NOTES ON VINE RORDERS. 



541 



formed rustic seats. Little arbors would be 

 placed near, where in mid-summer evenings 

 ices would be served to all who wished them. 

 And, little by little, the musical taste of the 

 village (with the help of those good musical 

 folks — the German emigrants,) would or- 

 ganize itself into a band, which would oc- 

 casionally delight the ears of all frequenters 

 of the park with popular airs. 



Do we over-rate the mental and moral in- 

 fluences of such a common ground of enter- 

 tainment as this, when we say that the 

 inhabitants of such a village — enjoying 

 in this way a common interest in flowers, 

 trees, the fresh air and sweet music, daily — 

 would have something more healthful than 

 the ordinary life of cities, and more refining 

 and elevating than the common gossip of 

 country villages ? 



"Ah! I see, Mr. Editor, you are a bit of 

 a communist." By no means. On the 

 contrary, we believe, above all things under 

 heaven, in the power and virtue of the indi- 

 vidual home. We devote our life and hum- 

 ble efforts to raising its condition. But 

 people must live in towns and villages, and 

 therefore let us raise the condition of towns 

 and villages, and especially of rural towns 

 and villages, by all possible means ! 



But we are republican ; and, shall we 

 confess it, we are a little vexed that as a 

 people generally, we do not see how much in 

 America we lose by not using the advan- 



tages of republicanism. We mean now, for 

 refined culture, physical comfort, and the 

 like. Republican education we are now 

 beginning pretty well to understand the 

 value of; and it will not be long before it 

 will be hard to find a native citizen who 

 cannot read and write. And this comes by 

 making every man see what a great moral 

 and intellectual good comes from cheerfully 

 bearing a part in the burden of popular 

 education. Let us next take up popular 

 refinement in the arts, manners, social life, 

 and innocent enjoyments, and we shall see 

 what a virtuous and educated republic can 

 really become. 



Besides this, it is the proper duty of the 

 state — that is, the people — to do in this 

 way what the reigning power does in a 

 monarchy. If the kings and princes in 

 Germany, and the sovereign of England, 

 have made magnificent parks and pleasure- 

 gardens and thrown them wide open for the 

 enjoyment of all classes of the people, (the 

 latter, after all, having to pay for it,) may 

 it not be that our sovereign people will (far 

 more cheaply, as they may,) make and sup- 

 port these great and healthy sources of 

 pleasure and refinement for themselves in 

 America ? We believe so ; and we confi- 

 dently wait for the time when public parks, 

 public gardens, public galleries and tasteful 

 villages, shall be among the peculiar fea- 

 tures of our happy republic. 



NOTES ON VINE BORDERS 



BY WM. WEBSTER, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



Jn looking over the March number of the 

 Horticulturist, I was induced to pay particu- 

 lar attention to an article on the formation 

 of vine borders, by Mr. J. Stewart, of 

 Washington, D. C; and having been a 



practical gardener and grape-grower for 

 some years, I felt desirous of penning a few 

 remarks on the subject. 



In the first place, I should say, from the 

 whole tenor of Mr. Stewart's remarks 



