MassachustUs Horticultural Society. 



celebrate. I need only repeat the names of Lowell, Cabot, Ames, 

 Adams, Lyman, and Strong, not to mention others, to awaken in ev- 

 ery cotemporary mini, the recollection of their worth, their great- 

 ness, and their patriotism. These gentlemen, with their associates 

 and successors, labored for twenty years in endeavors to im])rove the 

 agriculture of the country. Buc do you think, Mr. President, that 

 they souiiht to introduce, or even indulged in imagination the hope 

 of the glorious results we at this time are witnessing? Did they dream 

 of raising peaches under glass, and grapes in green-houses, for sale 

 in the market, or for agricultural profit.'' They would have as soon 

 thought of making a voyage across the Atlantic, as is now done, in 

 twelve days, by the power of steam. How to improve the flesh and 

 fleeces of sheep, how to raise the best breed of hogs, how best to man- 

 age pasture or grass lands, how to enlarge the quantity and im|)rove 

 the quality of manures and the like, were the labor of their thoughts, 

 and the oljjects to which their useful and patriotic influences were di- 

 rected. As to 'Horticulture,' it was a term not known, practically, 

 in their nomenclature. The culture of fruit trees — peaches, apples, 

 pears, and even grapes, in the open air, is, indeed, occasionally men- 

 tioned in their publications. But it was not, I think, until the year 

 1815, that any very active measures were taken to excite our farmers 

 to a scientific and systematic attention to fruits and trees. The term 

 'horticulture' was still, in a maimer, unknown to us, in a practical 

 sense. Nor was it until the year 1821, that a regular and urgent no- 

 tice was taken in their publications of 'the Scieiice of Horticulture.' 

 And what did they then say on the subject.'' Why — that in this coun- 

 try 'we are yet infants in horticultural science' — that 'we have not 

 yet brought into use all the common culinary vegetables' — that 'in 

 the cultivation of fruits, and in the management of trees and grapes, 

 we are, in point of skill, half a century behind Dutch and English 

 gardeners.' 



"This state of things continued, with some gradual improvements, 

 until 1828, when the spirited, enterprising, and patriotic gentlemen 

 who laid the foundation of this Horticultural Society, obtained that 

 charter of incorporation, under whose influences, and by whose ex- 

 ample, these noble results were effected, the fruits of which we now 

 witness and enjoy. 



"While rejoicing in the present, it was impossible for me to refrain 

 from recollectino- the past, the days of humble but honorable endea- 

 vors in the same field, now so happily improved. Nor could I re*- 

 frain from doing honor to those great men, who, in times less happy, 

 prosperous, and advanced, first set the example of exciting and di- 

 recting our farmers in the cultivation of the soil, and were the re- 

 mote, but among the efficient, causes of the noble improvements now 

 made and advancing in both agriculture and horticulture. 



"Lord Bacon says somewhere, that 'God Almighty first planted a 

 garden;' from whence he deduces that there is something elevated 

 in its labors, and something divine in its creations and results. He 

 adds, that it is 'the purest of all pleasures, and the greatest refresh- 

 ment to the spirits of man.' 



"Borrowing the language of this great man, I propose the follow- 

 ing sentiment: — 



