simple display of skill and taste, without even the expenditure of money that may most attract. A short time since, while in a large western city, I walked out to see the grounds around a residence of which I had often heard. I found them all that had been represented. Everything was in the most perfect order-the fountains playing; the statues standing cold and grand; the hedges and evergreens trimmed to an exact pattern; the grass that had grown half an inch since it was last cut, and each spear of which seemed combed to grow erect, was being fretted with numerous lawn-mowers; the walks and drives so painfully clean that a fly would hardly dare to rest there; and with the exception of a few grand old trees, there was little of nature's work to be seen-she was pushed aside and allowed no chance for any display, except to make the annual growth. All else was artificial, grand, stiff, and stately. One year ago, in returning to a smaller city in this State from a long and hot day's drive, my companion called my attention to a little cottage we were about to pass, requesting me to drive slowly and examine it, also remarking that this was a favorite drive out of the city, the chief attraction being the cottage. At first sight I felt a sensation of pleasure and rest. There was a quiet, peaceful beauty all around. Nature was not crowded out here, but the assisting hand of refinement and true taste had helped to make her more beautiful. The cottage was small, built of hewn logs with frame piazza. All was painted or whitened to the whiteness of snow. On the piazza were set around, plants in bloom, delicate vines climbed around the pillars, (if they could be called by so stately a name,) and near by the roses bloomed. In front, the grounds gently rising towards the house were ample, well filled, not crowded, with shrubs and trees, the grass was neatly mown, the gravel-walk tidily kept. Through the open doors were seen the year's stock of wood neatly piled, the little barn and sheds having the same neat appearance. The garden near at hand, and at a little distance the thrifty orchard, while still beyond and around lay the twenty acres which made up the farm, the boundaries of which could be easily described without the making of a fence. Such is the home of the man who would be called poor by the great world, and yet he is rich, with but little money, living far higher than a prince in this, his perfect, rural home. The little cottage is a standing encourage ment to all, however poor, to beauty their homes, and I ask my friend who has not time or means to beautify his home, which of the two just described he would choose for the home of his children. Yet the rich build and enjoy their stately homes and magnificent grounds, and decorate them with the highest art. I am glad they build them; it gives work to otherwise idle hands, and adds largely to the enjoyment of others. But neither you or I need them, and should not covet them; neither should we covet the little cottage. But we might confess to a very strong desire to have one just like it. The restlessness of youth among the rural population, and the constant desire to throng to the great cities, (already overcrowded,) where, during leisure, they may find pleasure and excitement in the bustle and whirl of the great, busy world, evidences something radically wrong. They will not appreciate that another extreme of society exists there, sinking to a greater depth than they ever dreamed of in their country homes, to the influence of which they may become exposed, and into whose depths they, too, may sink. We are proverbially a restless people, demanding change of excitement. We are also a hard working people, requiring recreation and amusement; and while I believe we are entitled to all the enjoyment that we can extract from life, yet that enjoyment should be not only pleasurable, but useful, and in that home and social life we can best find what we most crave. Would you save the children to your home? Then make it happy and beautiful; an attraction from which nothing can draw them. Teach them to love, study and improve nature. Give them books, interesting and useful, which will add pleasure to instruction,something which they can use in life's experiences for their own and others' benefit. The study of nature in all its forms is refining and elevating, and gives charms to the education of the child. I know a boy, who, with only a few lessons and the encouragement of father and mother, has become as enamored of the study of birds, fishes, and insects as any child could be by fairy tales. It is the duty of parents to make home so bright and happy, that if the children shall wander from it into the world they will look back to it and say with Byron: "Ah! happy years! once more, who would not be a boy." The rural cottages of the British Isles have a world-wide fame as “par excellence," the houses of the earth, and their delights are published in poetry and song. Hidden away among trees and vines and flowers the simple structure becomes a resting place for age, and paradise