English child, or any human child, the bees and the
butterflies and the tiny creatures of the air, went a-maying.

The blossoms and the insects, as of course many of you
know, grew up here together in the great process of creation.
Where we find no trace of the birds or butterflies, there we find
no trace of plants that blossom and fill the air with fragrance
and brightness. We find instead tokens of a great rank, blos-
somless, colorless vegetation ; and you know the familiar story
which Mr. Darwin tells us so eloquently in one of his books,
upon the fertilization of the plants by means of the insects, who
take their pay in honey. He tells us how the blossoms and
the colors of the flower make the plant's advertisement,
"Honey here!" and for that simplest little service it ofiers
that sweet reward.

The first human children and their mothers and fathers found
the flowers here ; of that we are pretty certain nowadays.
And what is all this talk of endless competition in the world,
so hard and selfish? Why, it has been a matter of mutual
helpfulness and co-operation from the start. I know of no
better illustration of it than the way in which the bees, the
butterflies, and the blooming plants have grown up together,
owing everything to one another's mutual love. The hawthorn
flower and the hawthorn fruit are full of meaning, more than I
can tell you in the time you can allow me.

I dare say you have seen the little fruit of the hawthorn.
The way we children used to cull it and love it ! I remember

1898.] ESSAYS. 101

a summer or two ago as I took a walk from Stratford to Shot-
tcry by the same path across the fields that the young Will
Shakespeare took when he went, his young heart beating high
with hope and love, to woo and win Ann Hathaway. I remem-
ber that the walk was by a hedge all red with the little fruit of
the hawthorn. I got my pockets full to bring back with me
to America but I don't know what became of them ; I am afraid
that boyhood's habit asserted itself and I must have eaten them
unconsciously.

I remember the delight of the discovery made by me from
a hint of Mr. Clodd's, that the hawthorn and the rose and the
apple and the strawberry are all sisters of one family, all roses.
I can recall yet my childish delight in tracing the family rela-
tionship. About the only particular in which it can be traced
is in the five petals of the flowers of the wild rose, the apple,
the strawberry, and the hawthorn.

The roses and the birds grew up together in the great
process of creation, and there we have a bit of that Altruistic
co-operation rather than fierce competition in nature. The
birds wanted food and the roses wanted their seeds scattered,
so the roses enclosed their seed in a hard, indigestible covering
or shell and then put about it a soft, attractive pulp so that the
birds in feeding themselves would at the same time help the
roses to scatter their seed. And you notice how ingenious the
rose is, whether it be the apple or strawberry or what not.
How cleverly it keeps its fruit green until the seeds are ready,
so as to be unobserved by the birds, and keeps it sour, so as to
be unattractive to them ! And then how those sisters vary in
the way in which they set the seed in or about the swelling of
the stem that makes what we denominate the fruit. The straw-
berry, with its luscious swelling of the stem, and the seeds like
tiny nuts scattered on the surface ; the rose and haw, with
their swelling of the stem, and the seed inside of the fruit, as it
is too with the apple. Then again mark the difference : — where
the rose has plenty of seeds to spare, as in the strawberry,
raspberry or apple, the seed is not very carefully protected ;
but when there is only one to each fruit what a hard shell, as

102 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

in the peach, is put about that single seed to save its life. The
raspberry, differing from the strawberry, has its seed inside of
each luscious globe of fruit, and this fruit can be pulled off the
stem, while the blackberry, you notice, has its seeds covered in
the same way but its fruit is fastened to the stem.

The progress of the rose family is a recent matter, just as the
fruit-eating birds are recent. The primitive birds were carniv-
erous altogether. The later more graceful and attractive ones
are fruit-eating, and practically they all came in together with
the Tertiary epoch. We find their earliest remains in earth
so recent that as yet it has not hardened into rock or stone.
May I not fairly say here of this rose family that in it we have
one of the noblest families from our point of view in the whole
vegetable world. It is a family that has grown up together
with man, and it has given him some of his best friends, good
friends to cheer the sight of his eyes and delight his sense of
smell and to satisfy his hunger. It has raised him up the apple,
pear, plum, peach, almond, blackberry, strawberry, raspberry,
and dewberry, — and I dare say I have left out some. Think
of the leafy shade, of the radiant bloom, of the sweet scenting
of the air, and the luscious fruit these different sisters of the
one family have produced for him. And all from some primi-
tive, colorless, scentless, flavorless rose that probably we would
not recognize to be a rose at all.

But, then, if we are to think of the foliage and the flowers
and the fruit we also have got to think of the thorn and the
briar. The hawthorn and the crab-apple with their angry teeth,
and the blackberry and the rose with their spiteful thorns.
Well, how did such things come? There is a problem that I
want you to meet with me this afternoon. We have one of
men's earliest ideas of how thorns and prickles came, preserved
to us in the venerable old book of the Bible, the book of
Genesis. It is that they came as the curse of God on man for
Adam's disobedience. " Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns
also and thistles shall it bear unto thee." Well, when men
imagined such an origin for the thorns as that they had not yet

1898.] ESSAYS. 103

learned the secret of them, that is all. Let us read the later
solution. We have to-day I am told, — I do not know anything
about it, hut so I am told, — we have over two thousand varie-
ties of that wholesome, delicious fruit, the apple. Two hun-
dred years ago there were less than one hundred varieties, and
when we go so far back as the time of the Romans, while thej^
had the apple and the pear, from Pliny's description of them,
Mr. Darwin concludes that they were a fruit so sour and hard
that today we would not tolerate them. When you go back
to Adam's day the apple was nothing but a bush of savage
thorns, and the fruit was so sour and hard that the old tradition
that Eve tempted Adam with an apple is put out of court
entirely. It would have offered no temptation, the first bite
would have been enough. I doubt if he could have bitten the
thing even.

The deepest meaning of that thorny bush was hidden yet.
The book of Genesis says that thorns came as a curse to man.
The difficulty is with that idea, that as a matter of fact we find
the remains of tooth, claw, talon, beak, spine, and poisonous
fang ages upon ages before a human being trod the earth. We
can hardly blame man for it all, for he proves an alibi, he
wasn't here. But more suggestive is our discovery that thorns
at least were not original creations at all. They were simply
twigs which for the time being had more important business to
attend to, and had given up the function of bearing leaf, flower,
fruit, and had developed sharpness. They did this purely as
defenders of the mother plant. Plant life originally, — for we
find the plants and so know what we are talking about, — in
those early times when the earth's atmosphere was hot and
humid, and the air was charged with carbonic acid gas, as it is
not today, plant life was of a rank, weedy, spongy sort. It
was soft, and as soon as animal life could be supported at all it
was devoured by those huge "Dragons of the Prime." Now
many of the juicier, softer, sweeter plants, of course, were
rendered entirely extinct, feeding those great creatures which
made the beginning of animal life upon the earth. Those few
that chanced to be hardest and least palatable survived to pass

104 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

on to the next generation. So by this law which Mr. Darwin
has so completely explained, this law of the survival of the
fittest, those plants which developed hardness survived in the
great processes of creation.

This "Survival of the Fittest," just as when the gardener
prunes off" and digs out what he does not want to grow and
thrive, cultivated the hard, strong, inedible plants.

Now let us turn, having in view that process, having in mind
that earliest way of gardening before man was here to do it,
to the primitive mother rose. Of course, her main business
in life, for her life depended upon it, was to save herself and
her little ones, her seed, from being devoured by some huge
Mastodon or Mammoth, and to this end, by that same process
of the "Survival of the Fittest" she raised a standing army
100,000 strong ; her twigs gave up the function of bearing
fruit and took up defensive measures, became sharp and drove
off the huge creatures which would have made short work of
the mother plant. But for the thorns we would have, today,
no rose nor strawberry nor peach nor any of those other deli-
cious plants of the rose family.

But the best remains to be told, and it is a little like the
story of our citizen soldiers, the story that we are ready to
duplicate today if need be. You remember how it happened
thirty years or more ago. Men of peace they were, those men
of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, of New England, and
all the North, men of peace they were ; but when the country
cried out to them for help, when the Union was in danger, then
those men of peace who hated war, who knew the joys of home
life, who loved the little ones and the wife, and clung to the
prosperity and the comforts of a peaceful home, those men of
peace laid aside their instruments of peace, took weapons in
their hands, and went forth to kill and to be killed, if need be.
We know the noble story of what they did, that as they went
100,000 strong from here up North, they went singing, "We
are coming, Father Abraham." They were going, if need be,
to death itself. But when the war was over, when the Union
was saved and the slaves free, then these same men who had

1898.] ESSAYS. 105

tasted the fierce delight of war, when the need of war was
ended, came back to home and shop and farm again, took up
their instruments of busy toil, and became once more the men
of peace they had been. Tluit, to my mind, is the noblest part
of the story of our soldiers. That is precisely what the thorns
have done.

Take the beginnings of our apple tree, of our Baldwin, our
Pippin, our Gravenstein, without a thorn from stem to farthest
twig. They had their beginnings in that hard, stumpy, thorny,
savage crab-bush. Man took the thing, hunger compelled him
to eat its fruit, and he found that with proper care it began to
take on sweetness and harmlessness. He protected it, and gave
it nourishment and sunshine, and so the long process went on
until we have our wonderful varieties of apple, peach and plum
today. In England, I remember we boys used to go after what
we called " sloes" in the later summer-time. What fun it was !
But what anguish both at the time and generally afterwards !
They were a species of wild plum, but it was growing into
tameness. You could eat the thing, and such disastrous results
as I have hinted at would be pretty sure to follow. But the
wonder of it to us was that on that wild plant we would find
innumerable thorns which were giving up their soldier life, and
out of each side of these thorns would be tiny little leaves, and
the fierce sharpness of them was disappearing. They were
turning back to twigs again. And that is the process that has
gone on with the apple and peach and cherry, all those
delicious fruits. You know how we cultivate the hawthorn,
which makes such a thorny hedge in England. We can culti-
vate it out of thorniness. We have varieties of roses already
in which the thorns have been cultivated out. We have iriven
all our attention alone to producing fragrance and beauty in the
rose and have neglected that particular, letting the thorns come
on them, but if we wish, in less than a hundred years, we can
have our roses without thorns.

All this is of vital interest to me as minister, in a different
way than it is to you, as horticulturists. The glorious convic-
tion comes to me that the thorns of human character, the hard,

106 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

savage, sour, unlovely elements of human nature came about
by the same divine process of creation, and are to be turned
to sweetness, fragrance and beauty, in the same glorious and
blessed process. The ferocity of man, the selfishness of man,
the fierce self-assertiveness of man, came in answer to the same
demand, in answer to the same environing conditions. Those
thorns will all be changed to branches of peace, bearing fra-
grance and fruitful bloom of kindliness, generosity and love.
There we have the secret of the great sore puzzle of man's self-
ishness and hardness. Let the rose interpret the problem for
us.

The baser side of human nature came in answer to the neces-
sity that he plant himself, first of all, firmly and tenaciously as
a creature of the earth, just as the old wild rose had to do ; to
root himself deeply in that soil upon which he must live and out
of which he must be able to wrest a living. The physical man
had to be first a wild, fierce animal in order that by and by he
could ofi'ow to be a nobler man. The fact is that strono;, fierce
self-assertiveness, at that time, was the law and condition of
his survival. He came into a world of savage beasts ; he came
into a world where he had to fight cold, storm and hunger. No
armor-plate for his protection, no speed like that of the horse,
no strength like that of the lion and elephant, and he had to
put in its place strength of brain, to have cunning, obstinacy,
fierce self-assertiveness, tremendous masterfulness. Man had
to look after number one or else some lion or tiger would have
been the foremost creature of the earth. He had to assert him-
self, to resent injury, to establish himself, as I have said, with
strong passions and strength of will. He became as hard and
savage and thorny and unassailable as that first crab-bush. He
became all that, not merely passively as the crab-bush did, but
he became it aggressively and made himself master of every
creature in the world. There followed from that a result of
vast, of sacred significance. Thus he won dominion over the
creatures of the earth. Thus he secured freedom, leisure and
opportunity to rise out of these animal beginnings to something
finer and nobler. These passions of the wild beast rose to

1898.] ESSAYS. 107

nobler ends. Tin's i-escntfulness, resentfulness at first of mere
attack upon himself, became a resentfulness of injury to others
and hatred of injustice and oppression. This strength of will
became a will for righteousness.

Thus in that old conflict there was wrought out that steel-like
temper of character, that iron will, that force of soul, which
God wanted in his making of a man. We see it yet in a Luther,
a Paul, a Jesus Christ, men with capacity for holy anger, men
who could fight, fight a life and death battle if need be. Now,
in our own day, I think there dawns at last the time of our
divine completing. Take this old, fierce, wild passion and
assertiveness, and sweeten and sanctify it, leaving all the splen-
did strength of old, but putting it to holier uses ; glorify the
old skill, by leading it out of cunning into wisdom and gener-
osity ; make god-like the old strenuousness, by making it
instead of self-assertive a mighty will for righteousness and
others' welfare, and you will render this King of Beasts the
King of Souls. That is the task the roses teach me. It is no
easy one. Still there is the old need of self-defense and self-
assertion. I do not wonder that the old selfishness survives,
that men still look out for number one, that still they practice
cunning. We have to root ourselves as firmly as ever in this
old mother earth of ours. We have the same old cold and
storm and hunger to do battle with ; and still there is a need of
splendid wrath against oppressive cruelty, against cowardly
infamy whenever we find it. I think we still ought to know
how to fight, if fighting is to be done. With Thomas Hughes,
I am dead against crying " Peace I " when there is no peace, and
is not meant to be any. But better than that, I think, is the
great task to-day of learning to be master of the old Adam.
There is nothing to be destroyed. Remember the vision of the
old prophet that "instead of the thorn will come up the fir tree,
and instead of the brair will come up the myrtle tree."

We have a happier sight than that old prophetic vision. We
have the thorns and briars not exterminated, but bearinjj leaf
and flower and fruit, turning back to twig and leafy branch
again ; and that is better than exterminating the old briar and

108 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETF. [1898.

thorn. We have the very sight before our eyes of such God's
work going on. The old man, harsh, fierce, selfisii, savage, is
not to be destroyed, not destroyed at all, no element of his
power is to be wiped away. But out of the old man, strong,
stern and fierce, the new man is to grow. The strong, stern, un-
lovely elements becoming the strength of holiness, the stainless-
ness of purity, the perfectness of love. That is the lesson,
which in utter ignorance of the things themselves, the roses
have taught this minister.

DISCUSSION.
Mr. Harrison.

Mr. Chairman and Friends: —

I have been highly delighted with these remarks this after-
noon. I am intensely interested in the subject. I believe in
the mission of beauty, in its power to help humanity ; and as
has been outlined, beauty was unfelt in its loveliness on earth at
the time of the advent of humanity. The vegetation of the
carboniferous age was not beautiful, it was left for the goal of
man to make beauty rise on every hand. We are told by
mineralogists that even the diamond and the sapphire are com-
paratively recent productions.

In the West where I have been so long, I have rejoiced in
the evangel of nature, that beautiful evangel which reveals
God's infinite love. "The wilderness shall blossom as the
rose." Out there in the Mnlderness the rose has its mission.
There is a man on this great prairie who not only chews
tobacco, but eats it, and it is hard to tell where the plug leaves
ofi' and the man begins ; he becomes the plug himself. I have
seen him go to the store to sell his wife's butter and eggs, and
get fifty cents for them from the grocer. He would then buy
forty cents worth of tobacco, and ten cents worth of sugar for
his wife and take it home and eat three-fourths of that himself.
Now when you come to bring him into contact with a higher
civilization, and under the influence of beauty you make a
diflerent man of him. You cannot save the old man, but you
can the boys, and wonderfully assist the girls.

