426 On Improvemeiit in Horticulture. 



nutritive matter amounts to nearly a half in different vatielies. 

 Some of the coarser kinds yield But fourteen and sixteen per 

 cent, of nutritive matter; while some of the finer kinds have giv- 

 en twenty-eight per cent. And it is worth regarding, that good 

 quality is almost inseparably connected with grateful flavor. 



Horticulture, as an employment, is higlily conducive to the 

 healthful vigor of the body, and to an agreeable exercise of the 

 mind. The labor it demands is neither severe in degree, nor 

 monotonously tiresome in kind. It affords continued change and 

 variety. The interesting objects of which it has cognizance, — 

 as the germination of the seed, the development of the leaf, the 

 growth of the stock and branches, the expansion of the flower, 

 the swelling, maturing and gathering of the fruit, and the diversi- 

 ty in foliage, flowers and fruit, of the various vegetable families 

 under its care, present to the mind, capable of appreciating and 

 admiring the beauties of the vegetable kingdom, a succession of 

 the most agreeable sensations. 



As a recreation, horticulture offers all the pleasures I have enu- 

 merated, without the fatigues which accompany its manual opera- 

 tions. What more grateful, to the sedentary and the studious, 

 or to him who is habitually involved in the mercenary cares of 

 business, than the relaxation afforded by a well kept garden, which 

 exhibits to the senses, the fragrance, the beauty, the order and 

 harmony, which Providence has imparted to the vegetable king- 

 dom? Here is nothing to awaken jealousy, to excite distrust, 

 to beget envy — or to inflame any of the grosser passions; but ev- 

 ery object is calculated to tranquillize the mind, to soften down 

 the asperities of his nature, and to beget, towards his fellow- 

 beings, feelings of kindness, philanthropy and love. 

 \ As a science, horticulture is rich in stores of intellectual vpealth 

 /and usefulness. It embraces glossology, which teaches the names 

 of parts of plants; phitography, or the nomenclature and descrip- 

 tion of plants; taxonomy, or their classification; vegetable organ- 

 ology, or the external structure of plants; vegetable anatomy, or 

 their internal structure; vegetable chemistry, or primary princi- 

 ples of plants; vegetable pathology, or the diseases and casualties 

 of vegetable life; vegetable geography and history, or the distri- 

 bution of vegetables, relatively to earth and to man; and the ori- 

 gin of culture, derived from the study of vegetables. 

 ■vJ It also embraces the study of the natural agents of vegetable 

 ' growth and culture, — as earths, soils and manures; the agency of 

 light, electricity, heat and water, in vegetable culture, and of the 

 atmosphere in vegetable development. 



Whether we regard horticulture as an art, or a science; wheth- 

 er we consider it as administering to our wants, convenience and 

 pleasures, or as promotive of health and useful knowledge, — it 

 has high claims to our notice and regard. 



