70 Reviews. — Wailes''s Mdress. 



influence, and been instrumental in effectinff a decided improvement 

 in the condition of the country. In the three years of its existence, oc- 

 casion has been afforded for awarding the certificate of the Society to 

 one hundred and thirty-four objects deserving this consideration, for 

 their excellence and superiority over others exhibited, most of which 

 were inferior only by comparison. 



In this period, and chiefly within the last year, the extent to which 

 valuable improved stock has been introduced into the State, bids fair 

 to render us, in a short period, independent of foreign supply for those 

 indispensable articles, provision and farming stock, to procure which 

 has hitherto been so exhausting a drain upon our resources. 



That the feeling of the community has been greatly excited in be- 

 half of agricultural improvement — that a desire of information, 

 touching this most vital of our interests, has taken a firm hold on the 

 public mind, is becoming daily more obvious. It is apparent in the 

 daily conversation of our planters, and is witnessed in their projected 

 improvements and progressing enterprises. 



It is manifested in the establishment and increased circulation of 

 periodical publications devoted to agriculture, and in the tone of the 

 newspaper press, in which space greater than usual has been allotted 

 to its interests. 



Articles calculated to enlighten and inform the planter, scientific es- 

 says and dissertations of practical utility, find admission into their 

 columns, and are coming more frequently to take place of those bitter 

 personal denunciations and angry recriminations of political warfare, 

 in which only a depraved and vitiated taste, or an excited imagina- 

 tion, can take pleasure. The conductors of the public press, in many 

 instances sharing in the general and growing disgust of political strife, 

 have discarded the badge of party, and, adopting a course more con- 

 genial to the times, have espoused the cause, if they have not become 

 wholly devoted to the interests, of agriculture. 



Of this association, specially, little more need now be said. Its 

 acts will best proclaim its merits, and claim for it that consideration 

 and encouragement which it may be found to deserve. 



The address closes with the following remarks upon the 

 pursuits of horticulture: — 



Akin to the profitable and pleasant pursuit of horticulture, the for- 

 mation of pleasure grounds becomes almost identified with gardening. 

 The gratification which these afford to all classes loses none of its 

 zest from its easy attainment, and we prize them in the degree in 

 which they are the productions of our own skill, and the results of 

 our own industry. 



From the humanizing and refining influence they exert, there is no 

 expenditure of the surplus means of the affluent more rational, than 

 in their creation; and there is no better evidence of cultivated taste 

 and elegant enjoyment, than is presented in those fine horticultural 

 establishments, those spacious pleasure grounds which embellish our 

 country, and vie in richness with the princely establishments of other 

 climes. Whether as the appendages of the imposing mansion, or of 

 the rural cottage, they are alike attractive, and afford within their 

 bounds a little world for contemplation and study. 