1898.] ESSAYS. 109

I have been impressed in going by some of those sod houses
to see the "Survival of the Fittest," to see that some of the
women have retained the home love for flowers. I remember
one hidy's house, in particular, which was called the "brown-
stone front," where the most charming flowers used to grow.
We used to drive out of our way to go past her house, and
take in the marvellous contrast between that sod house and that
beautiful bed of flowers. There is something taking in flowers.

Several years ago a gentleman travelling through the Rockies
fell in with a rough sort of a fellow and was afraid of him.
But they climbed up to a summit and there was revealed one
of those beautiful perspectives, valley, mountain, and plain.
His companion stood absolutely entranced and looked upon it.
And the man said, "Then I dropped all , apprehension, my
friend, of that fellow. The man that appreciated beauty was,
I knew, a safe man." Beauty is the alphabet of the revelation
of the hereafter. The mission of the beautiful is to make us
better, and to teach us of the hereafter.

I remember a beautiful little child in Minnesota. She came
to lie down and die with the dread diphtheria, and there came
to her a vision of beauty. She told her friends of the wonder-
ful farm through which she passed. It was so lovely and there
were such flowers there ! Then I thought of the sweet fields
beyond, the swelling fruit, the never-withering flowers. I
remember during the great exposition I was lying at the point
of death with the rheumatic fever, and thought I was going
over to the Border-land. It seemed as though the way was
very open and plain. I remember one night there came such a
vision of splendor as I never dreamt of. My friends were all
at the Chicago Exposition and they sent home a letter with
regard to the splendor and beauty of that wonderful exposition,
but it could not compare with the beauty of my dream. I
thought 1 saw a vast field of unspeakable splendor, with chrys-
anthemums towering up like trees, all one blaze of beauty.
There were roses in vast varieties, and flowers such as I never
saw before ! Well, he is able to do abundantly more than we
can ask for.
9

110 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

These things make us better. They are God's evangel of
beauty, and therefore the horticulturist has a wonderful honor
conferred upon him, for the lover of flowers is brought nearer
to the love of the infinite and the beauty of the Lord is upon
him.

I am very glad to meet you ; I am glad to have a chance to
say a word, and exceeding glad to hear our brother here, the
minister, tell of the wonderful opportunity for growth. All
these things belong to us ; they are our heritage ; we claim
them as our right.

Out in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, we are starting a col-
lege and we want to have a horticultural department. I believe
the better way to do is to encourage them, to let them realize
what can be accomplished. The girl is very nearly related to
the beauty of her flowers ; you can hardly tell where one leaves
off and the other begins. What we want is to teach the girls of
the West that they can wield the wand of the magician, and
clothe the prairie with beauty.

Mr. Record.

I have listened with a good deal of interest, and if I had
power to convey my ideas I would make some remarks, but I
would simply say that I have failed in my eflbrts in the past to
see that process of development that had been expounded to us
in nature. I had rather fall back on the religion which we have
given us in the Scriptures, and which, I think, no science has
yet, or ever will, entirely upset. They may at first seem to
contradict, and I think that even Mr. Darwin has got on some
wrong tracks. Our brother has not told yet in just what form
the flower or rose started, but has given us to understand that
by reason of its hard surroundings it was obliged to put out
these organs of self-defence. I do not know but man by reason
of his hard surroundings has been obliged to put out this very
perverse nature which we see working all through the world,
still I believe that the final regeneration of man will come about
in some other way than by merely cultivating that which is in
us. I believe that Jesus Christ said, "Ye must be born again,"

1898.] ESSAYS. Ill

or, in other words, " born from above." I believe that I shall
not be developed from without.

We have civilization, we have a wonderful development of
horticulture, manufactories, science, and political art ; but what
are they ? We are the peers, in some respects, of the savages
of ages gone by ; and yet when we look at the strength of the
ettbrts that we have made in our political aflairs, it has some-
times seemed to me, it is the same barbarism refined, for we
have as hard a time to fight our fellow-men as the savages did
themselves.

If I had more time. I would like to say something on the war
question. While the thought expressed in the lecture was very
beautiful, and some of the ideas, yet as far as the ethical part is
concerned, I should certainly take some decided exceptions.

Mr. Knight.

I was reminded of a story of Mr. Lincoln, which I think has
never been published, and yet, undoubtedly, it is true. Some
years ago I was on a business trip in New Hampshire. I met
an old gentleman at Whitefield. He had been one of the lead-
ing men of Whitefield, and one of the active men during the
war, and with two or three others from New Hampshire was in
Washington looking after the New Hampshire troops. They
had finished their business and were ready to start for home
when one suggested that they call on Mr. Lincoln, perhaps they
could say something to cheer him up in the midst of his care.
They went and were met at the door by an orderly, they told
him who they were and what they came for. He said, " I will
speak to Mr. Lincoln, possibly he will see you." He came
right out and said, " Mr. Lincoln will see you now." They
were ushered into the presence of President Lincoln. He re-
ceived them very cordially as gentlemen from New Hampshire,
and invited them to take seats. He said, "A pretty, fine
country you have there in New Hampshire, I think. I was out
that way some years ago, and the cars stopped and I went to
look out the car window. I saw a bumble-bee hanging on a
thistle." This was, of course, a pretty keen satire on New

112 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

Hampshire. I have made, you see, a thorough study of the
question.

AHusions have been made, and properly, to our sisters in the
cultivation of flowers and the fine arts. I used to notice on
the mountains of New Hampshire a red house or hut, and then
if I looked carefully I would see a plot of flowers at the window
or door, showing that someone of refinement lived there and
had a home there in those barren, bleak mountains.

Our friend from the West, I should know by his breezy
style had been out on those great prairies. I was in Kansas
ten years ago last summer from the early spring until the latter
part of July. By the first of July there came on one of those
droughts that dry up every green thing. I saw thousands of
acres of great rank grass, such grass as I had never seen before,
go out of sight practically in two or three weeks. And what is
this I see on the part of the ladies, who have a plot of flowers
in their front yards? When the thermometer was up to a
hundred or a hundred and ten degrees, two or three hours in
the forenoon and two or three hours in the afternoon, they stand
over their flower beds soaking and soaking them, trying to save
their flowers. Some of the flowers died but many of them
lived. Yet if it had not been for the patience of those Western
women the flowers would have faded and the grass withered and
dried up. I do not care to take up the theological side of it
today. As I look at it, whatever God has created in this world,
at the outset he has made it a perfect work. I have no doubt
that the first man and the first woman that appeared in this
world were perfect specimens morally and physically. And so
with every plant and every leaf that we put under a glass we
see that its outline is perfect; and I do not believe, I cannot
believe, in this theory of evolution, that man came from an ape
or monkey, and the flowers and the fruit came up from the
crudest forms. I do not see it in that way, and I have no doubt,
as our friend has alluded to the fruit with which, according to
the Bible records. Eve tempted Adam, that it was very fair to
look upon. I accept that record as true. I hope in the con-
sideration of this question we shall fall back upon that which

1898.] ESSAYS. 113

seems reasonable, which seems to be sensible. God never made
any blunders in his work. It has been man's blunders that
have led us into trouble, and his selfish and crabbed nature.

The main thing for us to do my friends in this world is to
make it better, happier, and purer in every way, and so let
us come to the fountain of all love and learn what we may. I
told you that while apparently every day brings something, yet
it has not come true, for there have gone out in the ages past
wonderful developments of science and art. I will not prolong
these remarks only to say that we do not know what science is
going to develop tomorrow. So far it has not upset the record
so far as I know, and I do not believe they ever will.

Mr. O. B. Hadwen.

I have been exceedingly interested in the lecture. I believe
nature has been wonderfully assisted by man. From the sweet-
briar of English origin we have thousands of the most beautiful
roses. It has been brought about by hybridization, and by the
progress that has been made in the past. We can hardly meas-
ure the progress to be made in the future. The English haw-
thorn has a great variety of colors.

No one shall foresee or foretell what we shall raise a hundred
years hence. Fifty or sixty years ago there were very few roses
that I recollect, and 1 had an opportunity of knowing something
of them, and today we have such a wonderful variety. There
is not a land on the face of the earth that is equal to England for
growing the rose. We have in this country Newport, which
approaches England in its climatic condition.

3d March, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

EDWAED W. BREED, Clinton, Mass.
Theme: — Water Gardening.

The subject of Water Gardening that we are to consider this
afternoon is a most ancient as well as neglected branch of hor-
ticulture. It has a history contemporary with ancient Egypt.
The sacred Lotus of the ancients seemed to occupy the fore-
most place in aquatics ; for sculptured representations of it
abound in Egyptian temples, proving the veneration paid to it.
The worship was by no means confined to the ancient Egyp-
tians ; for in India, Tibet, China, and Japan the plant was con-
sidered sacred and is still employed in regular ceremonies.
Homer and other poets have sung its praises. Herodotus,
Strabo, and ancient writers have referred to it. In literature,
architecture, and culture it held a prominent position. Egyp-
tian monuments bear representations of the Lotus and Nymphsea.
The sacred Lotus is not now found in Egypt ; but two varieties
of Nymphseas or Water Lilies, Nymphsea Lotus called the White
Lotus, and Nymphsea Lotus ca^rulea, the blue lotus, abound.
Drops of water on the leaves of the ancient or sacred lotus,
Nelumbium Speciosum, look like molten silver and quickly roll
off. The Hindoos have a proverb founded on this peculiarity
of the leaves, to the effect that the good and virtuous man is
not enslaved by passion nor polluted by vice ; for though he may
be immersed in the waters of temptation, yet, like a lotus leaf,
he will rise uninjured by them. The spiral fibres which abound
in the leaf-stalks are carefully extracted and used as wicks to

1898.] ESSAYS. 115

burn in the temples of India before Idols. The root-stock and
seeds are eaten as food in China, India, and Australia, and
medicinal qualities are assigned to the leaf-stalks.

Ancient as the knowledge of aquatics is, the adaptability of
them for general culture is a recent acquirement. What is our
native Nymph;va odorata, or common white pond lily, was
introduced into England in 1786, although an English species,
Nymphrea alba, was known there long before.

Many countries have their native lilies varying in color, size,
and appearance. Nearly all have an aromatic, delicate, and
pleasing odor. In some of the varieties, the flowers rest on
the water, while in others they stand above it.

It may seem useless to some to go so far back into the past
concerning the subject in hand, but the more we know of the
history and native habitat of any plant the more we will be
interested in ministering to its natural requirements.

In every advance movement in the world's history there is
always some great leader who has a desire to better existing
affairs, and to contribute to the world the results of his ambition.
Thus was it true in a marked degree with Mons. B. Latour
Marliac, the eminent French horticulturist ; with an inborn
desire for horticultural work he was a passionate admirer of all
the beauties of the garden, and the flora of the waters was his
favorite study. In 1879, he commenced his eflbrts in hybridiza-
tion, which were not rewarded with success at the start, but
later developments, based upon the lessons thus learned, brought
forth successful results.

Nympha^a Marliacea Chromatella was one of his earliest
achievements and is today the standard yellow variety. Our
native Cape Cod Pond Lily, Nymphea odorata rosea, afforded
him a rich source of pleasure in his hybridization efforts, for it
became the progenitor of many valuable varieties. His happy
and prolific experiments in the hybridizing of Nympha^a have
given great pleasure to the horticultural world, vvho owe him a
debt of gratitude for these additions to our hardy garden flora,
which have both the large and noble forms and the soft and
lovely flowers of the Tropical Water Lilies.

116 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

Among those who have been instrumental in improving lilies
and popularizing water gardening in our own country, mention
should be made of Mr. Sturtevant of Bordentown, New Jersey,
who has been styled the Father of Water Lily Culture in
America. A superb variety with bright, rosy red flowers bears
his name. In 1839, R. Buist began his devotion to lily culture
and was another pioneer. Not until 1883 did water gardening
gain any prominence. In 1886 it began to be a feature in the
Philadelphia Parks. In 1888, Mr. Goodell of Dwight, Mass.,
exhibited aquatic flowers at the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society rooms in Boston which excited enthusiasm. Mr. S. C.
Nash of Clifton, N. J., transformed four acres that produced
a rank growth of weeds, muskrats, and mosquitoes into a pond
of marvellous beauty, rich in its flora of water plants. The
names of Tricker, Gray, Bryden, Blomberg and others might
be enumerated as contributing their share in the advancement
of "Water Gardening."

If we are fortunate enough to have a natural pond its location
is made and it falls upon us to develop nature, but if we have
to construct a pond then it becomes our duty to imitate nature.
The ideal spot is one sheltered from the cold winds, having a
bank on the north side that can be appropriately planted and
trees in the background. If our location is on a level plot then
we must produce the above efiect by planting.

A location for a pond must be secured where the sun will
shine on it the greater part of the day. The water must be
available and controllable so that the height of it can be raised
or lowered at pleasure. If it should be a stream with a strong
current a way would have to be provided for the water to run
after the pond was full. Water containing salt, lime or iron is
not suitable to grow plants in.

The water should not be changed often for it reduces the
temperature and in still waters plants receive more available
plant food from decomposing insects and organic matter.
When it becomes necessary for any cause to change the water
while the lilies are in the pond, it should be done on a cloudy
day. At first the water should be but six inches deep, it being

1898.] ESSAYS. 117

shallow it will heat rapidly, but as the plants grow the depth of
water should be gradually increased until 18 inches is reached,
for some varieties require this amount while others need but
a foot.

It is a curious fact that whatever may be the depth of water, the
leaves will iloat and the stems seem to be just the right length,
be it six or sixteen inches. In a natural pond a clay bottom is
desirable and the soil necessary to grow the plants in should be
very rich. If it is to be made it should consist of good turfy
loam two parts and old cow manure one part. If the latter is not
available sheep manure may be substituted ; but instead of the
above proportion it should be one of the sheep manure to six or
eight parts loam.

Bone flour can be used in addition, a four or tive inch potful
to a vigorous growing variety and less for smaller ones. It is
generally conceded that more flowers are obtained from Lilies
by planting them in large boxes or one-half barrels and then
placing them in the pond so that the proper height of water will
be above them, than by planting them out in the bottom of the
pond.

The strong growing varieties of lilies require about six cubic
feet of soil, the moderate ones about three cubic feet, while
the Nelumbium or Lotus requires about twelve cubic feet per
plant. In order to keep the water clear in the pond it is neces-
sary to put two inches of coarse sand or gravel over the surface
of the soil.

To make an artificial pond, the shape should be the most
natural for the position it occupies. If it can have receding
ba3's and jutting rocky points so much the better. Mr. Olm-
stead, in an address delivered last summer on the purposes of a
park, said, " The water surfaces of a park need more study and
care to make them appear natural in outline as to their margins
than do the ground surfaces of a park."

Having decided on the shape, it should be staked out and ex-
cavated so as to be three feet deep in the centre when done,
running up towards the shore, where one foot will be deep
enough. The shape will give various depths as required by dif-

118 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

ferent plants and allow for eighteen inches of soil in the centre
to four inches at the edge. In many soils the bottom can be
paddled with clay, which should be thoroughly mixed with
water and pounded into place. It will require masonry in some
form at the edge, either small stones or bricks laid in cement
mortar for a depth sufficient to be secure from frost.

Another method is to place a lot of small stones at the bottom
of the pond and extend out as far as the sides, laying the top
course in cement mortar, and laying a brick wall one foot high
and eight inches thick on the stones at the edge, then all of
the surface treated with a coat of Portland cement. A drain
should be laid under the brick wall and connected with the
sewer or some similar outlet, then no water will remain under
the wall and no danger from frost will ensue. Proper attention
should be paid both to an inlet and outlet pipe, the latter con-
necting with the drain under the wall. A pond so constructed
will rarely if ever need any repairs.

