INFLUENCE OF HORTICULTURE. 



11 



he " squats," he " locates," hut hefore he 

 can be fairlj' said to have a fixed home, the 

 spirit of unrest besets him ; he sells his 

 " diggins " to some less adventurous pio- 

 neer, and tackling the wagon of the wil- 

 derness, migrates once more. 



It must not be supposed, large as is the 

 infusion of restlessness in our people, that 

 there are not also large exceptions to the 

 general rule. Else there would never be 

 growing villages and prosperous towns. 

 Nay, it cannot be overlooked by a careful 

 observer, that the tendency " to settle " is 

 slowly but gradually on the increase, and 

 that there is, in all the older portions of the 

 country, growing evidence that the Anglo- 

 Saxon love of home is gradually develop- 

 ing itself out of the Anglo-American love 

 of change. 



It is not difficult to see how strongly hor- 

 ticulture contributes to the development of 

 local attachments. In it lies the most pow- 

 erful philtre that civilized man has yet 

 found to charm him to one spot of earth. 

 It transforms what is only a tame meadow 

 and a bleak aspect, into an Eden of interest 

 and delights. It makes all the difference 

 between " Araby the blest," and a pine 

 barren. It gives a bit of soil, too insignifi- 

 cant to find a place in the geography of the 

 earth's surface, such an importance in the 

 eyes of its possessor, that he finds it more 

 attractive than countless acres of unknown 

 and unexplored " territory." In other 

 words, it contains the mind and soul of the 

 man, materialized in many of the fairest 

 and richest forms of nature, so that he 

 looks upon it as tearing himself up, root and 

 branch, to ask him to move a mile to the 

 right or the left. Do we need to say more, 

 to prove that it is the panacea that really 

 " settles " mankind ? 



It is not therefore, without much plea- 

 surable emotion, that we have had notice 



lately of the formation of five new Horti- 

 cultural societies, the last at St. Louis, and 

 most of them west of the Alleghanies. 

 Whoever lives to see the end of the next 

 cycle of our race, will see the great valleys 

 of the west, the garden of the world, and 

 we watch with interest the first develop- 

 ment, in the midst of the busy fermenta- 

 tion of its active masses, of that beautiful 

 and quiet spirit, of the joint culture of the 

 earth and the heart, that is destined to give 

 a tone to the future character of its untold 

 millions. 



The increased love of home and the gar- 

 den, in the older States, is a matter of every 

 day remark ; and it is not a little curious, 

 that just in proportion to the intelligence 

 and settled character of its population, is 

 the amount of interest manifested in horti- 

 culture. Thus, the three most settled of 

 the original States, we suppose to be Mas- 

 sachusetts, New-York and Penns3dvania ; 

 and in these States horticulture is more 

 eagerly pursued than in any others. The 

 first named State has now seven horticultu- 

 ral societies ; the second, seven ; the third 

 three. Following out the comparison in 

 the cities, we should say that Boston had 

 the most settled population, Philadelphia 

 the next, and New- York the least so of any 

 city in the Union ; and it is well known 

 that the horticultural society of Boston is 

 at this moment the most energetic one in 

 the country, and that it is stimulated by the 

 interest excited by societies in all its neigh- 

 boring towns. The Philadelphia society is 

 exceedingly prosperous ; while in New- 

 York, we regret to say, that the numerous 

 efforts that have been made to establish 

 firmly a society of this kind have not, up to 

 this time, resulted in any success whatever. 

 Its mighty tide of people is as yet too much 

 possessed with the spirit of business and 

 of unrest. 



