HORTICULTURAL REMINISCENCES. 231 



all attempts to master a knowledge of it should be avoided is to 

 stimulate an abnormal desire for wealth, which in a large propor- 

 tion of instances would result in hopes not realized, and happiness 

 not secured. 



The work of teaching practical housekeeping has been well 

 begun in our female seminaries ; where the great fact is wisely in- 

 culcated that every woman as well as man has work to perform ; 

 and that, in spite of diverse home conditions or other human re- 

 lations, a knowledge of that work ma}' become essential to the 

 happiness not only of one woman but of a whole family. If prac- 

 tical horticulture could now be added to the curriculum, the out- 

 door recreation which would result would add vigor to the body, 

 freshness to the mind, and stability to the health of the graduates 

 of our institutions for the education of young women. 



As regards the institutions established for the education of our 

 boys and young men, it may be said that it would be un- 

 popular and. therefore inexpedient to introduce practical horticul- 

 ture into them. But the practice of horticulture in all its details 

 by bo3's and men need not be any less attractive, surely, than the 

 process of dish washing and bread making and sweeping and 

 dusting to young ladies. 



Again it may be argued that the larger portion of our young 

 men in academies and colleges are from the country, and so have 

 had a practical schooling in the outlines of what we propose they 

 should be taught. This argument cannot be sound, for it equally 

 applies to the young ladies who gather at Wellesley and Vassar. 

 They have made bread and washed dishes and swept the floors 

 and dusted the furniture in their own rooms ; nevertheless it is an 

 almost universally accepted fact that this radical innovation upon 

 the routine of the school has been attended with grand results. 



This work of the domestic household and of horticulture in the 

 schools we hope and believe will be widely extended and con- 

 ducted in a systematic way, and the great variet}' of useful results 

 to those so disciplined will never be exhausted until death. 



At the present time there is a growing dislike to all phj'sical 

 labor among our native born population. Domestic labor has no sup- 

 port from the novelist among his female heroines, and the ploughboy 

 long since ceased to be taken as his hero. The lady with waiting- 

 maid and lackies in livery and the adventurer who is a banker or 

 a railr'^ad king have taken the places of the heroines and heroes 