The whole surface of a pond should not be covered with
lilies. If the pond is large, the centre should be kept open and
the planting done more at the sides, producing the effect of con-
tinuous growth from the border of the pond, and in a measure
obliterating the outline of the pond in at least a portion of the
way. Walks should be near enough the border to permit the
visitor to get a near view of the lilies to fully appreciate their
beauty and fragrance. Seats should be so placed that different
views can be obtained.

To raise lilies from seed is a very fascinating work. Seed
should be sown in February and March in pots of soil with a
one-eighth inch covering of sand and placed in a pan of water
deep enough to allow the water to stand two or three inches
over the pots. The water should be kept at a temperature of at
least seventy-five degrees and the seeds will germinate in two or
three weeks according to the variety. When the seedlings have
made two or three leaves they will require transplanting just as
other plants do.

When this operation is done in the water, the roots spread
out better and can be easily placed in the pots they are to

1898.] ESSAYS. 119

occupy. When of sufficient size, pot singly in two and one-
half inch pots, then later repot into four inch, not allowing
them at any time to become stunted. They will require green-
house or hot-bed protection until planted out doors in June.
All varieties of lilies do not produce seed. Nature therefore
resorts to other methods for reproduction. The hardy ones of
this class are propagated by dividing the roots as the new
growths start in the spring.

The tropical sorts of this class produce side shoots which
form tubers at the end of the season's growth. On the approach
of frost the roots are taken inside, the foliage trimmed back
allowing the tubers to remain on the main root packed in moist
sand under the greenhouse benches and kept at a temperature of
sixty degrees. In the spring these tubers can be potted and
grown until time for planting in the pond, but my advice would
be to let somebody else try to winter these tender varieties,
as about the only thing you can depend on is that they will rot.
Young plants are easily obtained in the spring from men who
have facilities for wintering stock plants, and they offer them at
a much lower figure than it costs individuals to care for them.

Among all aquatics the Victoria is truly queen, and al-
though it may not become our lot to cultivate it no address
on Water Gardening would be complete without considering
her majesty. It is a native of South America and was discov-
ered by a traveller nearly a century ago, called there water
maize. It is a plant with gigantic leaves five to six feet across,
with a flat broad rim five inches wide of a lighter green above
and crimson beneath, with beautiful flowers changing from
white to pink giving forth a sweet fragrance.

Seed was brought from Bolivia in 1846 in wet clay. The
first flower was produced in England in 1849, which was pre-
sented to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, in whose honor the plant
was named.

The peculiar formation of the leaf gives it great buoyancy,
and leaves have been grown in St. Louis and many of the parks
that would hold two hundred and fifty pounds weight. The
flowers are from fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter, and they

120 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

last two nights. A variety from Brazil, called Randii, is of a
more robust habit and better adapted to out-door culture. The
flowers are- white, changing to deep crimson. Mr. Sturtevant,
of New Jersey, was probably the first to cultivate this variety
here. Mr. Tricker, in 1894, procured a new variety which
proves to possess greater blooming qualities than the preceding,
and the originator claims that it is destined to supplant its pre-
decessors and make the possibility of Victoria growing of no
greater difficulty than that of the tender lilies. In its native
country the variety is a perennial, but it is better treated here
as an annual. It is propagated from seeds that are sown in Feb-
ruary or March and flower the following July and August. It
requires one hundred and fifty cubic feet of soil per plant, and
the water should be two feet deep. In our climate, when grown
out of doors, it is necessary to heat the water to ninety degrees
in the early summer, and for this purpose a boiler is placed in a
low situation and pipes are run through the pond. The boiler-
house should be hidden by rocks, shrubbery and vines. It is
also advisable to provide a glass covering until the weather is
sufficiently warm. Great care is then needed in properly hard-
ening them ofi". Victorias have been grown in this State by Mr.
Goodell, at Dwight, near Amherst, without heat outside, by
using sashes to cover his pond early in the season, and he has
succeeded in having them bloom for nearly a month. Mr. Bry-
den, when he was at Yarmouthport, grew Victorias very suc-
cessfully, and at one time had a plant which produced fourteen
leaves and an abundance of flowers. The expenses incidental to
its successful culture render it a plant not for the millions, but
for those who have a million or more.

Among the aquatics, the Nelumbium or Lotus, in all its Ori-
ental splendor, is a stately plant, and deserves a prominent
position in the Water Garden unless it can be favored with a
pond by itself. Lotus ponds are very common in Japan. It is
valued by the Chinese, who highly appreciate it, for in North
China it is cultivated in every available wet ditch, marsh or
swamp. Its seeds and fleshy rhizomes are edible and highly
esteemed in Chinese cookery. Its flowers are used for decora-

1898.] ESSAYS. 121

tive purposes, while its petioles and leaves are devoted to medi-
cine. The Americans, however, are satisfied to use it for its
decorative purposes, and in this it excels.

It is propagated by seeds and by the division of its roots.
Seeds of the Nelumbiuni have grown after having been kept
forty years, but one may not infer that they improve with age.
Baron Von Miiller tells us that the ancient Egyptian method of
sowing was to enclose the seeds in balls of muddy clay and
chaflf, which were then sunk in the water where the plants were
desired to grow. If the hard, outer coat of the seed is filed
thin near the apex, it will germinate more readily. Seed planted
in March, in pots in water, at a temperature of seventy degrees,
will germinate in about ten days. When the plants are of suffi-
cient size, they should be repotted and kept inside until June,
when they can be planted outside in their permanent quarters.
The seed may also be planted where the plants are expected to
grow, and thus become naturalized. There are some examples
of this method that have been very satisfactory. Raised from
seed the plants will not flower until the second year, when one
may expect a fine display of bloom. If plants are grown from
the roots or tubers, flowers can be expected the first season.
This method is doubtless best for amateurs. The time for
dividing tubers is in the spring when growth begins ; the condi-
tions are then more favorable for active work, and little risk
attends planting at that time, which will be about June first.
When planted, they should be covered with six inches of soil.
Once established, they grow with marvelous rapidity.

If planted in a pond with lilies, the roots should be confined
by brick wall, as they are voracious feeders and will soon take
possession both of soil and space. They attain greater perfec-
tion and beauty to occu[)y a pond alone and without restriction.
They can, however, be grown very satisfactorily in tubs and
half-hogsheads. They should be in a sheltered spot so that the
wind will not destroy their flowers. It is claimed by some that
sluggish streams or ponds with a fresh supi)Iy of water, either
by stream or fountain, are better adapted to them. They should
be protected in winter either with water of sufficient depth, or

122 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

if the water is drawn off, with a covering of leaves ; in either
method, enough to exclude frost. The flowers last three days,
but unlike the Nymphtea or Water Lily, only partially close
at night.

There are about twelve varieties of Lotus, but for amateur
use the Speciosum and Koseum are the best. The Speciosum
is the world famed Egyptian Lotus, also the Sacred Lotus of
the Hindoos, and it is nearly as hardy as the native Water Lily.
The flowers are rose-pink, of a brighter shade the first day. They
do not fully expand until the second day, when they are at their
best. This is a vigorous grower, and after being established,
the leaves rise out of the water from two to three feet and the
flowers stand up a little above the leaves. The Nelumbium
Eoseum does not grow as tall as the Speciosum ; the flowers are
of a deeper rose-pink, and more globular in form. Some culti-
vators have better success with this variety, but the former is
generally considered easier to grow.

Among the other varieties is the Nelumbium Album Grandi-
florum, which has pure white flowers that tower well above the
stately foliage and contrast well with the bright-colored varie-
ties. Then there is the Nelumbium album striatum, having a
large flower with white petals tipped and striped rosy carmine,
flowering very freely under liberal culture. It has the fragrance
of a magnolia. The Nelumbium Shieoman is a recent introduc-
tion of Japanese origin, which claims to be a giant among
Nelumbiums, with leaves thirty inches in diameter and stems
five feet high. The flowers are white, double, and are produced
freely. The Nelumbium Luteum is a native yellow variety and
is common South and West.

The Water Lilies are perhaps the leading aquatics for general
cultivators, and the sixty varieties which are grown are divided
into two classes — the Hardy and the Tender. With proper
treatment, the growth and blooming qualities of the Water
Lilies are phenomenal ; a small plant in the spring, from a three
or four inch pot, will sometimes attain a size of from four to six
feet in diameter, and will j)roduce a large number of flowers.
Instances are known where in the height of the season ten to

1898.] ESSAYS. 123

twenty iiovvcrs are out at one time on a single plant. Of course
this means perfection in culture. Cleanliness is essential to
secure success, and all flowers, as soon as they fade, as well as
any yellow leaves, should be removed. The flowers close up
and do not look very unlike the new buds. After you have had
a little experience, however, you will easily detect the diflcr-
ence. In the fall, the hardy lilies should receive a natural
method of covering, — either a supply of water which should be
about eighteen inches deep, so that when ice forms they will not
be likely to freeze ; or if in an artificial pond, and it is desirable
to draw oflf the water, they should be covered with leaves to an
equal or greater depth. It has, however, been proven that some
varieties will stand being frozen solid, and not be injured in the
least. The hardy varieties can be planted in May, when we see
the natural ones making their appearance.

Among the hardy varieties are the Nymph^a Alba Candidis-
sima, Nymphfea Marliacica Chromatella, Nymphsea Marliaca^a
Rosea. It is doubtful if a better trio could be named for ama-
teur or professional culture than these three. They are strong
growing, free flowering, large and beautiful. No finer variety
can head the list than Nymphtea Alba Candidissima, which is
now acknowledged to be the best hard}' white. It has pure
white, large flowers, and blooms from June until frost. Next
to this is the Nymphtea Marliactea Chromatella, having flowers
of a canary yellow color with stamens of deep yellow. The
leaves are bronzy green with chocolate red markings. It is
similar to the preceding in habit. The Nymphtva Marliaca^a
Rosea is a vigorous grower. It has a deep rose-colored flower
with free blooming qualities.

Additions in the new hardy varieties of lilies by the enthusi-
astic hybridizer are of annual occurrence and show an ever
increasing imi)rovemcnt in the shape, size and color of the
flowers, which bid fair to equal even the choicest products of
the tropics.

In the tender class of lilies are the day-blooming species,
whose flowers open early in the morning and close about the
middle of the afternoon, and the night-blooming species, whose

124 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

flowers open late in the afternoon and close in the morning,
although when the weather is cloudy they will remain open
longer. The flowers of both species last three days.

As the season for the tender varieties is not of long duration,
it is very important that good sized plants should be used when
planting ; but remember that they are natives of the tropics, and
do not plant in the pond before June tenth, and quite frequently
it is better to wait a week later. This is imperative. It is as
important to have the nights warm as well as the days. If, in
parks, electric lights are placed near the pond so that visitors
can examine the night-blooming varieties in the evening, the
pond will present as beautiful a picture as by day, with even a
more fairy like appearance.

The following is a list of the most satisfactory varieties : —

DAY-BLOOMING. NIGHT-BLOOMING.

Nympha^a Gracilis. Nymphaa Dentata.

Nymphffia Zanzibarensis. Nymphasa Devoniensis.

Nymph?ea Zanzibarensis Azurea. Nympha^a Columbiana.
Nympha3a Zanzibarensis Rosea.
Nymphaea Pulcherrima.

The Nymphsea Gracilis is a Mexican variety of great merit,
being the only white day-blooming tropical variety in cultiva-
tion. The white flowers have stamens of rich golden yellow
and are borne on stems ten or twelve inches above the water.
Its fragrance is like the lily of the valley.

The family of Nympha^a Zanzibarensis is among the most
easily cultivated of lilies, producing blooming plants in one
hundred days from the planting of the seed. The purple
variety has very large flowers and is one of the most beautiful
and free flowering of all the water lilies. The other Zanzibar
varieties, Azurea, of a lighter color than the preceding, and
Rosea, which varies from a light to a deep rose, are easily
grown and admirably adapted for tub culture. These two are
perhaps the best tender varieties for the amateur to begin with
and are inexpensive.

The Nymphaja Pulcherrima is said to surpass in vigor and

1898.] ESSAYS. 125

free flowering qualities all other varieties, with flowers ten
inches in diameter of a beautiful light blue, with deep yellow
stamens tipped with blue, and the sepals irregularly striped
dark red. The flowers remain open more hours during the day
than any other variety. The leaves are large. It is a hybrid
of American origin.

The Nympha3a Dentata is the largest and best of the night
l)looming varieties, with long pointed buds and flowers of a pure
paper white thrown well above the water. It blooms freely
through the season and is a native of Sierra Leone.

The Nymphrea Devoniensis is a hybrid that was raised by the
Duke of Devonshire. It is a free bloomer. Its flowers are of
a brilliant rosy red and it makes one of the most gorgeous varie-
ties in cultivation. They are very beautiful by artificial light,
and are of large size.

The Nymph^ea Columbiana is an introduction of American
origin, having bright red flowers that deepen in color each
succeeding day. This is an unusual feature in water lilies, as
most of the colored sorts have a tendency to grow lighter.

There are many other aquatics that are worthy of a place in
the water garden either on account of their graceful foliage or
attractive flowers. They should be used, however, in limited
quantities, giving the lilies the prominent places.

I shall by no means attempt to give you a complete list, but
will confine myself to some of the most desirable. Among the
tender plants are the Cyperus Alternifolius, or umbrella grass,
which is desirable for edges and is also suitable for pot culture ;
the Cyperus Papyrus, the ancient Egyptian paper plant, which
grows in water or marshy ground and is very valuable in the
water garden. It has triangular stalks of from four to five feet
in height, supporting at the top a cluster of narrow leaves. It is
very efiective near the edge in shallow water. It will also
flourish and grow in soil with no more water than cannas
require to make them do well. Then there is the Eichornia
Azurea, or Blue Water Hyacinth, a native of Brazil, and a
rapid grower, producing large spikes of lavender blue flowers
with a dark blue centre. It branches freely and creeps about
10

12G WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

on the surface of the water. Again, the Eichornia Crassipes
major, or Water Hyacinth, is a floating plant which forms
rosettes of curious leaves. The stems are swollen at the base
and contain numerous air cells, causing the plant to float on the
water. The flowers are rosy lilac and resemble a spike of the
Dutch Hyacinth. The hyacinth should be planted in pots or
tubs so that the roots will be confined, otherwise they will over-
run everything. This water hyacinth grows and flowers floating
on the water, but it will produce better flowers if the roots are
in the soil.

As we see this plant growing in small numbers in our ponds
or aquatic basins, it is difficult for us to imagine that in the
skiggish streams of Florida it flourishes so luxuriantly as to
block navigation. So serious a trouble has this become that the
Department of Agriculture at Washington has sent an agent to
investigate the matter. It has been suggested that to introduce
a natural enemy might solve the problem, and the red spider
has been considered. If it succeeded, however, it might be
found that the remedy was worse than the disease, or perchance,
the spider might not take to the water. I do not relate this
about the Hyacinth to discourage anyone here, but to show of
how easy culture it is under favorable circumstances. It is
worthy a place in every collection.

The Limnocharis Humboldtii, or Water Poppy, is so called
because of the resemblance of the flowers to the California
Poppy. Its flowers are yellow with black stamens. The leaves
are small and oval in shape, floating on the top of the water,
and the plant grows with great rapidity. It soon begins to
flower after planting, and continues until frost a mass of bloom.

Myriophyllum proserpinacoides, or Parrot's Feather, is a
graceful, half-hardy aquatic with a feathery foliage, and if
placed where it can hang in a fountain basin, produces a pretty
sight.

The Sagittaria Japonica Floraplena, or Double-flowered
Arrowhead, a hardy variety from Japan with arrowhead foliage
and pure white flowers grown on a stalk. It resembles a giant
ten weeks' stock, and prefers to be grown in shallow water.

