ADDRESS 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — 



I HAVE been requested by the Horticultural Soci- 

 ety to offer you some remarks on the present inter- 

 esting occasion. I am sensible of my inability to do 

 justice to the subject, or to present to you any thing 

 equal in merit to the elaborate, elegant, and valuable 

 productions with which the public have been enter- 

 tained on former anniversaries. But the respect 

 which I owe to the wishes of the Society, and the 

 deep interest which I feel in the great object of their 

 efforts, have induced me to comply with their request, 

 and I shall briefly notice some of the inducements 

 which exist to the pursuit of Horticulture, more 

 especially in our country. 



This art may be recommended, in the first place, 

 as an innocent and salutary amusement. In bestow- 

 ing upon it these titles, I have said very much in its 

 favor. The topic of amusements has ever been a 

 most perplexing and difficult one to the moral casuist. 

 I suppose that no one would proscribe all relaxation. 

 All admit that the most industrious individual must 

 have his intervals either of recreation, or of idleness. 



