50 [Assembly 



force of its example, agricultural and horticultural associations have 

 been established in the counties of nearly every State in the Union, 

 and men have been induced to regard planting and sowing as the 

 most permanent, profitable, and independent avocation. Practical 

 works on farming and gardening have been distributed by these 

 newly-formed societies, and an increased sale created for such ma- 

 nuals ; in proof of which, " The Young Gardener^s Assistant" has 

 been in great demand throughout the far west, from its having been 

 adopted as a suitable award to competitors, in promoting the success- 

 ful cultivation of vegetables, flowers, and fruit. 



With much regret your committee must here remark, that until 

 within the last few years, the art of cultivating the earth has been by 

 many pa ents considered a degrading pursuit. From fallacious views, 

 they have looked upon the handling of the plough, the spade, and the 

 rake, as not so likely to confer riches, honor, and dignity, as some 

 other occupations. The earliest records of history, however, esta- 

 blish the pleasing fact, that terra culture has excited the sweetest and 

 loftiest strains of the poet ; that it has engaged the attention of the 

 great and the good ; and that the most profound philosophers have 

 deemed it a study of primary importance. 



The subject of horticulture comes recommended to us from the 

 declarations of Holy Writ ; for it is recorded in the second chapter of 

 the book of Genesis, that "the Lord God planted a garden eastward 

 in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed, to dress 

 and to keep it. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow 

 every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." And from 

 the contents of the third chapter, we may infer that the cultivation of 

 the fig, and other tempting fruits, was well understood. 



All ancient history begins with fable and tradition, and the fabulous 

 gardens of antiquity are connected with the religions of those times. 

 Each order of religion has its system of creation, its heaven and 'yX% 

 hell, and what now concerns us, each had its system of gardens. 



The garden of Jewish tradition is for the use of man ; that of the 

 Eastern polvlheism is appropriated to the gods ; and the Mahomme- 

 dan paradise is the reward held out to the good in a future state. 

 The inhabitants of Ceylon say, that paradise was situated in their 

 country, and Johnson informs us, tttat they point out tiie tree which 

 bore the forbidden fruit, the Divi Lander, or taberne?nontana alteani- 