1898.] ESSAYS. 127

The Zizania Aquatica, or Indian Rice, is an annual and very
ornamental. Its graceful panicles are produced on stalks six
to eiijht feet hio-h.

Typha Latifolia, or Common Cat-tail, is too well known to
need description, but is none the less effective. Do not allow
this to get a very strong foothold if your pond is small, as it
will soon monopolize the entire space. It is better to grow this
on the border outside of the pond if you have an artificial one,
and if kept well watered it will thrive and contribute its valued
effect.

The Iris Kempferi, or Japanese Iris, can be planted on the
edge of a pond or where it can be occasionally submerged.
The flowers are from 6 to 10 inches in diameter and vary from
pure white to royal purple in color. This Japanese Iris is one
of the handsomest of the whole genus, and when in flower one
of the handsomest of all garden perennials. It is beloved by
the Japanese, who make holidays to visit the Iris beds when the
plants are in flower ; a sight which for delicacy of texture and
beauty of color is unsurpassed. It is worthy of a place by
itself, and ought to receive more attention in the parks and pri-
vate estates than it does. It is sometimes called a sub-aquatic.

The Acorus Gramineus variegatus, or variegated Sweet Flag,
has green and white striped leaves, and is capable of making an
attractive feature.

The Lobelia Cardinalis, or Cardinal flower, prized for its
most beautiful of all colors, thrives well near the edge of a
pond.

There should be a suitable planting for a background on the
north and northwest portion of the pond to protect the lilies
from the cold winds. Native trees of graceful habits can be
utilized for a little distance from the pond, with willows and
grasses between and coming down to the water's edge. The
following can be very successfully used in the adjacent border :

Arundo donax is a giant grass which grows to a height of
ten or twelve feet, and makes noble clumps ; also a variegated
form of the same.

Various kinds of Bamboos are desirable.

128 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

Eulalia gracillima univittata is a very graceful plant. Its
narrow long leaves having a silvery midrib.

Eulalia Japonica Variegata and Eulalia Japonijca Zebrina are
variegated forms, all having showy plumes in the late summer.

The hardy Ferns can fill many a shady nook and render an
air of grace and beauty distinctly their own.

Pampas grass with its stately, silvery plumes is produced on
stems six to eight feet high. This is not hardy here.

Pennisetum is a low-growing annual grass with silky plumes.

There are several tender foliage plants that can be success-
fully intermingled with the hardy sorts to add to the beauty and
tropical effect of the surroundings.

The Banana with its stately foliage is always a valued acqui-
sition.

The Ricinus, or Castor oil bean, is desirable in limited quan-
tities.

The Cannas, if in your selection you pay more attention to
the varieties that have vigorous foliage, are a great addition.

The Caladium Esculentum, sometimes called Elephant's Ear,
is an admirable adjunct to the outside border, the surface of the
leaves being not unlike the Lotus.

If the grounds are extensive —

Clethra Alnifolia (Sweet Pepper Bush),
Azalea Viscosa (Swamp Honeysuckle),
Ilex Verticellata (Black Alder or Winter Berry),
Kalmia Latifolia (Mountain Laurel),
are desirable for planting in low places.

The evening primrose with us last season, opening with the
night-blooming lilies, otfered quite a little attraction. Its indi-
vidual flowers were very similar to the Water Poppy. This, of
course, was grown in the outside border and with its stalks of
light yellow blossoms produced a picturesque etfect.

Some object to water gardens, fearing that they will })roduce
a large crop of mosquitoes ; but this need not prevent any one
from having such gardens, as sunfish or goldfish in the water
live upon the animalcule, and the mosquitoes no sooner appear
than they are gobbled up. A drop or two of olive oil is some-

1898.] ESSAYS. 129

times put on the water to keep them out. In my experience I
have never had any trouble from this source. Sunfish are apt
to eat the young goldfish. The latter are generally used alone.
They seem to be as hardy as the lilies and will remain in the
pond during the winter months in darkness, or they can be
removed to a cold greenhouse.

Frogs soon find their way into a pond, and do no harm, but
turtles should never be allowed, as they destroy the young
growth and flower buds of the lilies.

In the event of any Aphis coming on the lily buds or flower
stems, water from the hose will soon dislodge them. It is not
advisable to use insecticides ; however, should occasion demand
it, the Bordeaux mixture can be used, provided it is made one-
third the strength that is used for ordinary plants. In the econ-
omy of nature there are several bugs that perform the duty of
destroying insects.

The plants of the water garden would not be members of the
vegetable kingdom if they did not have some enemies ; but these
need not prevent us from growing aquatics, for the result of our
eflforts will more than repay us for any labor we may bestow on
them.

I trust that these fragmentary remarks will create in you a
desire to give some attention to Water Gardening, for I believe
it will afford you a great pleasure, and not you only but all who
may be permitted to watch with interest your efforts.

It may be within the province of this Society to encourage
the growing of aquatics by offering prizes for amateur displays,
and thus add another feature to their interesting exhibitions.

Do not feel that you must possess a large tract to transform
into tropical splendor, but take advantage of whatever facilities
are within your reach, even if it be but two half-barrels sunk in
the ground in the sunny corner of your garden, containing a
lily plant in each with a few grasses back of them to make the
lilies feel at home ; and if your domain forbids this you certainly
can enjoy a water Hyacinth, growing in a glass jar in your
living room.

The following is taken from a report of the Park Commis-

130 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

sioners at Albany : " There is no feature in the floral display
at Washington Park that has given such universal satisfaction
as this aquatic plant display, and none that with ordinary care
will more fully recompense the caretaker. It is a feature that
is being introduced in every prominent park in the country, and
a great many private estates of prominence." Thus you see
that the possibilities of improving estates and parks that have
existing water features is very great and it is an improvement
that can be accomplished at no greater cost than is too often
expended for far inferior results.

In addition to the aquatics, as I have before stated, the many
water-side plants which seem to thrive only in these favored
localities contribute even greater beauty to the scene. For,
with the flora of the waters, this luxuriant growth of the
swampy banks unites with the majestic growth of trees in the
background, and produces a picture that for grandeur surpasses
in beauty any formal attempt at gardening.

3d March, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

Mr. lathe, Worcester, Mass.
Theme: — Travels in the South.

Philadelphia is the third city in population in the United
States. The city hall is the largest in this country. It is
nearly 500 feet square, has 14 acres of flooring, and 720 rooms,
including the rooms in the basement. The tower is 500 feet
high. William Penn stands on top of the tower in bronze,
37^ feet high, weighing 20,000 pounds, making the total
height, 537J feet. The cost was $20,000,000. Worcester city
hall is 85 feet wide, 217 feet long, and the tower is 200 feet
high.

The next wonder in this city is Wanamaker's store. It has
thirteen acres of flooring, fifty departments under one roof and
all entirely separate. The restaurant will seat over eight hun-
dred people. Over 3,000 are fed daily. Christmas week over
seven and one-half tons of candy were sold. There is a sitting-
room and a reading-room for men and women. You can spend
the day at the store in trading, reading and visiting, and you
can get a lunch or a good square meal. It takes twenty-three
tons of coal a day to warm, light, and run the thirteen elevators.
it takes one hundred and twenty horses and sixty delivery
wagons to deliver the goods and to haul the goods from the
depot to the store. Quite a good many old people go to the
store, where they read, visit, tell stories, and have a good time
generally. More than seven miles of two and one-fourth inch
pneumatic tubing, reaching to eighty-one pay stations in many

132 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

parts of the store converge at one point, where twenty-nine
cashiers are required to attend to the business they bring.
More than three acres of flooring are covered with samples of
furniture. In one day nine hundred chairs were sold. Thirty-
five hundred people are employed in the store, a city under
one roof.

Next comes Wanamaker's Sunda3'^-school, The object is:
To teach the word of God ; to lead souls to Christ ; to build up
Christian character ; to encourage and assist Christian workers ;
to train everyone to usefulness. In 1858, Mr. Wanamaker
held his first Sunday-school. He had twenty-six scholars and
two teachers. Now he has an average attendance of twenty-five
hundred scholars and one hundred teachers. The building was
enlarged last year one-third its original size. The orchestra
is composed of twenty-three pieces. The first half hour is
devoted to the opening exercises. Six or seven pieces are sung
and the singing is very fine.

One of the attractions at Wanamaker's store was a vegetable
wedding. The bride and groom were the cucumber and tomato ;
the notary was horseradish ; the mother-in-law was cauliflower ;
the witnesses were leek and asparagus ; the invited guests were
celery and carrot ; the musicians were the black beans and peas ;
the magistrate was cabbage.

Baltimore. I was there on the nineteenth day of April just
thirty-three years after the riot. I went out on the street
where the riot took place. At the time of the riot a train of cars
could not cross the city, so the cars had to be hauled through by
horses. On Pratt Street the mob became so enraged that they
tore up the track, and then the soldiers had to march. It was
while they were marching that the mob threw stones and bricks
and killed two of them and wounded several. It was now the
soldiers' turn. They were ordered to fire, and the result was
that some seven or eight of the mob were killed. This closed
the affkir. It was the Massachusetts Sixth from Lowell, Mass.

Richmond, Virginia, is a city set on hills. The colored
people of this city have the finest colored church in the South.
It cost $40,000, and was paid for by the colored people. One

1898.] ESSAYS. 133

white man gave the chandeliers, which cost $500. The colored
people have their churches, Sunday-schools, and day schools, all
through the South, entirely by themselves. They have teachers
and ministers of their own color. There is one thing about the
colored people, they are a church-going people, and they bring
up their children to go to Sunday-school. They have a large
church membership, mostly Methodists and Baptists. Jeflerson
Davis made this city his headquarters during the rebellion.
The house he occupied is now used for a graded school. He
attended Saint Paul's Church and was in church when the news
came that Lee had surrendered (it was half past ten Sunday
morning.) The news was not unexpected. He had but a
short time to give his orders, pick up his traps, and leave the
city. His orders were to destroy all the liquor and tobacco,
and set tire to the city.

I visited a Confederate cemetery. Nothing is left to mark
the spot but the Pyramid, which is built of rough stone tift}'^
feet square on the ground and runs to a point ninety feet
high.

Had it not been for the Tredegar Iron Works the South could
not have held out as long as it did. These are on the James
river below the falls. The James river is not navigable above
Richmond.

Jefferson Davis was determined that the Yankees should not
have any of his rum or tobacco, and the first thing our army had
to do when they got to Richmond was to fight fire. The city is
now built up, and is a nice, healthy place. The air is pure and
the water good, and the climate splendid. The State House is
on very high land, and from the tower a fine view of the city,
country and the James River can be seen. The park where the
State House stands contains four acres. There are some fine
pieces of statuary here, a statue of Stonewall Jackson, upon
which is written, "erected by Englishmen," among other things.
There is a beautiful spring of water in the park. There are a
lot of tame squirrels in the shade trees and if you sit down to
eat peanuts, you will have plenty of squirrels to help you.
There is a fine of five dollars for killing one of these squirrels,

134 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

and the same fine for killing a turkey-buzzard anywhere in the
South.

Athens, East Tennesse, is a city of four thousand inhabitants.
It is located between Chattanooga and Knoxville. The country
is mountainous and hilly, and numerous springs of water flow
from the hills. The waste water from some of the springs
would fill a six-inch pipe. The climate is mild and very
healthy. There is a jean factory, a thread factory and chair
factory In the place. The State abounds in timber, marble,
coal and iron. All that is wanting is capital and brains to
utilize it.

The Grant University is located here and is in a flourishing
condition. The jean-clad, log-cabin mountaineers are a sight
to behold. There are so many patches on their clothes that it is
hard to tell what the original was. Some of them hardly ever
get out of sight of their cabin. They are a very ignorant class
of people.

I went out to Mouse creek to see some of the old slave plan-
tations and found the proprietor of one of them living. He was
very willing to talk, said he was eighty-four years old, and that
slavery was a curse to the South from the fact that slaveholders'
children were not brought up to work, and when the slaves were
liberated he owned fifty and was glad when they were gone.
Said he could hire a nigger cheaper than he could own one.
His son was carrying on the plantation and raising fine crops.
Other plantations near him equally as good as his had not been
cultivated since the war. The land had grown up to sage grass
and they were hunting rabbits in it.

I found some very nice dairy farms. I went to one farm
where the waste water from the spring was utilized to do the
churning. He had a silo, but he let the air get to it and it was
spoilt, you could smell it a long distance from the barn.

Court week is a great week in Athens, everyone comes to town
on horseback, some on law business and some to trade horses.
The county owns some four or five acres of land that is used for
a trading ground. It is all covered with hitching-posts free for
everyone. The cry is, "How will you swap?" or "How will

1898.] ^ ESSAYS. 135

you trade?" One thousand horses can be seen in Court week
all wearing saddles on their backs. It is much safer on horse-
back than in a wagon, as the roads are bad.

Salisbury, North Carolina is a city of four thousand inhabitants.
They have nine churches, four for the colored people and five for
the white people. The colored people have a Normal school and
a graded school, and draw as much money per scholar as the
white children do. I think the colored children are fully equal
to the white children in learning and far ahead in behavior.
When I was in the graded white school, I noticed a bunch of
sticks, and very soon one of the teachers from another room came
in to borrow some sticks ; he said he had used up what he had.
When I was in the colored school no sticks were needed, and I
was surprised to see how quick the scholars would put an exam-
ple on the blackboard and explain it. Their recitations both in
the day and Sunday schools were very prompt. The little ones
not more than four or five years old had a short verse of scripture,
which they would recite as quick as their turn came. I attended
the Methodist Church most of the time I was there. The Sab-
bath-school was in a very prosperous condition, and the class
that got the largest collection was a banner class. The class that
had the most perfect lessons was a banner class also. The organ-
ist was a young lady from Amherst, Mass. The people are very
sociable, hospitable and entertaining. An invitation to tea is "I
want you to come to break bread with us."

The city is nicely laid out in square blocks. The well-to-do
people take a whole block for a house lot. They have fine large
shade trees and their surroundings are very pleasant. The streets
and roads are not repaired and are in bad condition and there is
no pleasure driving. The soil is red and in the winter is very
muddy and sticky. Where the principal street crosses Main
street there is in the centre a well with a large wooden log pump.
This is public property and here is where people gather when
they come to town, every Saturday afternoon. One man came
riding an ox. When asked what he did with him he said he made
ten barrels of corn with him.

The native whites and blacks of North Carolina are to be pitied,

136 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

they are too shiftless to get a living, they cannot get credit at the
stores ; so if they have any property they have to mortgage it,
including their tobacco crop to the merchant. Then they can
get trusted. The tobacco is brought to market and sold at auc-
tion and the merchant takes the pay.

The roads are so muddy that half a cord of wood is as much
as two horses can draw to market. It brings from seventy -five
to ninety cents per load. Chickens that, dressed, weigh four
pounds, bring twenty-five cents each. Eggs bring twelve cents
per dozen, and other things in the same proportion. The land is
worn out and will not produce crops unless fertilized. It takes
five acres to raise what one ought to raise. Grass will not grow
on the plowed land. Some people who keep a cow can raise a
patch of clover. The creek lands will raise quite good crops
without putting in any manure, one stalk on a hill.

Salisbury is noted for its prison pen, some call it the stockade.
It was where the Union soldiers were put who were taken pris-
oners. This prison pen has about five acres of land with a few
old wooden buildings on it, not enough to shelter one-half of the
prisoners, enclosed with a board fence. It was within this en-
closure that eleven thousand seven hundred Union soldiers died
from exposure and starvation during the war. Some of them
were found with a death-grip on a corn dodger. They were
l)uried near by in deep trenches. A granite monument marks
the spot. The grounds comprise six acres, and are enclosed with
a nice cemented wall five feet high. The Government keeps a
man to care for the grounds, and every visitor is asked to regis-
ter his name. I found some names from this county and I found
seven marble slabs with inscriptions on them lying on the ground
above the dead bodies.

