ter next autumn, at which time we anticipate a very large gathering of our pomo- 

 logical friends from all parts of the Union, and also from the Canadas. Genesee 

 has been called the garden of the world. Everything now indicates a fruitful 

 season. We must trust that the exhibition of fruits from Western New York 

 will be worth seeing. And not only this, but the most rare specimens of fruits 

 from the east, the west, the north, and the south, will here meet. A rare chance 

 to compare fruits from all parts of our wide and extended country. 



CRITIQUE OX THE FEBRUARY HORTICULTURIST. 



BY JEFFREYS, NEW YORK. 



Want of Progress in Rural Taste. — There is great difference in the constitution 

 of the intellect, in matters of taste of any kind. Occasionally, one has a nice 

 appreciation of rural objects from early childhood ; another has a strong indica- 

 tion of native taste in art ; another in mechanics ; another in philosophy ; another 

 in science ; and so on, through the whole catalogue of Divine creations and 

 human inventions. These are God's own endowments, and those thus favored 

 become the schoolmasters to others in whom original tastes of like kind are 

 absent, yet possessing the faculty of cultivating them by the instruction of others. 

 In the creative faculties of original minds, on all these different subjects, "there 

 is a divinity that stirs" within them. The chronicles of all time which lie before 

 us, give striking examples. Abraham and Lot were distinguished farmers, 

 grandly possessed of fine taste in what was both beautiful and useful in rural life. 

 Jacob was a physiologist, circumventing the dishonesty of his wily old father-in- 

 law, Laban. Who had so grand an appreciation of the magnificence of creative 

 power as David, as witnessed in his sacred psalms ? While Tubal Cain, descendant 

 of the first murderer, long before either of the others, was as cunning an artificer 

 in brass and iron. Solomon, great in architecture, also displayed matchless taste 

 in the rural adornments of his pleasure-grounds. Several of the prophets show 

 that they had exquisite perceptions of the grand and beautiful in nature ; while 

 Christ himself, greater, diviner than all, drew most of his parables from those 

 delightful rural objects strewed along the paths of his own brief wanderings. 

 Virgil possessed not only a natural, but a highly cultivated taste in rural aflairs, 

 as shown in his Georgics. Cicero was refinedly ornate in the rural embellishments 

 of his own celebrated villa. In later time, Michael Angelo, with an opulence of 

 original genius and cultivated taste, was a wonder in architecture, painting, and 

 statuary. Lord Bacon, not only in philosophy and letters, but in planting and 

 gardening, was a deep and profound teacher. In later time, Sir Walter Scott 

 and Professor Wilson charmed the world with their appreciations of refined taste 

 in landscape and natural scenery ; and our American Downing, had he lived to 

 mature age, would, perhaps, have been equal to any of them in the delightful 

 aptitude of his teachings. So much for minds in which an original taste for their 

 chosen pursuits, or recreations, was planted. 



