



JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. V. 



SEPTEMBER, 1850. 



No. 3. 



September is the month for the great horti- 

 cultural shows all over the Union ; and it 

 seems to us, therefore, a fitting time to in- 

 dulge in a few comments on the influence of 

 these shows upon the state of horticulture 

 generally. 



These annual exhibitions of the choicest 

 products of the garden, are certainly most 

 beautiful and interesting in themselves, and 

 most useful in begetting a popular taste for 

 horticulture. Numberless are the examples 

 where men are fairly astonished into the en- 

 joyments of gardening, by having the wealth 

 of the soil thus suddenly displayed under their 

 eyes, just as in the olden times an uncontrolla- 

 ble passion for wealth was begotten by the 

 occasional exhibition of the treasures of gold 

 and silver, made to poor mortals by the genii 

 of the mountains. And many a sluggard, who 

 would otherwise be contented with the most 

 indifferent crops of apples and potatoes, is 

 roused into becoming a good cultivator, by 

 finding at the exhibition, that his neighbors 

 are raising delicious fruits, and greatly im- 

 proved vegetables, from the same soil as that 

 which — because he is behind the times — only 

 gives him pie-apples and drum-head cabbages. 



So far, then, as awakening a taste and ex- 

 citing the spirit of emulation, Avhieh begets 

 good cultivation, goes, our horticultural socie- 



Vol, v. 7 



ties have done and are doing a great deal of 

 good. But for twenty or thirty years, the 

 most prominent of them have been working 

 on precisely this platform, without apparently 

 the least desire of reaching a higher level, or 

 a more extended sphere of usefulness. Per- 

 haps we ought partially to except the Massa- 

 chusetts society, which has, by the publica- 

 tion of a series of its Transactions, aimed at 

 a wider range ; but still not all that could be 

 desired from so influential an institution. 



To confine ourselves to the more immediate 

 subject of the annual exhibitions — the great 

 defect there, is in the small amount of practi- 

 cal information which they convey to the 

 minds of those who visit them for instruction ; 

 for it must be remembered, that in this coun- 

 try three-fourths of all the gardens are not 

 cultivated by educated and competent garden- 

 ers, but by the proprietors, with perhaps the 

 assistance of a gardener who is little more 

 than a day laborer. Now let us suppose the 

 owner of a small garden of this kind, who has 

 just commenced operations (and the exam- 

 ples are numberless,) visits the annual show 

 of one of our largest and oldest horticultural 

 societies. He finds there a large display of 

 fruits, flowers and vegetables. The variety 

 of new fruit is indeed astonishing — especially 

 the show in Boston, where he may find three 