Some fifty odd years ago, a wealthy man died in the city of
Philadelphia, by the name of Stephen Girard. He was born in
France. When he was a young boy he met with two great losses.
His first was the death of his dear mother. Then while he and
some boys were having a bonfire, one of the boys threw some wet
oyster shells in the fire and a sharp piece of the shell struck
Stephen in the eye and he lost the sight of it. So with one eye

1898.] ESSAYS. 137

he started out to make his fortune. He learned the ship-carpen-
ter's trade, then he built a ship for himself and started out as a
merchant and mariner on the high sens. He would go to one
section of the world to load up, and then go to another i)lace to
sell. At one time in his life he had many ships afloat on the
high seas. He prospered and accumulated a large fortune, and
when old age overtook him he sold out and came to Philadelphia
to si)end the remainder of his life. About the first thing he did
was to make a will ; he gave to his help who had grown old in
his service an annuity to be paid quarterly during their lifetime,
and he gave large sums to benevolent objects. He made all of
his relatives well off so far as this vvorld's goods were concerned,
and then he gave to the State of Pennsylvania $300,000, and to
the city of Philadelphia $500,000. The remainder of his prop-
erty he gave to the city of Philadelphia to found a college for the
training and educating of the orphan poor boys of the city of
Philadelphia and of the State of Pennsylvania. The grounds
consist of forty-five acres of land enclosed in a nice cemented wall
ten feet high. The gatehouse is on the east, and everyone has
to go through it to get into the college grounds. A stranger has
to get a permit to go in.

This forty-five acres is about five times as long as it is wide.
An avenue goes through the centre of the lot. The college is on
the east end and buildings are on both sides of the avenue, in-
cluding a very large power house. Here is where the boys learn
the trades. They get not only an education but a trade as well.
The college is a marble building with a marble roof, from which
a fine view of the city and country can be obtained. There are
thirty-seven marble pillars that hold up the roof that covers the
piazza on both sides and at one end. The playground is in the
rear of the college. The chapel is near the centre of the grounds.
The boys march from the college to the chapel every day at nine
o'clock and four o'clock for religious instruction. ' The chaplain
reads the prayer and scriptures and the boys do the singing. It
would surprise you to see one thousand boys between the ages
of ten and eighteen marching from the college under military
discipline. They enter the chapel in companies, every boy gets

138 WORCESTER COUNTr HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

a seat as quick as possible and the room is very quiet. In pleas-
ant weather, every Friday after prayers, two hundred of the boys
dressed in uniform, each boy carrying a gun, march to the play-
ground, where they have a band of music, and where they go
through a drill in which they do themselves great credit.

All boys under ten years of age have their meals in another
building, and it would do you good to see those little boys take
their places at the table. They fold their hands and do not stir
until the blessing has been said and they have been helped.
There are over five hundred boys. Each boy has his wash-dish,
towel, soap, comb and brush, and he has to put them in their
place. The same is true of all his clothes. When these boys
graduate they have three suits of clothes and no bad habits, such
as drinking, smoking and using bad language. They are taught
to mind on the instant when spoken to. They graduate when
sixteen or eighteen years old, and their services are in demand.
Temperance young men are always in demand, and always will
be. This college was opened January 1, 1848, with one hundred
boys. Since the opening of the school, five thousand seven hun-
dred boys have been clothed, fed and educated, and a great
many of them have learned a trade.

There were, one year ago, 1,536 boys at the college. The
trustees are preparing to take in more boys, as there is money
enough to care for them, as soon as suitable buildings can be
built. The cadets, two hundred in number, go out to Island
Heights, New Jersey, for a summer encampment which lasts
three weeks. The drills they go through with do them great
credit, and large crowds gather to witness their drills.

When the yellow fever was in Philadelphia, Mr. Girard pro-
cured a pesthouse and took care of the sick himself, and he never
lost a patient. At one time he saved the city from bankrui)tcy
by lending them money, and he also helped the Government by
lending them money.

There has been some fault found with Mr. Girard because he
would not let clergymen into the college. I will give you his
exact words in relation to it. "I enjoin and require that no
ecclesiastic, missionary or minister of any sect whatsoever, shall

1898.] ESSAYS. 139

ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever in said college ;
nor shall any such person ever be admitted for any purpose, or
as a visitor within the premises appropriated to the purposes of
the said college. In making this restriction, I do not mean to
cast any reflection upon any sects. There is such a diversity of
opinion amongst them I desire to keep the tender minds of the
orphans, who are to derive advantage from this bequest, free
from excitement, which clashing doctrines and sectarian contro-
versy are so apt to produce. My desire is that all the instructors
and teachers in the college shall take pains to instill into the
minds of the scholars the purest principles of morality. So that
on their entrance into active life they may from inclination and
habit, evince benevolence towards their fellow creatures and a
love of truth, sobriety and industry, adopting at the same time
such religious tenets as their natural reason may enable them to
prefer."

loth March, A. D. 1898.

ESSAY

BY

Professor JOHN W. CLARK, North Hadley, Mass.

Theme: The Outlook for ProJitaUe Fruit Growing in Massa-
chusetts.

In the early history of our State the planting of fruits was
simply for home use ; commercial orchards were not thought of.

The varieties planted were those brought from the mother
country, and trees grown from seed without being grafted.

In most cases the varieties brought from the mother country
proved unsatisfactory, and were replaced by the best of the
many seedlings that had sprung up among the colonies. This
was more especially true of the apple. In the earlier days of
the colonies, and for some time after, one of the chief uses
made of the apple was the production of cider and its products.

In the fourth report of the Massachusetts State Board of
Agriculture (that of 1841) this statement is found in regard to
apple orchards : "Fruit is cultivated in the country at large to
a comparatively small extent, and since the progress of the tem-
perance reformation throughout the country, cider has fallen
into almost entire disuse. Apple orchards are neglected, and
young orchards are not planted as frequently as formerly."
This made the orchards composed of seedling trees bearing
their natural fruit of little value, and, being left to care for
themselves, they gradually died out, and for some time few
apple orchards of any great extent were planted ; but, as the
State increased in wealth and population, more and better fruits
were called for, and this caused a revival in the planting of

1898.] ESSAYS. 141

fruits, which, with periods of depression and renewed interest,
we can follow down to the present time.

This is not only true of our own State, but of the whole
country. Special fruits have been found to be especially
adai)ted to the soil and climate of different sections, and in
many instances the production of this special fruit or fruits has
become the chief industry.

It was only a few years ago that our markets were supplied
with nearly all of its fruit from the surrounding country, little
being received from outside the State ; but as railroads began
to multiply and the cost of transportation to cheapen, fruits
from other sections began to be seen in our markets, and as the
science of handling, packing and shipping fruits became better
understood, the distance of shipments increased, so that to-day
we have to compete in our markets with grapes, peaches, pears
and plums from California, peaches from Georgia, grapes from
Ohio, apples and grapes from New York, and apples from
Michigan, Missouri and Nova Scotia, to say nothing of the
immense quantity of oranges shipped from California and
Florida.

Although the orange is not grown by us in Massachusetts, it
probably atfects the market price of our apples more than all
of the other tropical and semi-tropical fruits put together, and
it will continue to do so.

Before the day of rapid transit and shipping of fruits in
specially constructed cars, and the introduction of cold storage,
it often happened that a partial failure of the crop in one section
caused a corresponding scarcity in the markets of that section,
and prices advanced to a point that was out of the reach of all
but the wealthy. Today this does not happen for any length
of time.

Our country extends over such a range of territory and has
such a varied climate that the general failure of a crop in the
temperate portion of our country is an unheard of occurrence.
A shortage in one part is soon made good from other sections.
In making an estimate as to the price of any of our fruits, we
must take into account the crop of the whole country, for, as
11

142 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

soon as the price warrants it, a shortage will be made good from
somewhere, and this, with cold storage to carry fruits over a
longer period of time, prices in the future will not show such
extremes of variation, but will be more uniform.

Much has been said and written in regard to the barrenness of
our soil and the severity of our climate, preventing us from
growing many of the choicer kinds of fruits.

This may be true to a certain extent. Still, we need not get
discouraged, for, from what I have seen and been able to learn,
I am convinced that those who have suitable lauds, favorably
located, can, with proper care and business capacity, make the
growing of fruits as profitable in Massachusetts as in any other
part of our country.

We hear many flattering reports of the fruits grown in differ-
ent parts of our country — the quantity of fruit produced, the
ease with which it is grown, and the money that can be made in
California, Florida and Georgia in growing fruit. This may
look well on paper, but when the plain facts are known the low
price which the fruit brings if sold to local dealers, and the
unsatisfactory returns received when the fruit is shipped on
commission to northern and eastern markets, it is evident we
have no need to envy our southern and western competitors.
We should always bear in mind that the nearer we are to mar-
kets where the population is a consuming rather than a pro-
ducing population, the better will be the prices obtained for our
products.

We may not be able to grow fruit with as little care and ex-
pense as in some of the newer parts of our country ; where
everybody can grow with little expense a certain fruit, the price
of that fruit is correspondingly low, for every one wants to sell
and no one wishes to buy.

We have here in Massachusetts the advantage over any other
portion of our land, in that we have the best markets that the
country affords at our very doors, and our population is a con-
suming and not a producing one.

Of all the fruits grown in Massachusetts, the apple stands
first, and not only is it first with us, but of the fruits of the tern-

1898.] ESSAYS. 143

perate zone the apple is the most imi)oi*tant, and notwithstanding
what has been said about our soil and climate, Massachusetts
Baldwins, Greenings and Roxbury Russets stand first in the
markets as to quality and size, and usually lead in price.
Although Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont may have varie-
ties that are of better flavor, and will keep longer, their Bald-
wins, Greenings and Roxbury Russets are smaller in size, and,
as a rule, sell for less money.

If we can grow better Baldwins, Greenings and Roxbury
Russets, and get better prices for them than they can in other
sections, we may be well satisfied, so far as the production of
apples is concerned.

Massachusetts has hundreds and thousands of acres of land
well adapted to the growing of apples and other fruits that
today is made of little use. If this land could be planted to
fruits by the right individuals, the income derived from it would
be increased, and, instead of growing less year by year (as farm
property throughout this and other States has for the past twen-
ty years), its value would be increased.

There is a town in this State where the assessed value of farm
property, with but one single exception, is less than it was
twenty years ago. This land was planted to fruits, and instead
of being assessed the same or less than it was twenty years ago,
it is assessed four times what it was then, and the assessors say
"it is not now assessed one-half what it is worth." Here is an
instance where Massachusetts farm property has not decreased
in value, and there can and should be hundreds of similar cases
scattered over the State.

It may be said if apples are planted extensively the markets
will be overstocked and prices will drop to such a figure that
there will be no profit to the grower. It is just here that
a revolution must come in the marketing of all our fruits. It is
not the quantity of choice fruit, well handled and packed, placed
on the market, that breaks the price, but the inferior fruit or
good fruit improperly handled that gluts the markets.

This poor fruit forced on the market must be disposed of for
what it will bring, and this prevents the sale of good fruit, un-

144 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

less one is willing to sell for a correspondingly low price.
Every barrel of inferior apples sold practically prevents the sale
of a barrel of choice fruit, and every barrel of apples sold that
is improperly handled or dishonestly sorted and packed causes
the purchaser to lose confidence, and he is unwilling to pay as
much as he would if he was sure every time of getting a barrel
of apples honestly packed.

There is not too much good fruit sent to market, but too
much inferior fruit, for which some other use should be made.
It is not from those who take good care of their orchards that
the bulk of the improperly packed and inferior fruit comes, but
from the average farmer, who either does not know how or will
not take the trouble to care for his trees or handle the fruit as it
should be.

The time has passed when apples can be grown and made to
pay under snch treatment, and the sooner the average farmer
goes out of the fruit business the better off will he be.

These orchards have not paid in the past, and the chances
are that they will pay less in the future as competition increases
and the markets call for better fruit.

The fruit business is following in the line of other industries,
and is becoming a business of itself. More are making fruit
growing a specialty than in the past. More orchards containing
thousands and tens of thousands of trees have been planted by
single individuals or stock companies during the past fifteen
years than ever before, and this extensive planting it still going
on. It is only about ten or twelve years since California first
began to ship fruit to our markets to any considerable extent,
and but about fifteen years since the exporting of apples to
Europe began to be an important factor in the handling of the
apple crop.

How important a bearing the exporting of apples has upon
the home markets can be known when we realize that during the
season of 1896 and '97 nearly 3,000,000 barrels of apples were
shipped to Europe. If we should look through our list of fruits
we shall find that commercial fruitgrowing has nearly all sprung

1898.] ESSAYS. 145

up since the close of the Civil War, and the greater portion of
it within the past twent}^ years.

The peach has attracted considerable attention during the past
few years, and many large orchards have been planted. Some
have proved a success, others have proved a failure.

This has been the history of peach growing in this State. In
looking over the reports of the Massachusetts State Board of
Agriculture of fifty or more years ago I find this statement is
made : "Peaches do not do as well as they did fifty years pre-
vious, and the greatest success is obtained where trees are planted
on high oround."

This is no less true today than it was one hundred or more
years ago, and the site selected for the growing of peaches
should be land higher than that of the surrounding country, hav-
ing a good circulation of air, where the fruit buds will be less
liable to be killed during the winter.

Still there is no certainty that the buds will not be injured in
Massachusetts even when the trees are planted in the most favora-
ble situations. During the past seventeen years peach trees with
me have given good crops in 1883, '89, '93, '95 and '97, and
partial crops in 1887, '88, '91 and '94, making five good crops
and four partial crops. I do not think it wise to reckon on over
two full crops of fruit during the life of a peach tree here in
Massachusetts. At least in my locality the price of home-grown
peaches is not what it used to be, the price of the '95 and '97
crops being very low. There will probably never come a time
when all the home-grown peaches, if well grown, will not find a
market at a price above that of southern peaches, on account of
their better flavor, color and less waste.

With small fruits the markets of the future will be supplied
with its best fruit from local sources, and those who grow the
best fruit will sell their products at a profit, while the grower of
inferior fruit will be compelled to sell at a loss.

In the growino; of fruits it is the same as in other kinds of
business. More depends on the man than on the business, and
if one has not a liking for fruit growing and is willing to take
for his motto and live up to it, "Eternal vigilance is the price

146 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

of success," he had better never undertake it, but if one has a
love for the business, and the necessary stick-to, push and energy,
I for one can see no reason why the growing of fruits cannot
still be made as profitable in this as in any other State in the
Union.

ANNUAL REUNION AND SOCIAL GATHERING.

MARCH 9, 1898.

An informal reception for members and invited guests was
held in the hall and adjoining rooms from six until seven P. M.
The company then marched to the banquet hall, Bicknell's
orchestra playing a march. After prayer by Rev. George W.
Kent, supper was served by Curtis S. Yeaw.

At the guests' table were Mayor Dodge, Gen. F. H. Appleton,
Pres. of Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Gen. Henry W.
Wils(m, George Cruikshanks, Pres. of Massachusetts Fruit
Growers Association, Prof. John W. Clarke, Prof. S. T. May-
nard of Amherst Agricultural College, Prof. L. F. Kinney of R.
I. Agricultural College, Dr. C. F. Hodge of Clark University,
C. F. Carroll, Supt. of Schools, H. P. Lewis, Prin. of English
High School, E. P. Goodwin, Prin. of Classical High School,
Hon. Stephen Salisbury, F. L. Hutchins, Pres. O. B. Hadwen,
Secy. A. A. Hixon, and Toast-master Hon. Henry L. Parker.
After spending an hour enjoying the feast, President Hadwen
called the company to order.

