Ill America, grappling with a stern necessity, even down to a recent day, we 

 liave, comparatively, few striking examples of refined rural taste in the labors of 

 those who have passed before us. Yet, there are some grand old places in the 

 Revolutionary States, indicating the presence of both a strong original taste, and 

 well cultivated art, in selecting, laying out, planting, and preserving them, well 

 showing that their founders were no pretenders in what they did. Within the last 

 thirty years, a better opjwrtunity has been afforded ns. With considerable origi- 

 nal taste, increasing wealth, and leisure, to pursue the i)roper study of rural 

 embellishment, many new and beautiful places have arisen from the wild wastes 

 around them ; and, although many bald and bastard examples, where a large 

 exi)enditurc of labor and material have been thrown away, exist among them, we 

 have many spots which, when time enough has elapsed to give growth to their 

 ])lantations, and antiquity to their erections, will present choice specimens of a 

 discriminating taste, and a serene beauty. Yet, in the mass, man is wofully unin- 

 structed. We saunter along, heedless of the native beauty which surrounds us, 

 and which we might appropriate to ourselves almost for the asking. We do want 

 schools of taste, and of art, in rural embellishment. But who are to be the teachers ? 

 A few only of the English books and authors, from which we draw our ideas, are 

 possessed of either correct taste or competent instruction. Of native authors we 

 have any quantity ; and how few of them are of any lasting account ? The num- 

 ber indeed is small. What we, in America, need is, the understanding of Jirst 

 principles. Scarcely any two places are alike in natural position, capabilities, 

 and soils. They require different treatment, and that treatment varied and diver- 

 sified by the delicate, discriminating exercise of taste, founded in well-established 

 principles, and appreciation of the art to be exercised. We have no such schools ; 

 and if we had, where are our schoolmasters ? There is scarcely a rural paper in 

 the country but has advertisements of such, and we see some of their labors in the 

 paltry checker-work of door-yards, lawns, and, now and then, a so-called park, 

 stuck full of inappropriate things of no meaning 1 But we must live in hope, 

 and, meanwhile, strive to do the best we can till a better day shall dawn upon us, 

 or the rising spirit of a few master minds shall teach us with an unction both 

 impressive and lasting. 



77ie Seed Busi7iess of the West. — Illustrative, quite, of the very progress of 

 which I have just spoken. Out of their rapid distribution of seeds and tools, we 

 shall, in time, see many good things. 



Cultivation of the Fear-Tree. — I hope Doctor Ward is going to do something 

 clever ; and more, that he means to let the world know it through the Horticultti- 

 rist, as he progresses. It is now more than a dozen years since pear culture on 

 the quince has been vigorously started in our country. Many a nurseryman has 

 got rich out of them ; and, by calling conventions and forming societies, they 

 intend not to keep their lights under a bushel. Now, out of the millions of 

 dwarf pears the nurserymen have sold, I would like to hear of the very first dwarf 

 •pear orchard that has paid expenses. Many tell of pears selling for sixpence, a 



