124 Americdu Horflciillnral Socicfi/. 



place in which to store and pack the crop as gathered, and so on ; and nuich 

 worry, many extra steps, and great loss of time by having things out of place, 

 soon teach the careless this important lesson. The horticulturist is an in- 

 dustrious niiin. The very fact that his crojjs are perishable, must be grown 

 quickly, and (juickly disposed of to be profitable, is a great stiinulus to ac- 

 tivity in their culture and management Hence, the horticulturist is in- 

 tensely engaged in looking after his own business, and has no leisure to med- 

 dle in the adairs of others. His is a peaceable jiursuit. Communing with 

 nature through her plants and trees, her fruits and flowers, which never cross 

 nor fret him, and not so often as in many other pursuits brought into contact 

 with the rough angles of human life, he is not so liable to lose his temper, has less 

 occasion for anger and strife, and thus avoiding their unpleasant conse- 

 quences, he surely, but unconsciously it may be, develops the better instincts? 

 the nobler impulses of his being, un^il these often culminate in gratitude 

 and reverence to Him who is the Author of nature and the Giver of all 

 good. I doubt very much if in any other class the records of our courts 

 will show so few violators of their country's laws. 



Another feature : Horticulture improves the land, and this increases its 

 capacity to support a large population. One of the first things a horticul- 

 turist thinks of in attempting to grow his crop? is the question of fertilizers ; 

 for little if any soil is ever found of sufficient richness to produce croj^s of 

 the superior excellence he wishes to grow. Therefore, it builds up the coun- 

 try by increasing its fertility. It is agriculture intensified. Growing out of 

 this improved condition of soil is still another fact. When a man fertilizes 

 a piece of land he finds that although he has profited by it, he has not wholly 

 exhausted his fertilizer, and he wishes naturally to have the benefit of this 

 balance to use the following season, as so much incidental profit of the pre- 

 vious year ; so that if he rented the land the first year he will lease it now for 

 several years, this lease to be terminated in many cases by the purchase of 

 the land, and the man becomes a fixture ; in the broadest sense, a citizen. 



HORTICULTURE IS PROGRESSIVE. 



As in the mechanical department new machinery is constantly being in- 

 vented, displacing the old by its greater perfection; as new laws are con- 

 stantly being framed to improve our social condition; as new inventions and 

 discoveries in art and science often astound us by their rapid strides in the 

 march of improvement ; as the agriculturist is constantly introducing new 

 varieties of the cereals, new and improved breeds of stock, and so on, shall 

 horticulture, Rip Van Winkle-like, slumber on amid this universal progress, 

 and awake to find itself a decade or century behind the times? The intel- 

 ligence of this Society supplies the ready answer. Then the horticulturist 

 must become, to a certain extent, an experimenter ; I might almost say he 

 is one by necessity. I'll venture there is not a cultivator present, however 

 much caution he may enjoin upon others, but finds himself occasionally 



