INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIETY. 457 



elsewhere. This was the special object of the Society, 

 and to it all its other work was but incidental. Pre- 

 viously to the existence of the Society there was only 

 here and there a garden in this portion of the country, 

 or indeed in the whole land, that was managed with 

 much horticultural skill, or that attracted notice when 

 compared with many in the Old World. A knowledge 

 of gardening as a science hardly existed. Fruits, flow- 

 ers, and vegetables, so far as cultivated, were, with few 

 exceptions, of inferior quality. The same was true, in 

 a great degree, of the prevalent agriculture ; for few of 

 the agricultural societies now existing had been founded. 

 Those in existence were generally in their infancy, and 

 had neither the knowledge nor the pecuniary means to 

 accomplish much for the improvement of agriculture. 

 " Horticulture was still rather a solitary than a social 

 pursuit. Every one pursued his own course, neither 

 acquainted, to any great degree, with the improvements 

 of his neighbor, nor assisted by his advice, nor excited 

 by his success. Horticulture had its own charms to 

 recommend it, and these were many and various ; but its 

 cause wanted all that aid which is derived from the 

 union of numbers deeply interested in the pursuit of a 

 common and favorite object. Our Society was estab- 

 lished to remedy this important disadvantage, to bring 

 the friends of horticulture into close contact, to afford 

 inducements for that social interchange of sentiment 

 from which the mind gains new light and the feelings 

 new warmth, to diffuse knowledge, to correct error, 

 and to call into action those master spirits of the human 

 mind, the spirit of emulation, and the spirit of improve- 

 ment." : Fortunate in the time when it began to call 



1 Hon. John C. Gray's Address, September 17, 1834. 



