The Iola register., 1891-05-15
Fruits and Flowers

/. In attempting to write anything on
the subjects pertaining to the aims
and objects of this Society, anyone
J can fully understand the difficulty Of
presenting the subjects in any new
light or suggesting any superior ol
improved methods for the propagation
and cultivation of fruits and flowers
as there is apparently nothing left for
anyone TO say, especially one whose
experience has been so limited as
mine. Every season the country /;
flooded with the different floral guides
catalogues of seeds, to which every
one has access. But no one will fol
an instant suppose that the lack Of
knowlege to grow them is the cause NJ
the dearth of fruit and flowers in 80
many homes, especially among the
|. farming community. In many in.
stances perhaps an interest awakened
is all that would probably be necess-
ary, though lack of time Is often
pleaded by the farmer as the reason
that his table is not supplied with
plenty of small fruits, and if he has
never known a better way, he GER
tainly fails to see that less pork and
more fruit would be conductive to
health, happiness and morals. Ma
ture hangs truths and suggestions on
every swaying fruit-laden., branch,
which can only be perfectly interpret
ed by those living hear to Natures
heart. Horticulture has been called
the "poetry of Agriculture. We
might call it the strawberries and
cream, or the lilies or roses, or any
other beautiful name if thereby our
interest could be created and sustain
ed. The warm mellow earth holds
beautiful possibilities of flower and
fruit, and he who takes no heed of
such, loses one of the purest pleas
ures of life, for though we cannot even
comprehend the miracle of plant
growth, it is no less wondrous and
beautiful. And the benefit of the
outdoor life necessary to such pursuits
cannot be estimated. How like a
near and dear friend nature becomes!
When we are depressed; when duties
have become drag In their mopotony,
what relaxation to retreat even for
short time to that outdoor study, and
take from the upper shelves of that
gorgeous library that is never closed,
the bright books bound in "blue and
gold" whose sweetest stories and per-
feet pictures are our own for the ap-
propriating, new with every sunrise
and sunset. And how sure we feel
the unbounded resources of nature:
who talks of skepticism and unbelief,
there is no such thing. He who
plants seed In the warm and mellow
earth, or looks for each returning all
nual miracle of the spring, has un-
bounded faith in a Power higher than
himself. Those who look at Nature
thus, with the higher faculties, call
not fail to see a resemblance to the
regular evolution of our own lives.
First the bud, then the bloom, the
ripened fruit, then the garnered har-
vest. After the first frost of autumn
as we see the leaves which were the
hope of spring and the fruition of
summer, falling sere and withereu we
know that they are but returning to
earth to nourish new forms of life and
beauty. Surely it should be our aim
to develop ourselves for higher
sphere of Immortality, while we cul-
tivate up to a higher plane, the fruits
and flowers of earth-life.
Much has been said of him who
makes two blades of grass grow where
only one before has grown. How
much more then is due him who de-
votes his time to the propagation and
improvement of beautiful flowers,
which tend SO much to brighten so
many lives which would otherwise be
desolate. What beautiful thought
was that of establishing flower mis-
sions i'm the large cities where by the
well arranged system flowers are car
ried to the dark abodes of disease,
poverty and crime. And it has been
said that their influenre has been
known to produce the most satisfac-
tory results in prisons where discipline
has failed, and in hospitals where
medicine has proven useless.
There is pretty little story of the
mission performed Gy single cluster
of apple blossoms: A lady in one of
our large cities OH visit to the coun-
try in the spring, brought to her city
home wealth OF orchard blossoms.
She sent bunch of them to the office
of friend-a hard, grasping man of
the world-the handspring of whose
life was greed and gain, and even then
was i'm strife with his only brother
over the settlement of his fathers es-
tate. AS he inhaled the fragrance of
the lovely blossoms his heart softened |
by the memory of those vanished days |
of boyhood when he played with his |
brother i'm the orchard at the old |
home, while the dropping branches |
above them were heavy with sweet |
ness. How strangely he thought the |
memories of the past seemed to return |
with the perfume of those flowers!
'And old time friends, and twilight plays |
Aud starry nights and sun my days
Came trooping up the misty ways
OF Memory's deep rayine.''
How plainly in memory he could |
see his mother out by the garden gate;
and he was startled for he imagined he |
could still hear her calling him through |
the soft, spring air. And he thought |
of his brother John, the tenant now of
the old homestead, and resolved to go
at once and be reconciled. Before the
sun had set he had clasped hands
with John under the old apple trees
their father had planted-all heart
bitterness turned to sweetness, while
on their bowed heads the snowy bios
SONS drifted softly and gently like a
benediction. Y
Flowers by their freshness, beauty
and fragrance seem to be the only re-
link between that mythical
paradise of long ago, and this striving,
pushing, work-a-day world,
associated as they ever are with all
that is good, the true and the beauti-
full.
The popular poet though so often
quoted in connection with this subject
is none the less appropriate and ex-
pressive.
''Give fools their gold
And knaves their power.