WELCOME BY PRESIDENT HADWEN.

Ladies and Gentlemen: —

Again it becomes my privilege to extend to you a cordial and
hearty welcome. The recurrence of another year, the fifty-sixth
anniversary of our Society, brings together our members and
their friends in social intercourse ; as we look around and l)chold
so many well remembered countenances and listen to the friendly
cheers greeting each to the other, and every one who addresses
you, I may well congratulate the Society on the lil)eral and
increasing interest of the community so manifest in all our
entertainments and exhibitions ; in the continued improvement

148 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

in the flowers, fruits and vegetables exhibited during the past
year, with the advance so notable with each recurring season.

Horticulture is the one pursuit in natural science in which all,
without resrard to ajje or condition in life or degree of education
and refinement, unite. It presents a common field where every
degree of taste and refinement may find an extended opportunity
to pursue a course of culture, suited to the ambition and tastes of
each and every one. He finds here no obstruction in the pursuit
most conducive to his talents, but tending to encourage a course
which attracts and delights all, whose enterprise is directed to
improve and broaden the horticulture of the county.

Each successive year shows a marked and gratifying progress
in the beautiful belt of towns in our county which surrounds and
clasps our city like a "jewelled zone." Ornamented grounds
and gardens are yearly encroaching upon uncultivated fields and
wooded places ; tasteful dwellings are seen within the plantings
and groupings of coniferous and deciduous trees, with their
exquisite foliage sheen, which gives them such attractiveness and
quiet beauty, whose roofs shelter the manly and gentle virtues
that are nurtured in refining homes ; and the intelligence and
influence that are generated around these hearthstones are the
lineal descendants that contribute to the useful pursuits of life.
I feel that we are reaping no scanty harvest for the good seed
sown by the men of noble deeds, the founders of this Society.
I feel that the Society is especially making itself manifest in this
work by its encouragement of those refining rural tastes and the
virtues which are its allies, contributing to make people happier
and better.

I feel that this Society is doing well its legitimate work by
difi"using and encouraging a wholesome taste for those simple and
rural pleasures which add to and prolong the lives and happiness
of its members. It teaches our contributors the art of careful
selection of fruits in size, color and form, and the same may be
said in the selection of vegetables ; and is even more advanced in
the cultivation and selection, in the display, of flowers, with the
artistic blending of colors. It has taught the community the
principal essentials in the cultivation of the soil to ensure the

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 149

best results. It has contributed the essentials of good and
wholesome living, both to those who cultivate the soil and to
those who consume the products of horticulture, and it is con-
tributing its full share to the amenities of life ; its scope broadens
with the advance of each season ; new fruits, new fiowers and
new vegetables are brought out, new shrubs and plants are
introduced, new trees, both deciduous and coniferous, are freely
planted in parks and private grounds, each and all contributing
its full share in the aggregate to the higher and finer art of horti-
culture.

We may also congratulate ourselves that our lives were cast
in pleasant places, and within this our goodly heritage we can
appreciate the advantages we derive from the object lessons of
our exhibitions, and the education and refinement derived from
the essays and discussions at the sessions of the winter meetings.

Every tree, whose leafy boughs catch the morning light and
waves its graceful head with every breeze, is a practical work of
horticulture ; and every flower that opens its tiny bud to drink
the dew of the morning, — each forms a part of the wondrous
work, where nature is assisted by man.

With grateful memory we recall all who have contributed by
their wealth, their wisdom, their untiring devotion and enter-
prise in building the Society up to its present standing among
similar societies of the country. If we have nurtured the
important work of disseminating information on the higher art
and pursuit of horticulture, our labors have not been in vain.
If we succeed in awakening an interest or the latent love of the
cultivation of fruits and flowers and implanting it in the minds
of the young who are to become our successors, we may feel
that we contribute to horticulture, the most pleasing of all arts,
and have fully kept pace with the rapid progress of the age.

When the returning season fills us anew with its promised
hopes we again renew the seed planting in the garden soil.
Nourished by sunshine and showers they soon send forth the
germ of life with a vital energy. It starts into being with all
their varying aspects. Such experience fully illustrates the lines
of Wordsworth —

150 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

" Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her ; 't is her privilege
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From Joy to Joy; for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thought, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men.
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all vphich v/e behold
Is full of blessings."

I have thus, my friends, briefly endeavored to break the ice,
let me hope not entirely inconsistent with the spirit and purpose
of the occasion.

" God Almighty," says Lord Bacon, " first planted a gar-
den ; " and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures, it is the
greatest refreshment to the spirits of man ; without which
buildings and palaces are but gross handiwork !

But I must not prolong my remarks. There are others to
speak to whom you will all be delighted to listen.

I now have the pleasure of introducing our honored friend
and ex-president, Henry L. Parker, who will act as toastmaster
for the occasion.

ADDEESS OF HENKY L. PARKEE.

Mr. President, Fellow-Memhers, Ladies and Gentlemen: —

In the midst of warlike rumors, preparations for war, and all
the excitement dependent thereon, this is eminently a peaceful
assembly. We do not want war, but in view of the recent
action of Congress, appropriating fifty millions to be used by the
President at his discretion, we may well say as John Bull once
said, " We don't want to fight, but by jingo, if we do, we've
got the ships, we 've got the men, and we Ve got the money
too." But as I said, this is a peaceful assembly.

We come up here annually to cure our warlike spirit, to heal
our differences, to bury all the little animosities and differences
that may have germinated during the year, to cultivate fraternal
feeling, and we come here and meet in our own halls upon our

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 151

own premises not simply for our own enjoyment, but to extend
our hospitulity to others, our friends and neighbors, our friends
both at home and abroad.

We are fortunate this evening both in the number and quality
of our guests — our new Mayor, who has already earned an
enviable record, the distinguished and accomplished President
of the Massachusetts Society, superintendent and principals of
our schools, professors from Amherst and Clark and the Insti-
tute of Agriculture, Rhode Island, and presidents of many of
our local institutions, guests also from the Fruit Growers Asso-
ciation— and fellow-members in your name and behalf, I welcome
these our guests in the festivities of this evening.

Now I presume that a large proportion of this audience have
somewhat the feeling of the colored man down South, who
was in the employ of a stanch churchman, an Episcopalian. He
used to attend church with him as long as he worked for him.
He left his employment, and his employer having missed him
from church met him one day and said, " How is it that I have
not seen you at church lately?" "O yes, I go to church."
" Well, but I have not seen you at our church." <'0 no, I am
a Methodist." " How is that?" " Well, you see, Massa, the
Methodists, they get right down to business and give us a good
gospel service, while these Episcopalians take half the time to
read over the proceedings of the last meeting." Now I presume
the younger portion of this audience would be very glad to
waive these proceedings and get right down to business on the
floor below, but there is another portion who believe that a feast
is never quite complete unless flavored with a little salt.

Now we must divide the time the best we can between these
two elements, and right here I will caution the speakers to make
their addresses short. The President has suggested that they
be limited to ten minutes, but I think that would be a rather
arbitrary rule. I know last year one of our speakers, feeling
that he must come within that limit, broke off suddenly in the
midst of the most interesting speech, although there were loud
calls for him to go on. Well, that gentleman is here tonight
and we will have the remainder of that speech, but if any

152 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

speaker should be talking a long while and not really saying
anything at all, it would not surprise me if the President should
rap on the table.

It is stated that a little girl in this city, the daughter of a
prominent politician, was saying her prayers one night. She
had been taught to pray for brothers and sister, father and
mother, and she wound up by saying, "Now, God, you take
care of the city for if we lose you we should have nobody to
look after us but Mayor Dodge, and papa says he has the
bridge on his hands and he cannot do everything."

I now have the pleasure of introducing to you our Mayor,
Rufus B. Dodge, Jr.

Mayor Rufus B. Dodge, Jr. Mr. President, Ladies and
Gentlemen, and Fellow-Farmers : — I assure you that it delights
me beyond measure to meet with my fellow-agriculturists. It
is refreshing indeed to see Farmer Parker without his overalls
and jumper, and Farmer Paine, leaving his pastoral pursuits
and donning his dress-coat, a luxury which we farmers cannot
often enjoy.

I was approached a iew days ago by a musical gentleman of
the city who desired my name in connection with some musical
entertainment. I said to him while I would be very glad
to endorse it, I feared it would have but little weight if the fact
was known, because, to tell the truth, I was unable to tell the
tune of Yankee Doodle from Old Hundred, which I assure you
is a fact. And he remarked that if that were true I had cer-
tainly missed my calling, that I ought to have been a musical
critic. And taking that for a fact, I see no reason why I cannot
discuss with the farmers of the city and the growers of plants
and fruits all the great questions which make them prominent.

The example which our elders set is responsible in a measure
for the conduct of the younger people, and I must say that I deem
it my duty to solemnly call your attention to the conduct of my
venerable friend Mr. Hadwen when he told you the reason why
he did not make a speech. The real reason of it was as he told
me, and I have every reason to believe that it is true, that he had

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 153

it all typewritten and he brought here a letter which was type-
written instead of his speech. Now if my venerable friend,
with that blandness with which he usually tells the truth, can
utter such a statement it would justify me in almost anything
that I may say. I shall detain you but a few moments. I
will not even reach the limit which the toastmaster has set, be-
cause I have an appointment with my own family at a time
which is somewhat past, and if I delay very much I shall
have a worse state of aftairs on my hands than the Spaniards
have got on theirs ; and, besides, I know something of what
you have got to endure before you get through. That is
another reason why I am going to leave early. You have
Principal Lewis here, and I have heard him speak, and you
have one or two others that I will not name, because if I name
many more of them I am afraid you will all leave.

I was impressed on a visit to the Southwest and through what
is called the Badlands of Texas to see the natural resources in
reference to the production of the soil as compared with that of
old New England, represented in this State by Worcester
County, which is rugged and barren compared with the vast fer-
tile fields which roll as far as the eye can reach in that vicinity.
I suppose there lies in the northern and central parts of Texas
perhaps as fertile a plain as the United States contains. I pre-
sume that if it were cultivated to the full extent of its resources,
the State of Texas alone might produce all that this country
would consume so far as feeding its inhabitants is concerned ;
but after all as you stand there and gaze over that vast expanse
of territory, upon this fertile spot on the surface of the earth
that appears to have been made by the hand of Providence for
the production of food for man and all those things which come
from the earth, and compare its value with all its advantages of
nature to the value of the same acreage of land of Massachu-
setts or Worcester County, you realize at once that it is not the
extent of territory, it is not altogether the fertility of the soil
that makes the locality, it is not altogether what nature has
done for this particular portion of the earth's surface. And
there never was a time when all the peculiar value of the New

154 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

England fields came to my mind more forcibly than when I
visited that locality, and never was a time when I more fully
appreciated the fact that not only must you have the natural
advantage, you must have the people. Beside your farms must
lie your villages ; beside the place where you produce your crop
must live the city ; combining the two, you have what we have
in Worcester and Worcester County and in Massachusetts.
We have our people, we have our manufacturing establishments,
we have our farms, and we have enterprise in every branch and
every business that is pursued within our city. We have met
with success because we have deserved success. It has been
wrought out by the ingenuity and perseverance of our citizens ;
it has been supported and fostered by your organizations and
societies of which your own, as shown tonight, is a high type.
It is indeed gratifying when men of intelligence, learning, and
standing in the community, as shown by your members and
attendance, feel so keen an interest in this department of your
society that they give it their support and their aid. May it
continue, and may your success be commensurate with what is
deserved from the efforts of your members. May it continue
to be an ornament to this glorious old city, the Heart of the
Commonwealth ; a cit}' which shall grow and continue in pros-
perity beyond anything you perhaps recognize or realize today
by a growth and expansion, healthy in all its departments, sound
in all its undertakings, built up by its citizens with the common
purpose to make here a city indeed worthy of the old County of
Worcester.

Mr. Parker. — There has always existed between the mem-
bers of this Society and the members of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society the most kindly and cordial relations.
This evening we have the pleasure of entertaining its president,
the Hon. Francis H. Appleton.

Hon. Francis H. Appleton. Mr. President, — It gives me
great pleasure I assure you to have the opportunity of coming
up from the suburban city of Boston and greeting you ladies
and gentlemen this evening. It gives me pleasure to come up

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 155

and bring to your honored president and yourselves the hearty
greetings of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and bid
you Godspeed in all your efforts for horticultural good. I am
glad to come up here and pay my respects to so many who I
know personnlly are experts and thorough horticulturists. It
is an honor to come to this city which has such diversified
interests to my mind, and if any troubles in the business line
should come I do not see how it would be possible for them to
art'ect Worcester much. She has no one basket of efrgs like
some cities ; they are thoroughly scattered, much to her credit.
It is a pleasure for me to come here and renew old associa-
tions. One early one has been referred to this evening, and it
makes me feel that I hope they won't have a new bridge. That
may be all wrong, I don't know the local feeling at all. But I
will tell you why I say so. When I was a year or two younger
than I am now, I used to come up here and cheer the boat-
races, and it was one of the times when Harvard used to win
and we had four consecutive years of my ruining my voice and
Harvard's winning. I was told tonight that usually about
twenty-tive youths were shut up in one of your hotels, but I
never got in there myself. It must be a very inhospitable
place not to take everyone into the hotel. I have the most
delightful recollections of that bridge, which existed then and I
think it is the same one that is there today, a wooden bridge
stretching from pier to pier, if I am not wrong.

Mr. President, there is a serious side to this, and a practical
one which comes up into my mind. And it is one that I had
the pleasure of speaking on in another part of Worcester County
the other day. I am not an educator, I am not in that line, but
I have had the honor of speaking on the subject, and, gentlemen,
it has given me much pleasure to do so. It is that I wish that
we could have a little more botany, a little more entomology,
and a little more natural history in our schools. Not for those
things in themselves, but for the powers of observation that
come from studying those things, which it seems to me cannot
fail to be of great value to everyone. Look at the grand men
who came from the homes of New England where they were

156 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

brought into immediate touch with nature, where they studied
all the growths of nature, not perhaps as they would today but
they got thoroughly into it. They knew about them in a way,
they cultivated the powers of observation which are so valuable
to us all.

It is a pleasure to me to be here today in this city which is
noted among other characteristics for its exquisite parks, which
have been built up by the efforts of its citizens, helped wonder-
fully and handsomely by the gifts of individuals who have made
themselves remembered by helping the city so.

Mr. President, as I said, I bring you the best greetings of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and long may you live to
prosper in every way.

There is one more thing before 1 sit down. It is my burden
at the present time to hold the office of Commissary-General
of the State of Massachusetts. I do not speak of that egotisti-
cally at all, but perhaps you do not know that under the laws
of the State, the Governor is in charge of the army and navy
of Massachusetts, and he can also grant a passport, as I have
had them from Governor Rice when I went to Cuba at the time
of the first trouble there in 1869. Now Massachusetts may go
to war with something outside of Massachusetts, therefore, I
appeal to you to be prepared if it comes in my time to help me
out with plenty of supplies, and I know they will be good ones
if the city of Worcester helps to make them.

The Toastmaster, — I hope General Appleton will excuse
me for not giving him his proper title, but the fact is he has so
many positions of honor and trust that it would take perhaps as
long as a short speech to give them all.

The General has spoken of putting nature study in our
schools, and right here I will call upon Professor Hodge, a
member of our school-board, and professor of physiology of
Clark University, who is especially interested in introducing
nature study in our schools.

