276 Landscape Gardening 



It is not, therefore, without much pleasurable emotion, 

 that we have had notice lately of the formation of five new 

 horticultural societies, the last at St. Louis, and most of 

 them west of the Alleghanies. Whoever lives to see the 

 end of the next cycle of our race, will see the great valleys 

 of the West the garden of the world; and we watch with 

 interest the first development, in the midst of the busy 

 fermentation of its active masses, of that beautiful and 

 quiet spirit, of the joint culture of the earth and the heart, 

 that is destined to give a tone to the future character of its 

 untold millions. 



The increased love of home and the garden, in the older 

 states, is a matter of every-day remark; and it is not a little 

 curious, that just in proportion to the intelligence and set- 

 tled character of its population, is the amount of interest 

 manifested in horticulture. Thus, the three most settled 

 of the original States, we suppose to be Massachusetts, 

 New York and Pennsylvania; and in these states horti- 

 culture is more eagerly pursued than in any others. The 

 first named state has now seven horticultural societies; the 

 second, seven; the third, three. Following out the com- 

 parison in the cities, we should say that Boston had the 

 most settled population, Philadelphia the next, and New 

 York the least so of any city in the Union; and it is well 

 known that the horticultural society of Boston is at this 

 moment the most energetic one in the country, and that it 

 is stimulated by the interest excited by societies in all its 

 neighboring towns. The Philadelphia society is exceedingly 

 prosperous; while in New York, we regret to say, that the 

 numerous efforts that have been made to establish firmly a 

 society of this kind have not, up to this time, resulted in 

 any success whatever. Its mighty tide of people is as yet 

 too much possessed with the spirit of business and of un- 

 rest." * 



* "The New-York Horticultural Society" was organized in the spring 

 of 1852, and is already in a flourishing condition. G. W. G. 



