1856.1 WJiat is the use of Botany? 413 



Hid is nj nst fff '§almi? 



In conversing with our farmers, ttis question is often asked with 

 an air of eontempt. As if it was a science with which they had 

 nothino- to do. And often when you attempt to explain, so mercenary 

 are the motives by which many of them are governed, your argumeuta 

 are unappreciated, if understood. And all attempts to enlighten are 

 as effectually lost as to talk to a blind man about colors. 



I say tlieir motives are so mercenary, for what can be more so than 

 to see a man with an immortal mind, to whom the exterior wor d 

 should be all beauty to his eye and music to his car, devoted entirely 

 to the clink of mammon's box, to money loving, and to money getting. 

 Well, I will, for a moment, urge this noble study, not only on grounds 

 of taste and morality, but of utility. 



Who is there after the toils of the day are over, that would not be 

 relieved from the monotonies of his business by spending an hour m 

 relaxation in a beautiful flower garden? There is something constantly 

 to interest our thoughts and imaginations, yes, our affections. Ihese 

 pleasures will not w'aste, but invigorate our minds. And often will 

 they be carried by the contemplation of these beauties of nature, up 

 to nature's God and inspire most sincere and ardent devotion. Al 

 this may, yes, will be realUed in the cultivation of a love for rural 

 beauties. The taste which leads to it, and the affections that will be 

 invigorated by it, arc among the most pure and innocent which we can 

 indulge, and so far from interfering with other duties this ove of 

 rural beauties, encourages those more imperative. As ordinarily 

 studied, I admit Botany is not made so in-eresting and attractu-e, or 

 useful, as it is capable of being. The mere classification of plants, as 

 taught by Botanical works seems little else than a vocabulary of 

 difficult, arbitrary, and technical terms in a language not generally 

 understood, and to tax the memory with them is the only object 



attained. , . ^ , • n^-- 



We hope by the arrangement furnished through the Botanic Gar- 

 den at the Farmers' College, to give to this science, and to rural pur- 

 suits generally, an interest, a delight, and utility beyond that which 

 they have hitherto possessed. Not only will the classification of 

 plants, their name, etc., be attended with increased interest, but vege- 

 Lie physiology, introducing the student as it does .no some of the 

 most wonderful and beautiful secrets of nature, the habits of plants, 



