10 



To what I have said of its intellectual and moral 

 effects, I should add, that, were it generally culti- 

 vated, very much would be done for the advancement 

 of its kindred art, the most important, by far, of all 

 arts, Agriculture. In our country, where land is 

 cheap and labor high, our farmers are strongly in- 

 duced to spread their efforts over a large surface, to 

 cultivate a great extent of ground superficially, rather 

 than a smaller portion thoroughly. This practice, if 

 justified to some degree by the circumstances of the 

 country, has been carried quite too far for good taste, 

 or even good economy. Nothing would tend more 

 to check the evils consequent on such a system, than 

 the general practice of gardening. It is in a garden, 

 that we should learn those principles of neatness and 

 order, that thoroughness in subdividing and enrich- 

 ing the soil, that war of extermination against weeds 

 and insects, and, above all, that vigilance in embrac- 

 ing precious and fleeting opportunities, which are the 

 prominent characteristics of the thriving farmer. It 

 is by this cultivation in miniature, so to speak, that 

 we should be kept from despising those little things 

 which, in agriculture as in every thing else, must 

 ever be duly regarded by all who aspire to great 

 results. If every farmer among us were, also, a 

 florist, — and every farmer may be one to a consider- 

 able degree, — the neatness and precision of his gar- 

 dening operations, would soon extend itself, — if not 

 already existing there, — to his field cultivation, and 

 our villages would exhibit much of that exactness 

 and elegance, so conspicuous and so pleasing in our 

 Shaker settlements. 



