420 On improvement in Horticulture. 



Gardening and horticulture are in a measure synonymous terras. 

 Gardening is divided into branches. It "is practised for private 

 use and enjoyment," says Loudon, "in cottage, villa and man- 

 sion gardens; — for public recreation, in umbrageous and verdant 

 promenades, parks and other scenes, in and near large towns; — 

 for public instruction, in botanic and experimental gardens; — and 

 for the purposes of commerce, in market, orchard, seed, physic, 

 florists, and nursery gardens." Tn all of these departments of 

 horticulture, we have great room for improvement, and great 

 need of it; in all of them it is the object of this association to 

 promote improvement, and in all of them they will efl'ect im- 

 provement, if their eflbrts are seconded, as I trust they will be, 

 by the intelligence, the taste, and the public spirit of the opulent 

 gentlemen of our valley. It is the object of the association to 

 introduce into this — our Eden-r-"every tree that is pleasant to 

 the sight, and good for food" — to introduce, and to disseminate 

 widely, all that is useful and ornamental in garden culture — all 

 the fruits, flowers and culinary vegetables, that are worthy of cul- 

 ture, whether of foreign or domestic origin, which our soil will 

 grow, and our climate mature. 



It is not enough that many of the choice productions of the 

 garden should be found with a few of the opulent. Those that 

 are excellent should be known and disseminated widely. We 

 should do good to others, if we would know the pleasures that 

 spring from a generous philanthropy. By bringing these produc- 

 tions together at our semi-annual exhibitions, showing and com- 

 paring them, we can determine their relative merits, their proper 

 names and synouymes,— /can publish the result of these compari- 

 sons, and recommend and disseminate those which possess the 

 greatest intrinsic merit.\ "All men will eat good fruit that can 

 get it," says Sir William Temple; "so that the choice is only, 

 whether one will eat good or ill; — and of all things produced in a 

 garden, whether of salads or fruits, a poor man that has one of 

 his own, will eat better than a rich man that has none." We 

 seek to extend the luxury of good fruits to all, in order that the 

 poor man who has a garden, may eat better fruit than the rich man 

 who has none. 



As I have remarked, gardening is co-existent with man. Its ear- 

 ly history is too obscure to be traced. Suflice it to say, that in 

 the best days of polished Rome, it was cultivated with taste and 

 assiduity, and ranked with the fine arts; and that with these it 

 sunk to obscurity in the downfall of that empire. All of the art 

 that survived the shock of \'andalism in lunope, was preserved 

 and cloistered with the monks during the dark ages. With learn- 

 ing it revived first in Italy and Holland; to which countries many 

 exotics, and a taste for cullivaling them, were introduced during 

 the crusades. It was not until ilie reign ol' Ilcnry VIH. in the 



