130 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



dividing, just as now. Whether under sea or sky, the great 

 Continent of America, at that early day, contained tliose simples 

 and forces which have been combined and exerted within the 

 last four centuries, until the world has realized the vast 

 resources of wealth and beauty which she possesses. 



From the depths of her mighty rivers, from her inexhaustible 

 mines, from the scenery of her natural parks and her thousands 

 of lakes, and from the grandeur of her remarkable canons and 

 the loftiness of her mountain peaks, come forth the questions — 

 Of what use has the American Continent been to the world? 

 Have its inhabitants gleaned any additional knowledge, or 

 received any benefits from us? In this paper, it is proposed, as 

 was intimated at its beginning, to answer these questions, in 

 regard to horticulture alone. 



When we use the term horticulture, we consider it as mean- 

 ing the most perfect method of cultivating the soil either for 

 products of beauty or use. This art had been known to the 

 inhabitants of the Old World or Eastern Continent, for 

 thousands of years before Columbus had started on his voyages 

 of exploration. A love of the beautiful in nature had been 

 implanted in his soul, and the luxuriance of the tropical vegeta- 

 tion of the country he found so impressed him with its charm- 

 ing appearance that he made particular mention of it to Queen 

 Isabella, when he wrote to her the glowing accounts of the new 

 land. 



Through the succeeding years, in the early unsettled state of 

 this continent, not much attention was paid to aught except the 

 cultivation of those cereals and vegetables which were required 

 for the sustenance of nature. Different nations were sending 

 colonies westward, each one desirous of acquiring a strong and 

 permanent foothold in some chosen corner of either North or 

 South America. To those lured hither first by a desire for 

 gold, the products of the soil held little, if any, attraction. 

 Like our own citizens of the eastern United States, who, in 

 1849, flocked, in so great a number, to the gold mines of 

 California, they little realized what a variety and amount of 

 flowers and fruit were possible to be developed from the glitter- 

 ing sands. 



