174 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



PLANT SHADE-TREES. 



would suggest to the editors of newspapers the pro 

 priety of establishing in their columns a permanent agricul 

 tural department. We are much pleased to see that many 

 excellent papers are doing it, and that others insert occa 

 sional articles. Great advantage cannot fail to accrue to 

 our town* and rural population by putting into their hands 

 every week, able articles from practical farmers and gar 

 deners upon the various topics of agriculture and horticul 

 ture. Let every paper urge the setting out of shade-trees 

 in our villages. It is greatly to be desired, that all our 

 towns should be filled with elms, maples, ashes, locusts, etc. 

 The cultivation of fruit may be much encouraged and pro 

 moted by a frequent republication of articles on that sub 

 ject. The gardens and conservatories of a few very wealthy 

 gentlemen do not constitute a horticultural community. 

 They are of great use in the procuration and cultivation of 

 new varieties of plants, and in testing important matters by 

 expensive experiments. But affluent men and their pleas 

 ure grounds are to horticulture, what universities are to 

 common schools ; that State is best educated whose whole 

 population are the most thoroughly trained ; and that is the 

 horticultural State, all of whose villages, towns, farms, and 

 gardens, are in the highest state of cultivation. 



Our desire is to diffuse a love for rural affairs, husbandry, 

 and horticulture among the whole mass of the community. 



WEEDS IN ALLEYS. It is said that weeds may be entirely 

 destroyed for years by copious watering with a solution of 

 lime and sulphur in boiling-hot water. This, if effectual, 

 will be highly important to such as have garden gravel 

 walks, pavements, etc., through which grass and weeds 

 grow up. 



