HORTICULTURE THE PERFECTION OF AGRICULTURE. 473 



ture, for which the needed stimulus and encouragement 

 has been furnished by the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society. We need not enlarge on the beneficial effect 

 which the Society has exerted in educating the bodies, 

 the minds, the tastes, and the morals of individuals and 

 the community, or its untold influence in diffusing gen- 

 eral happiness : a mere allusion to these points will 

 suffice. 



In the historical sketch with which this volume com- 

 mences, we have seen that agriculture, providing for 

 the necessaries of man, precedes horticulture, which 

 ministers to his luxuries : indeed it may be said that 

 agriculture is the parent of horticulture. But as culti- 

 vation improved, the preliminary experiments with ferti- 

 lizers, the experiments in grafting, budding, and other 

 methods of propagation, and the selection of the fine 

 fruits which fill the orchards of our farmers, were made 

 in the garden, and many other of the most valuable prod- 

 ucts of agriculture were first introduced, and their 

 qualities tested in the garden. Thus has the child 

 repaid its obligation to the parent. Horticulture is the 

 perfection of agriculture ; and as population increases, 

 and with it the necessity for more careful cultivation, 

 we may expect, that under the influence of this and 

 kindred societies, and the agencies set in motion by 

 them, all the operations of agriculture will ultimately 

 be performed with the precision, nicety, and refinement 

 of horticulture, until the whole world shall become a 

 garden. 