Mr. C. F. Hodge. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentle-
men:— I confess that I am rather glad to be called upon on a

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 157

.subject like this for two reasons. The first one is that not long
ago at one of the meetings of the Horticultural S(jciety it was
stated that Clark University stood for pure intellectualism.
My joy in being called up is in the thought that I can repudiate
a statement of that sort. Certainly the man who made the
statement could never have heard Professor Hall lecture upon
Education of the Heart, and Education of the Will, if he calls
Clark University an institution of pure intellectualism. The
truth of the matter is, I take it, Clark University stands for such
a subject and things as the Worcester County Horticultural Soci-
ety stands for, that is, for the kind of education which should be
from the beorinning active education. Now the old basis that
Plato and Socrates laid down is that the first step toward virtue
is to know what is best to do. We must have of course some
knowledge as a basis of action. Nothing in the world is so
terrible as active ignorance, so we must learn in order to know
what to do, but unless we do what we learn to do what availeth
our knowledge.

The other subject which has been a " Bee in my Bonnet" for
some time, is that of nature study in the public schools, and it
did my heart good to hear President Appleton bring it out as
he did. It is something that I think is not appreciated by the
more conservative portion of the Society. I believe our nature
study is a movement back toward Paradise in the horticultural
sense. If we can make it a study which shall give the young
people of the country a knowledge as to what is good to do in
horticulture, and then by some means or other induce them to
make that education active, to bring it out in their lives and in
their practice, we may have a horticultural community which
will show the country what a city can be made to look like with
a horticultural people in it. And right here I would say in
conclusion, that the Worcester County Horticultural Society
strong as it is, vigorous in all its branches, containing as it does
practical and theoretical horticulturists (I count myself in both of
these classes), can do the work for Worcester through the public
school which no other institution in the place can do, and which
it seems to me would be the legitimate work for the Horticul-
12

158 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

tural Society. To do that is to encourage the knowledge, or as
the Constitution of the Society says, "the advancement of a
knowledge of horticulture and its practice by doing something
to encourage the children to actually raise flowers and fruits."
I consider that a part of the child's education which is largely
neglected today, but which would solve the problem of juvenile
trespass in flowers and fruit and make it possible for those who
love them to raise them unmolested; that is, if the child puts
forth his energy to raise something himself he learns, in a way
that you cannot talk into him or preach into him in a lifetime,
the value of having something which he has raised. So I hope
in the future that the Horticultural Society may possibly do
something to encourage the kind of education in our child popu-
lation that it has so faithfully encouraged in its own members.

The Toastmaster. — The professor was too modest to state
that he had put his theory into practical operation in encour-
aging the growth of plant life in our schools by distributing
seeds and oflering prizes at his own expense.

Now I think we have said a great deal on this question of
education and nature study, and will follow it up by calling upon
the superintendent of schools, Mr. Clarence F. Carroll.

Mr. Clarence F. Carroll. Mr. President, Ladies and
Gentlemen: — There seems to be no common ground between
the city and the country. The moment a boy comes within the
influence and atmosphere of the city he seems to be pretty
thoroughly cut oft' from all the beautiful things that God has
made and placed in the country.

I need not emphasize the distinctive tendencies of our city
civilization, of all that is artiflcial and stimulating here, and I
am very glad for just a moment to follow in the line that has
been suggested by our distinguished friend. Dr. Hodge. I am
glad that there is a society that has set as its purpose the
restoring to some extent, to some slight extent, paradise in the
city, that it has made our parks green, and that it is planting
trees and building lakes, and giving to us some suggestions of
what as a city population we have lost. I am glad that there

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 159

is an interest among the people themselves that is very deep
and heartfelt in this direction. We see it here tonight ; we
can sense it at every assembly of this kind. When beautiful
things are brought in from the world outside, we can feel it in
the school-room, — I always like to say this whenever I have
the opportunity in Worcester. Those of you who have had
the good fortune to visit almost any of our school-buildings
will find a veritable garden cultivated upon the narrow win-
dows and in the corners of the rooms. I am glad, too, that
our friends of Clark University have taken up this work, and
that they are emphasizing it in the largest and best way.

I can just give you this one suggestion, that nature study, as
it is suggested to us at Clark University, means the relation of
things, and when we hear of the flowers, we hear of the insects
that destroy them ; and when we hear of the birds, we hear of
the insects that are related to the birds ; and when we hear of
the apple, we hear of the insects — that I believe I heard Dr.
Hodge speak of the other night — that destroy eighty per cent,
of all the apples that are blossomed and that would ripen but
for the influences that destroy them. I say this is the practical
side of nature study, and we have reason to be glad that Clark
University stands for something more than intellectualism, some-
thing that is practical. This reminds me of a little meeting that
was held the other night in the City Hall. We had a solemn
little conference, Mr. Hodge and myself, before hand. The point
was to get some apparatus for the Upsala street school and some
other material to go along with it. I told the doctor that if he
presented the case it would come out all right. He stated a few
of these little things as no one else could have done and the
committee most gracefully and vigorously voted all that he asked
for. I went out with one of them and he said: "I always
thought those university professors were cranks, but evidently
Dr. Hodge knows what he is talking about. There is something
practical about it." I say this for the doctor's encouragement,
and for this reason I am glad our friend, Mr. Appleton, has
suggested more forcibly than anyone, perhaps, here would dare
to the idea of introducing another study into the public school.

160 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

I would suggest that we introduce horticulture and agriculture
into the public school. I think my friends who criticized our
course of study will say that it is only another thing to burden
the children, to bear them down and overwork them ; but I am
glad that it comes from Boston, everything that comes from
Boston is all right, so there must be a good reason for saying
that we want a little more nature study in the public school. I
think we are safe, Mr. President, in the suggestion, and I hope
that it will be followed up. I hope that in every school^'ard in
Worcester there will l)e some green thing growing, a few tish
swimming, something to suggest to the children the life that is
so abundant and so beautiful in the boundaries of the city which
some hardly ever reach.

There are sixteen suburban schools about this city. I visited
one of them, beautiful in architecture, beautiful in situation,
beautiful in its surroundings, and one of the teachers who had
reason to know what she was talking about said that her father
had promised to put everything into their yard that she asked
him to. And she said : "We are going to have the grounds
fixed up and we want you to come down later in the season and
see them." The Bloomingdale is all trimmed up and fixed in
the latest style, on horticultural principles. This is an interest-
ing topic to me. It comes very near to me. I feel that these
children are robbed of something in not having what we sug-
gested for them. A student of one of our public institutions
said to me the other day : " We are missing it in not putting
into our country-schools something of horticulture. These
children are farmers, all of them. We have our agricultural
colleges, but they are rapidly becoming like other colleges." I
hope this is not true of Amherst nor, indeed, of any other agri-
cultural college. In a little town in New Hampshire I found
that there had been forty-eight deaths and sixteen births, and
that is about what has been going on in all the country towns.
There are very few children left now. Of over forty children
who attended school where I first taught, they are all gone but
two I Is there anything our society can do to make them con-
tented to remain in the country? Cannot we devise anything

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 161

by which they could make a good living and be contented upon
the farm? That would be somethino; for New Enfjland. A
little celery patch, rhubarb patch, onion or tlower patch is
capal)le, as 1 understand it, of enabling the industrious and
skilful man to make a good living. The Italian, the Portu-
guese, and other foreigners are skilful gardeners and able to
earn a ofood living;.

There is a great work for this Society in making it possible
over New England to restore the population, to hold its own,
and to hold an important place in the future history of this
country. I am glad that I am from New England, I am glad I
am from Worcester, and I am glad to be here tonight. I thank
you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you all for your attention, and
predict the best things for this society and this line of work
that is so strong and confident in this city.

The Toastmaster. — As a representative from the Rhode
Island Agricultural Experiment Station, Professor of Horticul-
ture, and a graduate of our agricultural college of Amherst, and
what is of still more interest, a Worcester boy and a son of one
of our most active members, it is a pleasure to me to introduce
to you Professor Kinney of Providence.

Professor L. F. Kinney. — I cannot do less than thank the
toastmaster for giving me a chance to say a word. I should
like to say just one thing about the influence which, it seems to
me, this Society and the society at Boston are exercising upon
the people of Massachusetts. I grew up in Worcester County,
and was a regular visitor and occasional exhibitor in this hall in
my younger days ; and at that time the fact that the Society was
here and in a prosperous condition made very little impression
upon me. I enjoyed coming here, and enjoyed the competing
and witnessing the exhibits of others, but since then I have
been in districts where there were no active horticultural socie-
ties, at least not as active as this, and I see what those com-
munities are missing. As I reflect upon it, it seems to me that
the men who founded this Society deserve a great deal of credit,
more credit than I imagine a great many of us are inclined to

1G2 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

recognize. The societies, both this and the one in Boston, are
influencing the children now, they are teaching the children
now horticulturally in their work in weekly exhibitions, and I
doubt if any educational institution will succeed in improving
very much upon the method that the society has adopted. I
wish myself that there could be a closer co-operation between
the horticultural societies and the public schools. I have
watched very carefully the suggestions along this line, but I
fail to see yet what seems to me a satisfactory solution of the
case. However, the societies are established, and I see no rea-
son why they should not go on generation after generation.
Their income is provided for, and all that is necessary is for a
judicious management of the funds and the weekly exhibitions
can go on. The best way in the world to encourage the chil-
dren to practice horticulture is to offer premiums, which this
Society and other societies are doing.

When I was a boy I exhibited here. I was surprised in
looking over the Transactions of the Society to see how long
ago I used to come here, and I saw accounts of premiums that
were awarded in the Transactions that left no chance for doubt
but that I received some benefit. I believe that I received the
most valuable elementary education that I have ever received,
under the auspices of this Society. Not only the exhibitors are
influenced by the exhibitions, but a class of people who care
nothing for horticulture other than the fruits and vegetables
which are grown in the country. They receive valuable lessons
at the exhibitions. This in a way prepares a market for choice
products that can be grown by members of this Society. I
thank you, Mr. President.

The Toastmaster. — The principals of the two high schools
are guests here to-night. We shall hardly be able to give them
both a chance to speak, so that we shall have to split the differ-
ence between the two. I think it would be the right thing to
give Mr. Lewis, the principal of the English High, a chance to
repudiate the aspersion that was cast upon him by the mayor.

Mr. Homer P. Lewis. — Mr. President, Ladies and Gen-
tlemen : I am afraid I shall not be able to do that. I must con-

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. Ifi3

fess to considerable uncertainty in ray mind when I attempt to
answer satisfactorily to myself why I am invited to speak at a
gathering of horticulturists, where your speakers, no doubt,
are expected to illuminate more or less some horticultural sub-
ject. I hope that your committee thought I looked like a
horticulturist, if so, I feel flattered decidedly. I am in the con-
dition of the three men in the story, which you may all have
heard, — of the Englishman and the German and the Irishman.
They met and the Englishman in his pride was telling how he
was often taken for the Prince of Wales. The German replied
that that was quite a coincidence, that he was often taken for
the Emperor William ; and Pat said, "I met a man the other
day and he cried out, ' Howly Moses ! is that you?'"

My own training and work has been altogether in other lines,
and I am rather dismally conscious that if I attempt to speak
on a subject appropriate to the evening, I shall simply make a
spectacle of myself, wading about in my own ignorance. Some
years of my youth and some in later life were spent, however,
in digging earnestly after Latin and Greek roots with more or
less success. I think I know fairly well at what season the
seeds of these varieties may best be sown, and what sort of soil
should be selected, and in what sort of soil dry-rot is encoun-
tered. I am frequently told that I have been working at the
deadest kind of dead roots and could not possibly And a sale in
any up-to-date market. Then I have some knowledge of alge-
braic roots, cube roots, and roots of all sizes and shapes ; and
so many unknown quantities enter as factors into this branch of
gardening that it should not be undertaken by anyone who
expects more than fairly certain returns, in fact, personally, I
should be inclined to place algebraic roots little higher in the
scale than that other variety, dead-beats.

I have had considerable experience in keeping hens, and it
may puzzle some of you to see the connection between hens
and horticulture ; but if you happen to be a hen fancier and your
neighbor has a fiincy for a garden you realize that you don't
need to puzzle yourself al)out the connection, the hens look
after that. I did try once, I recall, to have a garden and keep

164 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

hens at the same time. In the innocent guilelessness of my
inexperience I reasoned in this wise, that the hens, if properly
treated and well instructed, would realize that they had certain
duties to perform and they would go through the garden and
yard and destroy all the worms and insects injurious to vegeta-
tion, but I found that the gray matter does not predominate in
the brain of the hen. Those hens of mine got all mixed up as
to their duties and seemed to think that they must destroy the
vegetation lest it might be harmful to the worms and insects.
I remember that I had one that I named " Maud" because she
was continually hearing an invitation to " come into the garden."
Then for her —

" Stone walls did not a prison make,
Nor wire fences, a cage."

But she answered the invitation. It is but just to myself to
say that my experience in gardening was extremely brief.

I feel that it would be hardly proper in this presence to speak
without recounting to some extent what the world owes to the
horticulturist. On such occasions as this a society of this kind
has a right to feel a little proud and to boast of what has been
done in the past, and to hear good things said of itself. Why,
at the annual banquet of the Granite State Society we boast
without fear of contention that the garden of Eden was in New
Hampshire, and the serpent was unable to obtain the price of
admission. We then claim, and we have the authority of a
well-known horticulturist to back up the statement, that the
first land to rise above the water in the beginning of thinsfs was
the southeastern part of New Hampshire. It has been objected
by a doubting Thomas that this runs counter to Genesis when
it says that the Lord after he had created the land looked upon
it and pronounced it good, and no one could for a moment think
that that could apply to the land of southeastern New Hamp-
shire. Of course we made light of that objection.

Now to come back to my point which is the service done for
mankind by the horticulturist. Some years ago I chanced to
study somewhat carefully the condition and manner of living of

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 1()5

the English laborer and farmer. During the last live or six
centuries it was surprising to tind to what a narrow range of
vegetable food the diet of the English was confined in that
period. In the 14th century, wheat, rye, oats, and beans fur-
nished the material for the vegetable food of nearly all the
Englishmen. There were practically no garden vegetables and
few fruits. Come down to the beginning of the 18th century
and we tind no improvement in the monotony of such a diet
from one year's end to another. The English farmer of that
period was not progressive, and did not take kindly to the idea
of any new vegetables. He learned very slowly and unwillingly
from his ' more advanced Dutch neighbor. It was, I believe,
Lord Townsend, who, after his alienation from Walpole, retired
from the ministry and then set the fashion of Gentlemen farming
in England. He devoted himself to the introduction of new
vegetables, the improvement of the varieties already existing,
and to making converts to horticulture among his friends. In
a short time a great number of the English nobility and men of
wealth imitated his example and it became the rage in the latter
part of the 18th century. " It was to these men," said Rogers,
" men engaged in business and politics, who pursued agriculture
or horticulture as an avocation, that England owes at the present
time her prominence in the variety and excellency of her fruits
and vegetables. The diversity of the food of the people is a
very good indication of its civilization— some accounts say that
it was in a great measure the cause of their civilization. If this
be true, we can certainly affirm that the men who have been
moved by the spirit which animates this Society have played no
unimportant part in the progress of mankind.

The Toastmaster. — The Fruit Growers Association of Mas-
sachusetts, a society organized in our hall some two or three
years since, is holding its annual session in our hall today.
Some of the members are present and among them its president,
who is one of the oldest members of our Society. I have the
pleasure of introducing Mr. George Cruikshanks.

166 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

Mr. George Cruikshanks. — There is one thing that I will
take advantage of, and that is the opportunity to bring to the
Worcester County Horticultural Society the greetings of the
Massachusetts Association and will express the hope that the
seeds of horticulture that were sown by the founders of the
Worcester Society may continue to grow and prosper more
luxuriantly in the future than they have in the past.

The Toastmaster. — The President reminds me that the limit
to the exercises of a literary character is now approaching, and
there is time for only one more to speak. As usual I have
reserved the best wine till the last. You may remember of my
alluding to a guest last year who left his speech unfinished.
He is a member of the Massachusetts Society and has a military
title. We are honored in having two generals here this evening,
General Appleton and General Wilson. I have the honor of
introducing General Henry W. Wilson.

