102 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



garden. 1 Whether it could have been carried on suc- 

 cessfully in the face of these difficulties, if the union 

 between the Society and the proprietors of lots had 

 continued, cannot be told ; but the terms of separation 

 of these two interests put an end to the garden, which 

 was no doubt less regretted by those most interested in 

 that department than it would have been, had not the 

 experience of two seasons shown that the soil was not 

 well adapted to the purpose of an experimental gar- 

 den. And, if asked to assign a reason why the Society 

 has not established such a garden since its means have 

 been more ample, we should reply that at no time have 

 they been adequate to the maintenance of such an es- 

 tablishment as would be creditable to the Society ; 2 and 

 it has been felt that the improvement of horticulture 

 could be better promoted by liberal premiums for the 

 encouragement of individual efforts in horticultural art, 

 by the provision of suitable halls for the exhibition of 

 improved products, and by the collection of a horti- 

 cultural library, than by embarking in an enterprise 

 not only expensive, but extremely hazardous otherwise. 

 The prizes offered by the Society have encouraged the 

 establishment of not one, but many, experimental gar- 

 dens. 



1 The only action of the Garden and Cemetery Committee, specially 

 relating to the garden, which we find on the records of the committee, is 

 comprised in a vote on the 30th of August, 1834, appointing Messrs. Bradlee 

 and Cook and such other members of the Society as they might see tit to 

 associate with them, a committee to devise a plan for rendering the garden 

 more productive, and to receive donations of plants, etc., and cause them to 

 be set out in the garden; and in a vote, on the 27th of October of the same 

 year, appointing Mr. Yose and Mr. Bradlee a committee to examine the 

 garden and Garden Pond, and report what improvements ought in their 

 opinion to be made therein to render the garden productive and profitable. 



1 The London Horticultural Society's garden was commenced at the end 

 of the year 1818, and up to May, 1857, 40,000 had been expended on it. 

 The extent of the garden at Chiswick was about the same as of that at 

 Mount Auburn. 



