Ip^^CNa ^y^'^r^P^ 



371 KDITOK'8 TABLE. 



gamble the summer owoy nt the rote of three hundred dollars a \reck, exclusive of extras, ■which 

 may or may not be twice as much more. And thus it is that in the present condition of finan- 

 cial matters quite a large number of those who would have thronged the halls of Saratoga, New- 

 port, and kindred j>laccs, stay away because they have not the money wherewith to go. 



" liut there is another reason for the diminution of the crowds which pass the summer merely 

 in going from place to place, or in watering-place dissipation; and that is the rnpidly-growing 

 preference of a country residence during the warmer months, if not during the whole year. 

 Every one who has been familiar with flic vicinity of New York during the last ton years, must 

 have remarked the sudden increase in the number of villas in all directions witliin thirty miles 

 of the city, during the latter half of that period. Many of these are used merely as summer 

 residences ; but most of them are occupied during the whole year. This is a good sign : it 

 betokens health, present and future, for mind and body. It makes men better and happier to 

 live iu the country. Honest men, and plenty, there may be, who never have left this liive of 

 brick^ and mortar to go as far as "Weehawkea; but still there is reason in the prejudice that 

 those who live in the country are for the most part manlier, more trustworthy, than those who 

 live in cities. Life there certainly begets habits of greater simplicity, even in those who have 

 wealth and social eminence. ITie same man who when he lived in town lavished money upon 

 suites of rooms which glowed and flashed and fretted with gorgeous colors and gold, and who 

 surrounded himself with all the appliances of tasteless extravagance — this man having made his 

 home in the country, is content to live in a style which approaches if it do not attain a simple 

 elegance. It is ever thus. The English nobleman when he leaves town for his country home, 

 leaves with it the town air and the town splendor which so frequently sits so ill upon him. 

 Surrounded by nature's wondrous beauties, men seem to shrink instinctively from a display of 

 their little vanities. 



"There is, however, a much larger class than that composed of those who can afTord villa life, 

 which has, and will have, few representatives at the watering places and summer resorts this 

 season. This class is composed of people who, thoTigh ill able to afford it, may in former years 

 have fancied it necessary to seek health and recreation at the United States or the Ocean House, 

 but who found there literally naught but vanity and vexation of spirit. Tliey have wistly 

 determined that they purchased those commodities at too high a price; and now they may be 

 found scattered in clusters of two and three families together in farm houses within half a day 

 of the city by railroad and steamboat. The numbers who spend the summer in this way have 

 more than trebled within the last three years ; so that, to supply the need, farmers, the country 

 round, have added rooms to their old homesteads, and by receiving boarders at a moderate 

 price, make a comfortable addition to their yearly income, — their city inmates obtaining plenty 

 of wholesome food, quiet, recreation, nights of sweet and unbroken rest, instead of the hurried 

 and meagre meals, the confusion, and the exhausting dissipation of the fashionable watering 

 places. Changes such as this are vastly for the better ; and the good efiects which result from 

 them do not cease with the individuals who feel their influence immediately. If an increasing 

 love for the calm and purifying influences of nature, and a greater di.';position to seek tlie coun- 

 try for a home, should result from the present financial crisis, tlicy will not be among the least 

 of the benefits which it will secure. 



The following queer set of resolutions are going the rounds of the papers, credited to the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society ; but we can not believe that it, or any Society com- 

 posed of intelligent horticultm-ists, would send out under its sanction such nonsense. They 

 read as follows : 



Whereas, it is a common custom to scrape off the outside bark of fruit and ornamental trees, 

 wash and plaster them with lime and other preparations, in the hope of benefitting the 



