28 MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 



farmer's family may pass from object to object, following one of tho 

 most agreeable of human pursuits. Nothing more adorns a place, 

 than a well-kept garden, comprising an orchard, with the best varieties 

 of apples, pears and plums, and another division containing the com- 

 mon and the rarer varieties of the floral kingdom. There should be 

 one connected with every farmer's home, for, not to speak of the 

 income from it, in dollars and cents, it wins the eye of the traveler, 

 and hints to him of wealth and beauty, screened by umbrageous 

 trees, or climbing vines, or shrubs and stalks covered with flowers of 

 every hue, which gold and silver cannot buy. The watching, the 

 pruning, and the experiments of grafting and budding, all the servi- 

 ces required of those who have the care of a garden, take the mind 

 up to a lofty plane of thought and enjoyment ; to a condition of love, 

 purity and peace. You need not hesitate, if invited, to enter the 

 abode near which you discover a fruitful and beautiful garden. Go 

 in. You will certainly find pleasant faces ; you will hear the words 

 of courtesy and politeness, and you will be entertained with some 

 eloquent discourse on the highest topics, perhaps on the revelations 

 of God's wisdom and goodness in nature, rather than with the com- 

 mon talk, which is of no account, unless to break the silence. • 



There is nothing in either the soil or the climate of Maine, to 

 discourage the efforts of the horticultui'ist. lie can accomplish a 

 great deal with some well known varieties of fruits and flowers. One 

 of the best of the plums in our gardens was first produced in Ban- 

 gor ; one of the best of the apples in our orchards was first produced 

 in South Paris ; the Black Oxford ; another not equalled for beauty 

 or flavor, anywhere, first grew in the vicinity of Montreal. This 

 apple, of course, would be hardy enough for Maine, and should find 

 a place in all our orchards and gardens. As to the flowers, — why, 

 all the foreigners among them, seem to be the children of our own 

 soil, they are so much at home with us and they thrive so well; and 

 then as to those that are natives here, they grow profusely in our 

 woods and by our streams, and many of them have been cultivated 

 "with remarkable success. What can be more lovely in the beds of 

 our gardens, than our own modest violets, the blue, the yellow and the 

 ■white ; the snowy blossom of the blood-root ; the smiling wake- rob- 

 in, the anemone or wind flower, the adder's tongue, the bell-wort, 

 and hosts of others which I need not name 7 What can be more 