General Henry W. Wilson. — I had hoped you would
draw the line at the General, I do not claim it, I am not enti-
tled to it. I hardly know what to say in this presence. The
hour is getting late and my ideas are slightly mixed. You are
impatient to go, and I feel that what I might say would not
interest you. I would like to finish my speech, but really I
have forgotten what it was, and consequently it might not be
of any advantage to you. I have been thinking what a pleasure
it would be for us in Boston if we could enjoy such an occasion
as this. We have all the evidences of material prosperity, and
we have a hall that is valued at $700,000, and it is all paid for.
We have a librar}'^ of untold value. We have investments of
funds which will make us wealthy beyond the dreams of ava-
rice ; then we have a membership of one thousand, and I have
never witnessed there such an occasion as this. We run the
whole ffamut of social life from the millionaire who counts his
millions down to the man who delves and toils in the soil for
for his daily sustenance, and to get them together on a social
plane is a physical improbability, still they get along harmoni-
ously and do their business properly. The social element we

1898. J ANNUAL REUNION. 107

have not at all, and it is hardly thought to lie possible; that is
one thing that we have missed, one thins; that is delightful.
That is one reason why I am pleased to be here to talk with
you. I came last year with something on my mind, what it
was now I cannot think — it is no matter. I bad sat and lis-
tened to the remarks about the school, the introduction of
botany and gardening. Well, that is a nice thing to do provided
you do not introduce another text-book and put another burden
on the teacher. The great trouble with our whole system, that
was inaugurated as I left the school just fifty years ago, is, we
make slaves of our teachers and ignoramuses of our children.
All the time that I had children in the Graham school near my
house, I was trying to impress upon the principal of that school
the fact, that I had discovered from examining the boys' lesson
papers, that he was simply teaching the children what I taught
my children at home. They taught them nothing in the
schools, and I think if I had grown up under the system which
now prevails in the schools of Boston, that I should have been
an ignoramus myself, which I am not.

We have one school in Boston that is a sample for the schools
of the Commonwealth, and the same system that has been
adopted there can be adopted everywhere with success provided
the teacher is an enthusiast in the study of botany and horticul-
ture. Water will not rise higher than its source. Th'e J. A.
Andrews school in West Roxbury (Mr. Piatt is the master) is
the one I refer to. Mr. Piatt has dug up and prepared a part
of his yard, and encourages the children to scatter through the
woods and fields and bring in some of the native plants. He
discusses it and gives it a name, and they put it in, cultivate it,
and watch it blossom and see if it thrives. This sort of instruc-
tion is useful. There is a good deal lacking in the matter of
music in our public schools. There are many who cannot tell
Yankee Doodle from Old Hundred, and there are many who
cannot tell an orchid from an oak. It is idle to teach one music
and teach one horticulture when he has no taste for it.

I want to say something to you practical about horticulture.
We have in Massachusetts the men who best understand horti-

168 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

culture that live on this planet ; we have the best farmers ; we
raise the best pinks and roses, everything from an orchid to a
cucumber in perfection. We have the best market for the man
who lives on what he raises on his acres. We have within fifty
miles of Boston the most generous living people on the face of
the earth, a population that will live generously and who know
how to live. There is no gainsaying the fact. What you want
to do is to meet the demand which they make to the highest
degree.

From the earliest records which we have in this country, we
have a continual repetition of the drought, drought, drought.
The very best and most fruitful lands, under proper con-
ditions, are oftentimes barren because of the drought. The
annual precipitation of moisture that is necessary for the
perfect growth of vegetation is from three to four inches per
month. If there should be in a month not more than one inch
it makes it impossible to obtain the best growth, and if there is
no water at all there is commonly a prostration of the crops.
An old farmer told me, a man seventy-three years of age who
cultivates the farm on which he was born, " Mr. Wilson, I have
in a long life been cultivating the soil exclusively for my sup-
port. There has not been a year that I can remember when,
during some month in that year, I have not been anxious about
my crops from the effects of the drought. I never knew what
it was to have perfect satisfaction in the cultivation of my fields
until 1 got water, a water trough with which I could supply the
deficiency of nature. I happened to be in a town where water
was introduced as a system for supply. The farmers soon got on
to the fact that irrigation was profitable in Massachusetts. One
used it, another used it, and in a very few years they exhausted
the supply. There was not enough for so many. Then they
were all cut off, but they had found that it was useful to have a
supply with which they could make up for the deficiency of
nature. They found by meter that they used two million gal-
lons in one year, for which they paid six hundred dollars, twenty
cents per thousand gallons." One who was educated up to the
point that water was useful and profitable and that he could

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 1 (;9

adbrd to pay twenty cents per thousand gallons. He found
that by an expenditure of about three thousand dollars he could
get a sup})ly of eight million gallons. The first year he had five
acres of strawberries, and the drought in the month of May cut
off' the strawberry crop, and on that five acres of strawberries
he cleared three thousand dollars more than his neijjhbors on
the same ground. The next year was a repetition of the same
experience. Thus you see the importance of using water,
having it to control through various agencies in order to make
good the deficiency of nature. Now the farmers and gardeners
of New England are not aware of the means which they have
at their command. They do not fully realize how easy it is for
them from a neighboring brook or pond or by making artificial
reservoirs and using the natural supply of water to obtain the
necessary amount for the successful raising of crops. I find
men raising a crop for ten dollars when they might raise one
for one hundred dollars.

Some years ago, perhaps ten, I boarded during one summer
with a farmer in the southeastern part of New Hampshire.
The land sloped to the south. It was a light, warm, sandy,
loamy soil, and that man was raising milk on his farm. He
was keeping seven or eight cows, raising potatoes and corn,
and that was farming ! I observed his operations and took
notes of what his business might be. One evening we had a
colloquy. "My friend," said I, "as near as I can make out all
you get for labor is a pile of compost in your barn-yard. What
you get for your milk at the station is just equivalent to the
value of } our hay on the cart when you put it into the barn.
And so all of your trouble in piling that hay into the barn,
cleaning the stock and milking them, and the whole work and
burden of your life, is thrown away, and all you have to show
for it is a pile of compost in the corner of your barn-yard. Is
that a practical way to look at it? Is that a valuable equiva-
lent to your life's labor?" He did not know. He knew no
better life, for he had been brought up in the old school.

A quarter of a njile away was a pasture. A little brook
came down through it. It started on a side-hill and I had been

170 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

there fishing and had discovered that it would be an easy matter
and but little expense for the water to be brought down and
spread over the land. The total cost would not be over two
hundred and fifty dollars. I opened the subject to him and took
him up and showed him how easily it could be done and figured
up the expense. And you never saw such a bewildered look
as that man put on as he contemplated the scheme. He still
keeps his cattle and is still raising milk on that farm. That is
a type of many men.

The horticulturists of this State should awaken to the fact
that they have all about them the facilities, the means, and the
supplies of water to combine together and divide up among
them.

I knew of a farmer who thought he would like to sell some
to his neighbors to help pay the expenses, but when he got the
water he had three times as much as he had ever used before
and he wanted to use it all himself. And the result is that
today there is scarcely a celery plant that is raised as it was
twenty years ago about Boston. And I think that there are
millions of celery plants growing up by irrigation where twenty
years ago not one celery plant could be raised without irrigation.
It seems to me that they have the cheapest supply that you can
find anywhere. For seventy-five dollars you can get a little
machine that will carry the water to any point.

There is one thing that we want to observe. Some men
think they must have a little pipe with an attachment for sprink-
ling the water on the soil. But that is a great mistake. The
application of water to the soil must come without cooling
the atmosphere. We want the hottest sun and the brightest
skies and there is no one thing that grows that is benefited by
the sprinkling of water. Some say it is like the natural fall of
water by rain. That may be all very true, but if you had all
rainy days in the year you would have very few crops but grass,
and that would mildew. What we want is a large volume of
water at our command, one hundred or one hundred and fifty
thousand gallons, a quantity which will enable men to drench
the land and make good the deficiency of nature. I have, Mr.

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 171

President, been trying for the last twenty years to inculcate on
the fanners and horticulturists the fact that they can, if they
will, have the resources which nature has placed at their dispo-
sal for the cultivation of the soil.

The Toastmaster. — I have a letter from the oldest member of
the society, one of the original charter members, Mr. Hathaway,
who is unable to be present on account of ill-health. I am
sorry that I have not time to read it but I will give it to the
secretary for publication.

Enfield, Conn., March 1st, 1898.
Obadiah B. Hadwen, Esq.,

President Worcester County Horticultural Society :
My Dear Sir: — It is with exceeding great regret that I find
myself compelled by reason of lumbago (not plumbago) in the
back (that prevents me from walking upright righteously), to
decline your kind invitation to attend the annual banquet of your
Society, and to answer to a promised call of your venerable toast-
master, who shows no visible signs of any cruelty of the heart,
though he makes hearts to tremble if he " doth but carelessly
nod at them," but I tender you a few suggestions, which if you
think worthy and time will permit you can have offered there as
from an antideluvian of a former age, one of the {qw, I believe
but two, of the charter members, the one-dollar disciples of this
association, who were in at its birth, H. H. Chamberlin being the
other. Again you gather within the hallowed shrine of memories
sweet of bygone time. From the walls they look down upon you
with benignant smiles of welcome. The leaders and the beloved
comrades of the foregone. The "living present" is wreathed
with garlands beautiful culled from the gardens of the past,
sweet scented with memory's enduring fragrance — of fathers and
mothers, sisters and brothers, who now cultivate the immortels,
where flowers fade not, in the garden of the Lord. Mingling
here with the white chrysanthemums of the silver tops are the
full blown roses of womanhood, the blushing buds of girlhood
and of young manhood, wearing the dudish boutonniere of pride
stuck in their buttonholes !

Perchance our venerable, long-loved President speaks his
words of welcome to thee and thou, but alas ! not to me. Wis-
dom, wit and eloquence flash their thoughts from lips of
eloquence touched with the fire of the gods. On a subject of
deep interest a few thoughts may not be inappropriate.

172 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

Elm Park — should it not be Lincoln Park? — where our
beloved assistant gardener of the Lord helped Nature to carry
out her designs of beauty, and not to thwart them with the arro-
gance of man trying to improve on God's plan.

He wrote his name on the meadows green of his childhood's
home, to keep it as fresh and green as the arbutus, the hemlocks,
the spruce and the pines, living characters, with which he wrote
love-letters to the gods of the beautiful to consummate his
designs. Loving hearts there are who feel that his work shoukl
ever remain as he left it, forgetting that " change and decay is
the law of Nature," and to develop its beauties and make them
steadfast the prudential hand must clear away Nature's decay,
and give her full sway to carry out his design of the beautiful.

Old Newton Hill, a grand monument of his love. And
from its summit high, Faith with prophetic eye discerns afar its
wrought out beauty his genius has planned.

Hauwen Park ! The Quaker home of our President, with its
broad avenues lined on either side with the shivering maples,
the lofty elms, and the dark cool evergreens his hand has
planted there. But above the trees and the shrubs is the quiet
Quaker love that has made his garden beautiful, an unabridged
dictionary of Nature that spells out the mysteries of every clime
with its trees and shrubs and vines, transplanted from their
native soil and nurtured by his loving care. He knows them
all, and calls them by their names —

And they lift their golden petals up,
"Wave their leaves of silver sheen,
Of blue and red and green,
As he walks their ranks between.
King of the garden beautiful.

The rarest horticultural exhibition of all New England.

Institute Park. — Another misnomer, for it should be Salis-
bury Park, for no other name "doth become the mouth as well."
No other name will tell of the three Stephens, who have made so
large a part of the history of the village, the town, and the city
of Worcester : a park of beauty, yet characteristic in that only
one column stands alone and lonely, with no mated goddess of
beauty standing by its side to help uphold its crown of loveli-
ness. Yet, while there is life, there is hope, and, young ladies,
a great responsibility devolves on you to see to it that this
living column be suitably mated !

Davis Park. — Another monument of another heart's true
lover.

1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 173

BiGELOw's Park, and Historical Society Park. —

All on the banks of Old Lonj? Pond,
Now modernized to Lake Quinsifj;aniond.

The Old Heart's inland sea of pleasure and beauty, a breath-
ing spot of the rare air of vitality, a free bath where dirty
humanity can cleanse its outward form, and as "Cleanliness is
next to Godliness," help to purify the soul within. God, when
He made it by pouring the waters from the hollow of his hand
to cover the land, gave it in fee simple to all his children for all
time, share and share alike ; and later Gershom Rice when he
built his log hut in the little hamlet in the wilderness, caught
fish there and obtained a preemption title which has come down
to his descendants following, and it is today as free as the air
above it — free to all hearts that love it.

University Park. — Where Dr. Hall teaches the science of
beauty from the open book of Nature, and where Dr. Hodge
cultivates the toads. He has published a full history of the
toad in a one-fourth ounce vial edition, of which he kindly gave
a volume to teach me and other numskulls that the toad is the
progenitor of the tadpole, the pollywog, the bullfrog, and I don't
know but of the sea-serpent, the hippopotamus, the crocodile,
and all the amphibious tribe. Well, science is mighty and we
can swallow much at its dictation, like as the toad swallows the
worms and the grubs, working benefactors of horticulture and
agriculture. Long may he live to preach and to practice, until
mounted on the hobby-horse of science he shall ride into the
kingdom, where the toads come not, nor the naughty boys save
through regeneration.

This Society is no more a mere garden for the cultivation of
fruits, flowers and grain for ornamental prize shows, but it is a
power in the land — the school of science to study out the won-
der-working of the power divine and teach them to all mankind.
It has been a great factor in cultivating the taste of the beautiful
to adorn the homes that makes this Old Heart of our hearts so
very beautiful. The fruits, flowers and the golden grain are
the Christmas gifts the Santa Claus of God's love brings to all
his children. Here and there and everywhere are those with
stockings crowded full, and here and there are those whose
stockings have holes in their toes and cannot hold their share of
its blessings. But all over the world generous Mrs. Taylor's
cry, "Divide! Divide!" and all are warmed and clothed and
fed and housed, even to the quaint, sharp newsboy tribe. The
cry, " Oh, my, didn't I get two plates of turkey and two pieces
of mince pie ! Whoop 'er up for Mrs. Taylor. She's no snip
13

174 AVORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898.

on the shares, — but she's got lots of Cabbage!" And we can
pardon his enthusiasm for we have learned she has more, and
better, a heart of sympathy and a hand of liberality.

As the centuries move on with the heavy tread of the Callenic
step of years may this Society be found in the fore ranks of
industry, — plowing, sowing, hoeing, growing ; and may the
crops it cultivates ever be the ultimatum of good, noble man-
hood, and loving womanhood, — and my closing toast shall be : —

FLOWERS.

Trembling pilgrims of springtime hours,

That spring up from Earth's silent bowers,

In buttercups, daisies, and the yellow dandelion

Each in the image of its scion ;

Through the evolution of the ages

The Monkey has become the Man —

And the toad progenitor of all the amphibious clan.

Ere the earth was made, Mayflowers

Floated on Chaos' unknown sea.

Guided by the light and the song of the stars —

Born of germ seed dropped from the Red Planet Mars.

The yellow primrose is to some

Only a yellow primrose still,

While to the cultivated taste it hath become —

In this progressive age — golden drops

Of God's mint of coinage.

The brightest gem of Earth's coronet

Is not the rose, the pink or the violet.

But throughout the kingdoms human

It is God's last, best gift —

The Queen flower — Woman ! H.

The Toastmaster. — We are sorry that we are unable to
call upon our other guests, but time forbids, and by order of
the president, this meeting is adjourned to the floor below.