The seed the gardener holds in his hand is a mystery.  He knows what it will produce, but why one phlox seed will produce a red blossom and another a white is to him a miracle.  He wonders at the prodigality of nature.  In her economy, what is one or ten thousand seeds!  She scatters them with lavish hand from ragweed, thistle or oak.  If man could make but the single seed of the ragweed, he could make a world.  The distance between a pansy and a planet is no greater than between man and a pansy.  The gardener sees the same infinite care bestowed upon the lowest as upon the highest form of life, and he wonders at it.  He looks into the face of a flower, scans the butterfly and notes the toadstool and sees that each is wonderful.

From the time he enters his garden in the springtime until he leaves it in the autumn, he will find a place and a time to worship in his cathedral.  He enters it with the seed in his hand in the spring, and as he rakes away the ripened plants in the autumn he finds something still of the mystery of life.  A puff-ball is before him, and he muses on its forming.  The little puff-ball stands at one end of the scale of life and he, man, at the other, “close to the realm where angels have their birth, just on the boundary of the spirit land.”  From the things visible in our garden we learn of the things invisible, and strong the faith of him who kneeling in adoration of the growing plant looks from nature to nature’s God and finds the peace which passeth understanding.

Bringing the Producer and Consumer Together.

R. S. MACKINTOSH, HORTICULTURAL SPECIALIST, AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
DIVISION, UNIVERSITY FARM, ST. PAUL.

The introduction of Mr. Producer to Mr. Consumer directly, and not by proxy, is the chief desire of the present time.  The fact remains, however, that in the vast majority of cases Messrs. Proxy & Co. is brought in and breaks up the direct personal contact.  The development of complex marketing means specialization and in a large degree sets it apart from production.  When specialization becomes dominant, then standardization becomes necessary.  Each producer is unable to keep in touch with all such movements and consequently finds it hard to keep abreast of the times.  In this age of rapid transit, specialization, scientific discoveries, and the improvements resulting therefrom, seem somewhat out of place when compared with our present marketing systems.  This does not mean that our marketing is entirely out of joint, but it does mean that there is something the matter or so many would not be discussing it.  The consumer hears what the producer received, the producer hears what the consumer paid, and then somebody gets to thinking and talking.  Discussions lead to investigations, and investigations lead to conferences.  Just lately a large conference was held in Chicago, and certain plans were formulated to attempt to unravel some of the evils that exist in marketing.  So much has been said that the U.S.  Department of Agriculture has begun certain investigations, and we hope that the workers will find ways to solve some of the troubles in a logical and, we hope, sane way.