16 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTUllE. 



ing land, buying manure, repairing fences, and in a thousand 

 ways adding to the value and convenience of our farms, at 

 the same time aiding the unemployed whq stand waiting 

 and asking for our assistance ? 



But it is not all dollars and cents that we live or should 

 live for: culture and refinement are equally to be sought 

 after. It is a law of our being, that, after the immediate 

 wants of the body are supplied, we turn to the study and 

 enjoyment of the beautiful, both in nature and art. The 

 man who leaves his New-England home among the hills for 

 the Western prairie goes for gain — a very commendable ob- 

 ject, certainly, if it is not carried too far ; but as soon as he 

 has made himself a comfortable home, and provided for the 

 wants of his domestic animals, he naturally thinks to beautify 

 his surroundings, planting a group of trees here, or a line 

 of evergreens there, not forgetting the vines, shrubs, and 

 flowers, which will do so much to make his home cheerful, 

 and his family happy. In older countries this is carried still 

 further, till the parks and gardens of England, France, and 

 Germany, are known world-wide, and are held out as exam- 

 ples to us on this side of the Atlantic, oftentimes not so 

 much to our help as discouragement. 



Our two largest cities. New York and Philadelphia, have 

 expended immense sums in laying out public parks, and in 

 both instances have copied and imitated nature as far as 

 possible. Beautiful lawns, wooded glens, and primeval trees, 

 are preserved in their natural beauty ; and the highest style 

 of landscape-gardening takes nature for its teacher. 



Many of the farmers of this county look out of their own 

 windows upon lawns as fair and sloping as can be found in 

 Fairmount or Central Parks. Their estates contain grottos 

 and glens as lovely and secluded as in either of these, and 

 forest or woodland as varied as that of any public park in 

 the country, and more extensive. 



I know of no way of enjoying these scenes in nature so 

 profitably as by doing as we have in West Newbury (you 

 will excuse me for referring again to my own town by way 

 of illustration). We have a little botanical club, some 

 three years of age, which, having struggled hard for an ex- 

 istence in its earlier days, now numbers over forty-five mem- 

 bers, including many of our most intelligent and valuable 



