thp: canai>ian hoktioui/iurist. 



125 



spread out before us, and been t'uiii >d 

 by breezes as soft as tlKjse that now 

 kissed our brows ; but I doubt if any 

 one of us ever enjoyed a sunset hour 

 more keenly than the one we spent in 

 that orange grove. 



" SPRING WORK IN THE GARDEN." 



(For Canadian Horticulturist. J 



Mr. Editor. — I send you a fine 

 description of sj)ring work in thegarden, 

 and the results, as clipped from one of 

 our village locals. I am sure you will be 

 very much amused at it. for altliough it 

 may be true of that partit-ular village, it 

 is not true of any other that is within 

 the range of my observations : 



*' At this season of the year the indus- 

 trious owner of a town lot, riseth up before 

 the sun in the morning, girds up his loins, 

 seizes a spade, and delves the fertile blue 

 mud until the welcome breakfast b-dl re- 

 calls hint from his labors. As the net 

 result o," his seis-sou's work he will have ; 

 one cas ; rheumatism, one ditto lumbago, 

 one nii" d 'moralized pantaloons, two pairs 

 seco 1 1 hiud shoes (tramp's ulmice). half- 

 a-d()Zeu sickly onions, two bunclus lettuce, 

 five stalks of rhubarb, and half-bushel 

 potatoes." — Watford A locate, May 2nd, 

 1884. 



Oil the othei- hand, we frequently 

 have ooasion to admire the Ijeautiful 

 locations of many of the pleasant and 

 thriving towns and villages of our proud 

 Ontario. They seem to be founded on 

 the very richest and most beautiful 

 spots of earth that ordinarily fall to 

 the lot of man to possess. Every 

 township in every county holds as a 

 precious iidieritance high, and well- 

 drained, rich alluvial soils that are the 

 wealth of nations, and these are sure 

 to be the proud site of some large or 

 small, more or less thriving town or 

 village, with its wealth of happy and 

 prosperous citiz3ns. This is just as it 

 should be, and they are the pride of the 

 country at hirge. Talk about hard feel- 

 ings, bickerings and war between the 



town and country ! It is all purest 

 nonsense; t!iev all need one another, and 

 are proud of each other's possession. 

 Those town and village sites are the 

 loveli-^st spots of earth that enrich and 

 beautify a country, and are as stars in 

 th« ever blue firuiauient of its glorious 

 history. Eacli of its inhabitants is an 

 ant ill the mole hill, and all are working 

 fui- the ge;ieral good of the entire com- 

 munity. The poorest man amongst them 

 may be as hap|)y and self-important as 

 a prince in the possession of a town 

 lot or of sevei'al, and on this he toils 

 with nevei'-tiring energies early and 

 late, delving, not in the '\ffrHle blue 

 inic'l " but in the more fertile grey or 

 bhtck mould of our rich alluvial soils. 

 And why should he not thus work with 

 unflagging diligence ] It niav be that 

 liis lot is the admiration and jjride of 

 the entire corporation. In this very 

 village to which our extract applies, we 

 know in particular of one of tho.se 

 h;ipj)y and fortunate possessors of a 

 beautiful town lot that i.-; looked to and 

 i, the admiration of the entire village. 

 Tlie owner is a florist of no mean ])re- 

 tentions, and to walic up and down that 

 street and only gaze from the outside 

 u[)on those lovely beds of rich and 

 varie 1 colour is a joy and lasting 

 l)Ieasure every villager {)rizes, and is in 

 the conversations of eveiy gossipcr. 

 Now. sir, you yourself, with your flnely 

 cultivate 1 attainuients, I miy be safe to 

 siy, would be delighted to pass some 

 fine summer evening by that man's 

 garden, and you wouhl in all likelihood 

 be amongst those who stop to gaze at 

 the variety of colour and beauty, and 

 to sniff the fragrant jjerfumes that float 

 from that spot of cultivated earth and 

 fill tlie surrounding air. Is not this as 

 it should be ] In every village we liud 

 them ; these precious workers for the 

 general good ; the vnry '• .salt of the 

 earth," with their rich endowment of 

 line taste and well trained muscle. 



