than tees nisin eae ‘connected with the great seats 
rable Botanic-Gardens, experimental nurseries (. Baihiehaliens 
where the students of any of the specialties of horticulture may find a1 
fund of information and ample opportunity for observation and 
In our aoe and new West these admirable institutions have x n 
ful soils, 
_. True it is, the thought germs were widely disseminated eae 
during the discussion, already a quarter century ago, of the great t 
trial education. Yes, those who advocated that great movement, 
culminated in the noble grant of congress of lands for this purpose, 
fondly hope that their longings for the new education which ‘‘should 
knoweldge of things rather than of words,’’ were indeed, now to be 
Alas, in too many cases, to be woefully ‘Gieaprioiiiedt Where can | 
among all the results of this legislation: the model we had pictured to ourselves A 
of industrial education? The answer is awaited with anxiety—but it comes not. Awe 
In such great institutions for learning things, the projectors and early advo- 
cates of the system, fondly anticipated seeing Arboreta established among the — 
first advances in the new departure, and had that been done, we should ere this 
have had laid for us the broad foundations of an American Forest-Science, the ~ 
A.B. C. of which must be a familiar knowledge of our own trees, the natives, 
and the desirable exotics. pda 
In how few, alas, of our so-called agricultural colleges, are any such object les- 
sons to be found. And where some attempts have been made to establish Arbo- — 
reta and Botanic Gardens, how small, as yet, are the beginnings, and how fee- 
ble the support rendered them from the great fund provided by the bounty of the 
Nation. ; 
These thoughts have been suggested, and these weary lamentations have ee 
excited, by the receipt of the annual report of the Director of the Arnold Arbo- 
retum, and also of the Botanic Garden of Harvard University, at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. Here, then, in an institution of learning, which was already 
established, and which is sustained largely by private munificence, must we look 
for the great results we had hoped to receive trom the agricultural land grant, 
through the institutions which under its benificence were to have given the peo- 
ple that for which they had so earnestly pleaded, instruction in agriculture and 
the mechanic arts. 
From this report of the enthusiastic Director, Prof. C. 8. Sargent, we learn 
that much work has been done in the Botamic Garden, and that the Arboretum 
is in progress, for the necessary planning of which alone, $2,000 was at once 
raised by private subscription of twelve public-spirited individuals. 
Among the results of the establishment of the Arboretum the director cites a 
large correspondence from those desirous of procuring information, “generally 
ointing to the solution of these two problems : 
1. How shall the worn out and exposed portions of the Atlantic seaboard be 
covered with trees again in the cheapest and quickest manner. 
How shall the treeless western states e ee ig be best rendered 
more habitable and productive through covering portions of them with forest 
growth, and especially what trees shall be selected for this purpose.” 
The director reports that he has succeeded in obtaining legislation in Massa- 
chusetts and Rhode Island exempting certain lands from taxation for the encour- 
agement of tree planting. 
