PROFITS OF ORI^AMENTAL GARDENING. 19 



tic life, strengthens his love for country, and nurtures 

 the better elements of the nature, in those who are 

 thrown in contact with such improvements. To pro- 

 mote a love for trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers, by cul- 

 tivating and studying them, develops in children a love 

 for the beautiful in nature, in art, and still more in char- 

 acter. Nothing is truer than that the love of nature 

 sharpens the senses, and quickens all the intellectual 

 faculties. Were j^arents to provide to the fullest practi- 

 cable degree, the simj^le means for encouraging the love 

 of ornamental gardening, and of the study of Botany, 

 and other closely allied sciences at home, they early secure 

 for the young a source of high enjoyment, that is un- 

 known elsewhere, one which elevates the mind and fills it 

 Avith noble asj^irations. Besides these things, the mere 

 spending of time on the jmrt of all, and especially of 

 children and women, in the exercise and enjoyment that 

 comes from associating with, and caring for plants, is 

 highly conducive to health. It is largely because of their 

 rambles and exercise in the open air by tlie women of 

 England, that they generally present the bloom and vig- 

 or of youth until far advanced in life. It would be both 

 easy and inexpensive to provide the majority of American 

 homes with these opportunities for health-giving exercise. 

 It pays to do well whatever is done in ornamental 

 and landscape gardening. In starting such work, it is 

 too often undertaken without anything like a definite 

 plan. It would be quite as reasonable to work without 

 a well-considered plan in building our houses, yet we find 

 that large sums of money in tha aggregate are paid to 

 architects for house-plans and superintendence of work, 

 while for the surroundings, little thought is given to call- 

 insf in the services of the trained sfardener. When the 

 day comes that the landscape gardener will be consulted 

 along with the house architect, in matters of home im- 

 provement, then a less sum of money will go farther to- 



