FORMATION OF RURAL TASTE. 



467 



blown it off the sled even ; so great was 

 the weight of the frozen mass about its 

 roots. 



In conclusion, Mr. Downing, I hope every 

 man in New-England, as well as "down 

 east," will plant trees, tell each other how 

 to get along, and subscribe for the " Hor- 

 ticulturist." Yours very truly, 



Alex. Johnston, Jr. 



Wiscasset., Lincoln co., Me., February, 1849. 



Remarks. — Mr. Johnston's mode of trans- 

 planting is new to us, and strikes us very 

 favorably. No method of transplanting 

 large trees, ever practiced under our own 

 eyes, has ever been so successful as moving 

 them with frozen balls in winter; and though 

 the transportation of large trees may be 

 easier when the ground is covered Avith 



snow than in our correspondent's mode, 

 yet the latter has the advantage of being 

 performed at a season when replanting can 

 be done much more completely than when 

 the surrounding soil is frozen. 



We are often impressed, in our some- 

 what extended correspondence, by the great 

 extent and diversity of the United States, 

 as a field for horticultural labors. Immedi- 

 ately after reading Mr. Johnston's account 

 of the frosty air of Maine, where the tem- 

 perature of zero is considered a comfortable 

 condition of things for a month to come, we 

 opened an epistle from a friend in New- 

 Orleans, (dated ten days before Mr. J.'s,) 

 in which he dilates with gusto on the flavor 

 of the first strawberries, gathered there in 

 the ope?i air ! Ed. 



HINTS ON THE FORMATION OF RURAL TASTE. 



BY S. B GOOKINS, TERRE HAUTE. lA. 



Here beginneth a chapter on American 

 UuRAL Taste. American.! says Mr. Bull, 

 burning up his nose at the idea of locality 

 and nationality, in respect to taste, and es- 

 pecially American. Why not, sir ? Ge- 

 nius has no locality, it is true ; but its pro- 

 ductions are modified by circumstances, as 

 the mutations which have marked the pro- 

 gress of European civilization abundantly 

 prove. Taste is the discrimination of beau- 

 ty ; and in proportion as it is good or bad, 

 will this discrimination give character to 

 the literature and arts of a people. The 

 critic and the connoisseur profess to have 

 attained a refined and exalted perception of 

 the truthful and the beautiful ; and the 

 developments of genius, literary and artis- 

 lic, attain their measure of perfectness, be it 

 greater or less, under the guiding and 

 moulding influence of their censorship. 



But their perceptions of the truthful and 

 the beautiful are not the coinage of nature's 

 mint. The standard of perfection in the 

 imagination of the critic, is also the product 

 of antecedent causes ; and the various cir- 

 cumstances of a people, in respect to man- 

 ners, habits, soil, climate and institutions, 

 political and moral, in their turn furnish a 

 standard for the critic. 



Take, for example, the architecture of a 

 people. The roving tribes of the earth 

 construct their habitations in a style de- 

 manded by their habits of life. The Arab 

 tent protects its occupant from the scorch- 

 ing sun of the desert. The Indian lodge 

 of bufllilo skins shuts out the driving snow 

 of the prairies. No enclosures secure the 

 waving corn from trespassing animals; for 

 there are neither corn to wave nor cattle to 

 encroach. The seasons do not bring to 