to the child, and "'Tis Jamie's home and mine," is heard wherever the children wander over the world. Horticulture has been termed "the Fine Art of Agriculture." In expression of form, color, or showy magnificence this is true, but it is more than this, and includes the "useful" as well as the "polite arts." Thus the garden of herbs and vegetables, while giving no expression of the beautiful, represents the useful, in horticulture. The first bearing shrub, or tree, or vine represents the "useful and polite arts" combined, while the flowering shrub, the lawn and flower-border represents "decorative or polite art.” Poetry is not all written in verse, but much of it in prose, and a vast deal is never written or spoken but only felt and lived, and there are thousands of nature's poets who never wrote a stanza. All pictures are not from the painter's brush, but she who selects, combines, and harmonizes in garden border or bouquet the varied shades and colors of natural flowers, may be as truly an artist, and the colors with which she paints as truly nature's as he who mingles the pigments with oil on his pallet, and spreads it on the canvas. “The line of beauty" is not confined to sculpture. True art may be shown in the winding path of garden or lawn; in the grouping and pruning of trees; in training the shrub or the curving of the vine. Thus we may claim in the broadest sense that horticulture is "art in nature," and its office is to surround home with the useful and beautiful. A late English traveler writes admiringly of an American home which he found in his journeyings among us: Hepworth Dixon, in his "New America" sketches a most charming pair of young Americans whom he had met conquering a home from very scanty materials, and amidst the most discouraging difficulties. The man is a squatter on a patch of forest land, which he has redeemed from loneliness. Yet all is comfort without a sign of poverty. He says: "Walk up this garden-way, through these neat little beds of fruittrees, herbs, and flowers. This path might lead to a gentleman's villa, for the road is wide and swept, and neither sink nor cess-pool, as in Europe, offends the eye. Things appear to have fallen in their proper places. The shed is rough, strong and snug-a rose, a japonica and a Virginia creeper climbing around the door. Inside, the house is so scrupulously clean that you might eat your lunch as comfortably off its bare planks as you could from the shining tiles of a Dutch floor. Something like an air of gentle life is about you; in the little parlor there are a vase of flowers, a print and a bust of Washington. "You see at one glance that there is a bright and wholesome woman in the house. Annie Smith is the type of a class of women found in America, and in some parts of England, but nowhere else. In station she is little above a peasant; in feeling she is little below a lady. She has a thousand tasks to perform; to light her fires; to wash and dress her children; to scrub her floor; to feed her pigs and cows; to fetch in herbs and fruits; to dress and cook the dinners; to scour and polish her pails and pans; to churn her butter, and press her cheese, and make and mend the clothes. But she laughs and sings through these daily toils with such an easy compliance, that her work seems like pleasure, and her care like pastime. She is neatly dressed, beyond, as an Englishman might think, her station in life, were it not that she wears her clothes with a perfect grace." Our author very naturally retains his English ideas in giving the station in life of Annie Smith. But we call her more than "peasant," and more than "lady"--a true American woman; a mother whose children will be a blessing to her, and will even bless her, and whose memories, when they have left their home, will often lead them up that garden-way, past the rose, the japonica, and the Virginia creeper climbing around the door, into the parlor, with its vase of flowers, its print, and bust of Washington. Such mothers are the "angels of the covenant" that our American homes shall be kept pure and beautiful. APPENDIX. REPORTS OF LOCAL SOCIETIES.* FREEDOM HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. The Freedom Horticultural Society was organized February 6, 1875. Not much previous notice was given, and the evening was intensely cold. We have fourteen members. Owing to the want of time, no discussion was had at the first meeting, but we propose to have such. The officers for the present year are: President-C. Hirschinger, P. O., Baraboo. Vice-President-L. T. Albee, Baraboo. Secretary-W. C. T. Newell, North Freedom. JANESVILLE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. I have the pleasure to report the following persons as officers of the Janesville Horticultural Society for the year 1874-5. President.-Alexander Graham, Vice President.-Geo. J. Kellogg. Treasurer.-D. E. Fifield. We have held occasional meetings during the season for discussions. Our annual fair was held in conjunction with that of the Southern Wisconsin, in September, 1874. The exhibition of Fruit |