AMERICAN nOKTICULTUKE. 



T is rather singular that nearly every allusion made to American horticul- 



^ ture, in the British journals, is stamped with prejudice and either real 



or affected ignorance. We are sorry to have to say this, but it is tlie 



truth, as every one familiar with British literature very well kuows. Is 



it worth our while to incjuire why ? 



In this " age of steam," as it has been aptly termed, when the Atlan- 

 tic ocean is reduced to a mere ferri/, less formidable to the traveler than 

 the channel between Dover and Calais, or the Hudson river between 

 Albany and New York, once was — when ten days, or less, carries the news of the 

 week from continent to continent, and travelers, on business or pleasure, flock hither 

 and thither by thousands, — in such times, too, of printing and reading as these are, 

 when the publishers of ISTew York, Boston, London, and Edinburgh ai-e making liberal 

 weekly exchanges of tlie literature of the two continents, with the daily papers of New 

 York offered in the streets of all the large cities of Europe wliile scarce a week old, 

 and European journals landed on our shores by the cart load from every steamer — 

 with American booksellers in London, and English booksellers in New York — in 

 short, with the most intimate connection, in every respect, that could possibly exist 

 between two countries, — one would suppose that if popular error, ignorance, or preju- 

 dice, ever existed in either in regard to the other, it would by this time have been 

 pretty thoroughly broken up. We fear, however, it is not so. 



In Europe one generation after another has imbibed the idea, both from history 

 and tradition, that the American continent was a vast wilderness of woods and prai- 

 ries, with here and there a partial clearing or a rude village ; that the population was 

 a mixture of negroes, Indians, and semi-civilized whites ; that in two or three of the 

 maritime cities, favored by a more intimate intercourse with the old world, there was 

 the germ of civilization and refinement, but beyond their limits all was wild, unculti- 

 vated, barbarian. These ideas are at this time considerably modified, we admit, but 

 those who travel through the country places of Great Britain, and mingle and converse 

 with the country people, know that there they are not muck modified. Nor have the 

 most intelligent classes — the men who read and travel, who know the world and note its 

 progress — been able to divest themselves wholly of their early impressions. Prejudice 

 is one of the most fatal frailties of human nature. So obstinately blind and deaf is it, 

 that it NN'ill not allo-w its victims either to hear or see the slightest evidence that con- 

 flicts with the notions and traditions in which they have been reared. 



The great exhibition of 1851, in London, produced some striking and memorable 

 illustrations of the \iews and feelings which exist in England in regard to America. 

 The articles we sent there were held up before the world as a laughing stock, by the 

 English press. They were the standing tlieme for all the wit, and sarcasm, and 

 ignorance of reporters; and it was only after careful and thorough investigations and 

 trials, the results of which bore down the most inveterate prejudice, that some half- 



Ju.\E 1, 1853. 



Is'o. VI. 



