THE TASTE FOR PLANTING. 



And thus, if the nurseryman can satisfy himself with our reasoning that he ought 

 not object to the amateur's becoming a gratuitous distributor of certain plants, we 

 would persuade him for much the same reason, to follow the example himself. No 

 person can propagate a tree or plant with so little cost, and so much ease, as one whose 

 business it is to do so. And we may add, no one is more likely to know the really 

 desirable varieties of trees or plants, than he is. No one so well knows as himself, 

 that the newest things — most zealously sought after at high prices — are by no means 

 those which will give the most permanent satisfaction in a family garden. And ac- 

 cordingly, it is almost always the older and well-tried standard trees and plants — those 

 that the nurseryman can best afford to spare, those that he can grow most cheaply, — 

 that he would best serve the diffusion of popular taste by distributing gratis. We 

 think it would be best for all parties if the variety were very limited — and we doubt 

 whether the distribution of two valuable hardy trees or climbers for five years, or till 

 they became so common all over the surroundings as to make a distinct feature of em- 

 bellishment, would not be more serviceable than disseminating a larger number of 

 species. It may appear to some of our commercial readers, an odd recommenda- 

 tion to urge them to give away precisely that which it is their business to sell — but we 

 are not talking at random, when we say most confidently, that such a course, steadily 

 pursued by amateurs and nurserymen throughout the country, for ten years, would 

 increase the taste for planting, and the demand for trees, five hundred fold. 



The third means is by lohat the Horticultural Societies may do. 



We believe there are now about forty Horticultural Societies in North America. 

 Hitherto they have contented themselves, year after year, with giving pretty much the 

 same old schedule of premiums for the best cherries, cabbages, and carnations, all over 

 the country — till the stimulus begins to wear out — somewhat like the effects of opium 

 or tobacco, on confirmed habitues. Let them adopt our scheme of popularising the taste 

 for horticulture, by giving premiums of certain select small assortments of standard 

 fruit trees, ornamental trees, shrubs, and vines, (purchased by the society of the nur- 

 serymen,) to the cultivators of such small gardens — suburban door-yards — or cottage 

 enclosures, within a distance of ten miles round, as the inspecting committee shall de- 

 cide to be best worthy, by their air of neatness, order and attention, of such premiums. 

 In this way, the valuable plants will fall into the right hands ; the vender of trees and 

 plants will be directly the gainer, and the stimulus given to cottage gardens, and the 

 spread of the popular taste, will be immediate and decided. 



" Tall oaks from little acorns grow" — is a remakably trite aphorism, but one, the 

 truth of which no one who knows the aptitude of our people, or our intrinsic love of 

 refinement and elegance, will under-rate or gain-say. If, by such simple means as we 

 have here pointed out, our great farm on this side of the Atlantic, with the water privi- 

 lege of both oceans, could be made to wear a little less the air of Canada-thistle-dom, 

 and show a little more sign of blossoming like the rose, we should look upon it as a step 

 so much nearer the millennium. In Saxony, the traveller beholds with no less sur 

 prise and delight, on the road between Wiessenfels and Halle, quantities of the 

 beautiful and rare shrubs and flowers, growing along the foot-paths, and by the 



