A LOOK ABOUT US. 



443 



followed his plan of obtaining varieties, we 

 have not the least faith in the vital powers 

 of varieties so originated. They will, in 

 the end, be entirely abandoned in this coun- 

 try for sound healthy seedlings, raised di- 

 rectly from vigorous parents. 



Far as we are in advance of Europe, at 

 this moment, in the matter of pomology, 

 we are a long way behind in all that re- 

 lates to ornamental gardening. Not that 

 there is not a wonderful growing taste for 

 ornamental gardening, especially in the 

 northern and eastern states. Not, indeed, 

 that we have not a number of country pla- 

 ces that would be respectable in point of 

 taste and good cultivation everywhere. But 

 the popular feeling has not yet fairly set in 

 this direction, and most persons are content 

 with a few common trees, shrubs, and plants, 

 when they might adorn their lawns and gar- 

 dens with species of far greater beauty. 



One of the greatest drawbacks to the sa- 

 tisfaction of pleasure grounds, in this coun- 

 try, is the want of knowledge as to how 

 they should be managed to give rapid 

 growth and fine verdure. The whole se- 

 cret, as we have again and again stated, is 

 in deep soil ; if not naturally such, then made 

 so by deep culture. Even the best English 

 gardeners (always afraid, in their damp 

 climate, of canker, if the roots go down- 

 wards,) are discouraged, and fail in our 

 pleasure grounds, from the very fineness 

 and dryness of our climate, because they 

 will not trench — trench — trench ! as we all 

 must do, to have satisfactory lawns or plea- 

 sure grounds. 



And this reminds us that a great want in 

 the country, at the present time, is a sort of 

 practical school for gardeners ; not so much 

 to teach them from the outset — for ninety- 

 nine hundreths of all our gardeners are 

 Europeans — as to naturalize their know- 

 ledge in this country. If one of the leading 



horticultural societies, with ready means, 

 (that of Boston, for example,) would start 

 an experimental garden, and making, by an 

 agency abroad, some arrangement with de- 

 serving gardeners wishing to emigrate, take 

 these freshmen on their arrival, and carry 

 them through a season's practice in the 

 experimental garden, and let them out at 

 the end of a year really good gardeners for 

 our climate, they would do an incalculable 

 service to the cause of horticulture, and to 

 thousands of employers, besides getting 

 their own gardens (like that of the London 

 Hort. Society,) cultivated at little cost. 



It may be said that gardeners would not 

 enter such a preparatory garden, since they 

 could find places at once. We reply to 

 this, that if they found, after they had had 

 their year's practice in this garden, and 

 could show its certificate of character and 

 abilities, they could readily get $50 or $ 100 a 

 year more — as we are confident they couid — 

 there would be no difficulty on this head. 



The Belgian government has just estab- 

 lished such a school, and placed it under the 

 direction of M. Van Houtte, the well known 

 horticulturist of Ghent. Something of the 

 sort has been contemplated here, in con- 

 nection with the agricultural college pro- 

 jected by this state. Considering the scar- 

 city, nay,, absolute dearth, of good garden- 

 ers among us at the present moment, — the 

 supply not half equal to the demand, — it 

 seems to us that some plan might be adopt- 

 ed by which we should not be at the mercy 

 of those who only call themselves garden- 

 ers,, but who also know little beyond the 

 mysteries of cultivating that excellent plant, 

 the Solanum tuberosum, commonly known 

 as the potato. Good Mr. President Walk- 

 er, of the Massachusetts Hort. Society, can- 

 not you help us to an experimental garden 

 and experimented, gardeners, out of thai 

 $10,000 bequest left you last season? 



