Educational Influence of Horticulture. 129 



Had Columbus landed on the rugged and forbidding coast of Labrador, 

 where all is bleak and sterile, and where the few stunted spruce, birches and 

 aspens struggle for life amid the thickly strewn bowlders, his enterprise and 

 discovery might have shared the fate of other navigators. But instead, he 

 landed on a fertile island, brilliant with foliage and flowers, sparkling with 

 springs and streams, abounding in fruits and valuable woods. The heart of 

 Columbus and his mutinous crew were at once cheered, softened, expanded, 

 inspired; their trials and hardships were forgotten, and with courageous hope 

 they builded better than they knew. 



The horticulturist, to be successful, must study and imitate nature. A 

 farmer, whether north or south, who devotes his time and labor to the rais- 

 ing of some one thing, as corn or wheat, cotton or tobacco, as a rule, is not 

 as intelligent, public-spirited, refined, or social as the small farmer who com- 

 bines horticulture with agriculture. 



The large farming, which is obtaining in the Western States, is not calcu- 

 lated to educate the people up to a high standard of civilization. These vast 

 factories of nature's products contain no element of the real home. The only 

 cementing element is money, and when that is attained disintegration is sure 

 to follow. " Every one for self " is the universal motto. The most money 

 for the least labor on the one side, and the most labor for the least money on 

 the other. The affections are not softened, but the reverse. Intellectual su- 

 periority consists in being sharp in a bargain. Public improvement for the 

 general good is not thought of; morals and religion are considered unneces- 

 sary; the Sabbath is hailed, not as a day of rest, to be kept holy, but as a 

 convenient time to ride about the country, or to post books. 



And this result is almost universal. England at one time was on the verge 

 of moral bankruptcy. One of her divines traced the evil to the solitary pur- 

 suit of large farmers. The rich grew richer, and the poor poorer, until the 

 antagonism between the two classes was fearful to contemplate. Theft, mur- 

 der and arson were rampant throughout the land. And as one aptly puts 

 it, "The poor, who have always been fed by the plow, now have nothing to 

 do, but go from door to door and ask alms for God's sake. And, some be- 

 cause they will not beg, do steal, and then they be hanged, and the realm 

 doth decay." Act after act was passed to check this state of things, with 

 only partial success. England has been hampered more or less to the pres- 

 ent time. And now Mr. Gladstone, with his characteristic good sense, pro- 

 poses small farming as a remedy for the present ills of England. In short, 

 he advises them to turn horticulturists. Like Euripides of ancient Greece, 

 he believes it is the intelligent, refined homes of the horticulturists that save 

 the nation. 



A gentleman, e.xpensively educated in Europe, took his fortune in his 

 hand, crossed the ocean, and settled on a Brazillian coffee plantation. Clos- 

 ing his eyes and heart to the beauties of nature and her ample resources, he 

 soon became entirely absorbed in his solitary pursuit. His coffee plants, 

 which were subjected to endless experiments simply for his own profit, his 



