JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Cljt §kk itnlr l^rnHjirrts of InrtirulturL 



RETROSPECTIVE glance over the journey we have traveled, is often both in- 

 structive and encouraging. We not only learn what we have really accomplish- 

 ed, but we are better able to overcome the obstacles that lie in our onward way, by 

 reviewing the difficulties already overcome. 



The progress of the last five years in Horticulture, has been a remarkable one in 

 the United States. The rapid increase of population, and the accumulation of capi- 

 tal, has very naturally led to the multiplication of private gardens and country seats, and 

 the planting of orchards and market gardens, to an enormous extent. The facility 

 with which every man may acquire land in this country, naturally leads to the forma- 

 tion of separate and independent homes, and the number of those who are in some 

 degree interested in the cultui-e of the soil is thus every day being added to. The 

 very fact, however, that a large proportion of these little homes are 7iew places, and 

 that the expense of building and establishing them is considerable, prevents their owners 

 from doing much more for the first few years, than to secure the more useful and ne- 

 cessary features of the establishment. Hence, the ornamental still appears neglected in 

 our country homes and gardens, generally, as compared with those of the more civi- 

 lized countries abroad. The shrubs, and flowers, and vines, that embellish almost 

 everywhere,: the rural homes of England, are as yet only rarely seen in this country — 

 though in all the older sections of the Union the taste for ornamental gardening is 

 developing itself anew every day. On the other hand, the great facility with which 

 excellent fruits and vegetables are grown in this climate, as compared with the north 

 of Europe, makes our gardens compare most favorably with theirs in respect to these 

 two points. The tables of the people of the United States are more abundantly sup- 

 plied with peaches and melons, than those of the wealthiest classes abroad — and the 

 display of culinary vegetables of the north of Europe, which is almost confined 

 potatoes, peas, French beans, and cauliflowers, makes but a sorry comparison with 



Dec. 1, 1851. 



No. XII. 



