survey of the entire United States, and include the ont-of-the-way roadsides, the 

 uioiuitiiin liouies, and tlie whole interior. We have had no horticultural school- 

 master; taste has l»ccn omitted in the schedule of the school. Look at the result, 

 and regret that it is so to conlinue for generations to come. 



]'>ut, says the possessor of rural taste, a love of gardens and of i»lanting is 

 rapidly progressing. It is true tlicy are increasing, but oljservatiun will show 

 that they do not increase in the ratio of the population. A love of i)rofit is 

 increasing; money is the one thing that the masses worship. There formerly was 

 respect for station, for age — is there any now? Will any one say this is taught 

 any more than respect for a kind of learning which is not to produce a moneyed 

 result ? 



How can we change this want, and bring up the mind of the country to a love 

 of nature ? We answer, by teaching a knowledge of the common things around 

 us, and doing this in schools. " How to observe" is a thing rarely taught. " A 

 farmer in repairing his fences will sometimes notice in splitting a decayed rail or 

 stake, holes excavated therein and filled with young spiders, commonly of bright, 

 beautiful colors, which lie still and quiet, with only a slight quivering of their 

 limVis, and is puzzled to know why, when thus broken in upon, they do not awake 

 from their lethargy and run away, little suspecting the manner and purpose of 

 their being accumulated there. They have been stung by the parent bee or wasp 

 just sufficiently to stupefy her victim without killing it, and will remain so till 

 required for the food of the young not yet perhaps born. And a thousand similar 

 interesting and curious phenomena are passing under the farmer's and gardener's 

 eyes daily, as he pursues his labors — phenomena which, if 



In nature's infinite book of secrecy 

 A little he can read, 



aid in rendering his vocation beyond all comparison the most pleasant of any 

 pursuit known to man." 



Though the mission of our age may be to conquer the desert, we can see no 

 reason why whole generations should pass away without those enjoyments which 

 contribute to the softening of man's nature. The prairie annually springs up 

 with beautiful flowers, and even fruit like the wild strawberry is said to redden 

 the hoof of the traveller's horse as he takes his solitary journey. Why should 

 we not incite Nature round our dwellings to perform the duties imposed by the 

 Creator, and taste, amid the bitter cups too often ofTcrcd to our lips, a little of 

 the sweets, which are all but spontaneous, when we have learned to know their 

 value and read them aright. 



