230 



MASS. HORTICULTURAL FESTIVAL, 



the eminent success of the exhibition which is now 

 brou<Tht to a close. 



I think you will agree with me, ladies and gen- 

 tlemen, that a richer display of horticultural pro- 

 ducts has rarely been witnessed by any of us. I 

 have had a recent opportunity of seeing some of the 

 horticultural exhibitions of other climes. It is 

 hardly more than a twelvemonth since it was my 

 good fortune to be present at more than one of the 

 famous flower shows of London and its vicinity. I 

 know not what hidden beauties mioht have revealed 

 themselves on these occasions to a more scientific 

 eye — what prodigies of art miglit have been dis- 

 covered by those w4io knew how to look for them — 

 I can only speak of the impressions produced on a 

 superficial observer. I saw there magnificent col- 

 lections of plants, such as I never saw belore, such 

 as I have never seen since. Not a few of them 

 were pointed out to me as original products of our 

 own soil ; but I confess that they had been .so im- 

 proved by cultivation, that it must have required a 

 very practiced eye, or an exceedingly patriotic pair 

 of spectacles, to have emboldened any one to claim 

 them as Native American productions. But as to 

 fruits, I saw no exhibition of them anywhere, which 

 for variety, perfection or profusion, could be com- 

 pared with what we have seen in this hall during 

 the last two or three days. 



Certainly, Mr. President, we have never beheld 

 the like in these parts before. A few years ago, 

 we all remember that a little room in Tremont- 

 street was all too wide for your annual shows. But 

 you have gone on so rapidly, adding triumph to 

 triumph — at one moment producing a new apple, 

 at another a few more pears, at a third " a little 

 more grape" — that your own spacious horticultural 

 rooms have now become too small, and old Faneuil 

 Hall itself can hardly stretch its arms wide enough 

 to embrace all the spoils of your victories ! 



And what shall I say of the festival by which 

 your exhibition is now closed and crowned ? Who 

 dues not feel it a privilege to be here ? Which of 

 us, especially, that have been accustomed to asso- 

 ciate at meetings in this place, with subjects of po- 

 litical contention and party strife, can fail to ap- 

 preciate the harmony and beauty of the scene be- 

 fore him? Never, surely, was there combined a 

 greater variety of delightful circumstances. It 

 -would be difficult to decide for which of our senses 

 you have provided the most luxurious repast. Fruit, 

 flowers, music, fair faces and sparkling eyes ; wit, 

 eloquence and poetry, have all conspu-ed to lend 

 their peculiar enchantment to the hour. 



But it would be doing great injustice to your as- 

 sociation to estimate its claims upon the considera- 

 tion and gratitude of the community by the success 

 of its exhibitions or the brilliancy of its festivals. 

 We owe them a far deeper debt for their influence 

 in disseminating a taste for one of the purest and 

 most refined pleasures of life, and for their exer- 

 tions in difi'using the knowledge of an art so emi- 

 nently calculated to elevate the moral character of 

 society. 



Horticulture does little to supply the physical 

 wants of a man. The great crops and harvests by 

 which the world is fed, are the products of a sterner 

 treatment of the soil — ever-honored Agriculture, 



always the first of arts. But '' man does not live 

 by bread alone.'' There is food for the soul, the 

 mind, the heart, no less essential to bis true subsist- 

 ence, required not merely by the educated and re- 

 fined, but by all who have souls, minds or hearts 

 within them. And whence can the toiling m'illion.';- 

 of our race obtain a more abundant or a merer 

 wholesome supply of this food than from the beau- 

 ties of nature as developed at their ovi'n doors, be- 

 neath their own /eet, and tiy their own hands, by 

 the exquisite processes of horticulture ? 



It has been said that an undevout astronomer i* 

 mad. But we need not look up to the skies for in- 

 centives to devotion. We need not employ tele- 

 scopes to find evidences of Beneficence. There are 

 " Slars of the morning', ilew drops, which the Sun 

 Irapearls on every leaf and every flower," 



whose lessons are legible to the unassisted eye. 

 The flowers, themselves, with their gorgeous hues 

 and inimitable odors, and which seem, in the eco- 

 nomy of nature, to have no other object but to 

 minister to the gratification and delight of man, — 

 who can resist their quiet teachings? What com- 

 panions are they to those who will only take them 

 into company, and cherish their society, and listen 

 to their tharming voices I Who ever parts from 

 them without pain, that has once experienced their 

 disinterested and delightful friendship? 



I know not in the whole range of ancient or mo- 

 dern poetry, a strain more touching or more true to 

 nature, than that in which the great English bard 

 has presented Eve, bidding farewell to her flowers : 

 " Oil flowers, 

 That never will in other climate grow, 

 My early visitation, and my la*t 

 Al even, which 1 l)red up wilh tender hand 

 From the first opening l>ud, aiid gave ye names! 

 Who now shall rear ye So liie suji, or rank 

 Your tribes; and waterfront the ambrosial foniil ?" 

 We know not what were these flowers, that never 

 could in other climate grow. We may know here- 

 after. But such as we have, there are daughters 

 of Eve here present, I doubt not, with whom, to be 

 deprived of them, would well nigh partake of the 

 bitterness of a Paradise lost. 



But let me hasten to relieve you, ladies and 

 gentlemen, fioim the too sombre, if not too senti- 

 mental, train of remark into which I haYC been be- 

 trayed. My reverend friends who have preceded 

 me will have already regarded me as poaching on 

 their premises. Let me add but a single other 

 idea, as the subject of the sentiment which I shall 

 ofl'er in conclusion. 



We are accustomed to designate certain arts as 

 the Fine Arts, and I would be the last to disparage 

 their claim to this distinguished title. The)' fur- 

 nish to our halls of state and to the mansions of the 

 wealthy, paintings and sculpture that cannot be too 

 highly prized. But horticulture, in its most com- 

 prehensive sense, is emphatically the Fine Art of 

 conmion life. It is eminently a Republican Fine 

 Art It distributes its productions with equal hand 

 to the rich and the poor. Its implements may be 

 wielded by every arm, and its results appreciated 

 by every eye. It decorates the dwelling of the 

 humblest laborer with undoubted originals, by the 

 oldest masters, and places witl.in his daily view 

 fruit pieces such as Van Huysum never painted. 



