A Blessing for Children

[Richard Myers]

"Every family should have a plat of ground for cultivation and for beauty. Parents, a flower garden will be a blessing to your children. Your daughters would have better health in working a portion of each day upon the shrubs and flowers, than the delicate employment of embroidery and crochet, which confines them in doors. Your children need active exercise in order to be healthful and happy.  

Parents, it will pay to expend a small sum yearly in purchasing flower seeds and shrubs. We have purchased these of James Vick, Rochester, N. Y., and have ever felt more than satisfied with the means we thus invested. You should help your children to arrange their gardens tastefully, and then assist them in planting their seeds and shrubs. Fathers should take an interest in these things for the benefit of their children, if they themselves have not a natural love for them.  

My husband takes as great a pleasure in my flower garden as myself and my children do. Frequently, when he has had hired help, has he left his labor, and set all hands to work in preparing my plat of ground in order for my plants and seeds. This manifest kindness and interest have encouraged a love for flowers and plants in the minds of our children, and many hours have they devoted to the pleasurable exercise of the cultivation of these flowers, which they might have spent in exciting amusements and in questionable society.  

We can all take pleasure in beholding the many beautiful varieties of opening buds, and blossoming flowers, of every description and hue, which our Heavenly Father has created for the happiness and benefit of his children." From the Health Reformer