THE PLEASURES OF GARDENING. 



master spirit in this art, is no more ; but may we not liope that echoes of his genius 

 will come back to us from the smiling gardens and beauteous landscapes which his 

 taste has rendered so expressive — that some other mind will kindle with the ambition 

 " to make his country worth living and dying for," and that the work which has been 

 so auspiciously commenced, will not cease for lack of laborers. 



For the present, we shall continue The Horticulturist under our own immediate 

 direction, but hope, before the close of the current volume, to secure the services of a com- 

 petent Editor, who will efficiently carry out the spirit and design of the work. In the 

 meantime we earnestly invite the continued correspondence and assistance of those who 

 have hitherto contributed to its pages, and such rough notes of experience as practical 

 gardeners, nurserymen, and cultivators generally, may see fit to favor us with. 



It is impossible to enter with too much zeal and enthusiasm, into this work. We 

 cannot, with safety, appropriate the result of horticultural labors in other countries. 

 Our tastes and wants are peculiarly our own, and must be fostered and satisfied with 

 American talent and research. Knowledge in the abstract may satisfy the German 

 mind ; the desire of supremacy may stimulate English energy ; the vain-glorious pride 

 of excelling in rare and beautiful products, may induce the Frenchman to exertion, 

 but different motives urge us, as American citizens, to beautify our country, and in- 

 crease its cultivation. We want the ornamental and useful together, — we require facts 

 as well as theories, — we build houses to live in as well as for effect — we cultivate gar- 

 dens for profit, as well as beauty. There is, then, a broad field for the student of 

 Horticulture, and a widening sphere for the taste of the amateur. If he " who makes 

 two blades of grass grow where one grew before," deserves well of his country, how 

 rich will be the reward of him who brings forth the treasures of science to adorn the 

 earth and refine the mind. 



THE PLEASURES OF GARDENING 



BY WM. W. VALK, M. D., FLUSHING. 



We are disposed to cull a flower from every field of the literature of gardening. There- 

 fore, we pluck this from a rich soil, and offer it to the readers of the Horticulturist, for 

 their admiration or criticism. 



Perhaps not one among the many thousands of every class who read for amusement or 

 for profit, but will admit that gardening has its peculiar pleasures. It is, indeed, an ab- 

 sorbing recreation, and among its votaries has ranked illustrious princes and renowned 

 philosophers. The most eminent and worthy of mankind, whether occupying exalted po- 

 sitions in public life, or fulfilling the more retired and unobtrusive duties of a private 

 sphere, have ever made it their favorite amu.sement. It is an enjoyment and occupation 

 for which none can be too high or too low — at once the pleasure of the greatest, or the 

 care of the meanest. The interest which flowers have excited in the bieast of man, has, 

 from the earliest ages to the present time, never been restrained to any particular class of 

 society, or quarter of the globe. Over the whole world, nature seems to have distributed 

 them as precious medicaments, to both the mind and body — to furnish agreeable sensa- 

 tions to its inhabitants, and to impart cheerfulness and beauty to the earth. In the joy 



