128 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Cost of seed and planting, .... 



of ploughing, &c., ..... 



of manure, ...... 



of cultivating and harvesting, . 



$47 50 

 Weight of crop, as certified by Cyrus Kilburn, Oct. 18, 2,880 lbs. 



FLOWERS. 



WORCESTER WEST. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



Not a home so humble or so lowly but it may claim a flower 

 garden ; and the wealthier and more prosperous a people, the 

 more munificent their expenditure upon public parks and 

 gardens. Thus the flower garden becomes a national feature, 

 and with the aid of a stereoscope, we may sit by our firesides 

 and learn its various peculiarities. We find that the English 

 remove the turf from the lawn upon which so much labor and 

 expense has been bestowed, and realize a beautiful effect by the 

 velvet greenness of the grass, contrasting with the brilliant 

 colors of the flowers ; the French arrange theirs with gravelled 

 walks, borders, cut trees and grassy slopes ; the Italians with 

 marble walls and terraces, fountains and flights of steps ; the 

 Spanish with light and airy tressel work ; while in tropical 

 India the gardens consist of squares of grass, under protecting 

 shade. Central Park, in New York City, combines in its 

 immense area, the spacious lawn, the parterre of flowers, the 

 Chinese pagoda, the tresseled arbor, flights of marble steps, 

 fountains, caves, shaded retreats with flowers and shrubs and 

 trees from each zone and every country, and in its whole 

 magnificent adornment, aims to copy nature. Its beautiful 

 rock-work suggests to our Worcester County people how its 

 many rocky localities, now repelling and forbidding, may be 

 made elegant by labor and taste. The scraping of the rocks, 

 the filling of crevices with strong, rich soil, the planting of 



