308 



N E W ENGLAND FAR M E R 



MARCH 31, I!il4I. 



[The following cornnmnicatioii lias been sent us 

 by the author, for publication in our columns: it 

 appeared originally in the Albany Cultivator.] 



REMARKS ON ORNAMENTAL GARDEN- 

 ING, 

 With a Plan of a Fruit, Flower and Vcgeiahlt Gar- 

 den. 



Horticulture, after all that has been said and 

 written, deservedly, in its commendation, is but an 

 embraced department of the more enlarged science 

 of Agriculture. It is the great, on a reduced scale: 

 to a certain extent, it is the practical cyclopedia, 

 as well as the model-farm of the agriculturist. 



Alas! how few properly study, how few in our 

 country through want of merited reflection, duly 

 appreciate the value of the kitchen garden. It has 

 not been so in all places or times ; though neces- 

 sarily imperfect, because, like mathematics, its ut- 

 most point of excellence seems forbidden to human 

 attainment. Our great proto-father enjoyed in his 

 first garden, a satisfaction denied to the most for- 

 tunate of his descendants, a happiness unattainable 

 by his children ; for the garden of Eden was made, 

 not by human hands, — it was the work of God. — 

 When Adam was driven from his first home of in- 

 describable bliss, he, by the labor of his hands and 

 the sweat of his brow, made his little garden in 

 other and less fruitful soil. In all times, and by 

 all generations since, the hardy husbandman has 

 had his garden. It is a matter of surprise, that 

 while sciences of later birth have advanced almost 

 to perfection, horticulture, perhaps the most neces. 

 sary to man, has been comparatively so neglected 

 and unimproved, and to our shame, so especially in 

 this laud of freedom. " Sat prata biberant," said 

 the Mantuan bard, in allusion to the practice of 

 irrigating land, which prevailed in Italy, near two 

 thousand years ago, as a means of fertilizing the 

 soil ; yet how little is it at this day pursued, even 

 in the land of Cincinnatus. 



The inhabitants of Holland, proverbially indus- 

 trious, have indeed almost made their country a 

 garden ; and to the application of irrigation, above 

 all other causes, they owe that great abundance 

 which is the almost invariable reward of great assi- 

 duity. The Hollanders have brought their indus- 

 try to the land of their adoption, but tliey have left 

 much of their skill at home. 



In Britain, the attention of the people is, by the 

 peculiarity of the general policy of that nation, 

 much diverted from the cultivation of the soil, yet 

 agriculture has not been much neglected there ; 

 and, so far as attended to, it has been honorable to 

 the nation. Industry has been greatly aided by 

 tire application of scientific principles. In the ap- 

 plication of these principles to horticulture, the 

 Englishman has, in very many inatarces, approach- 

 ed a perfection worthy of the imitation, and still 

 more of the rivalry of the American. 



How happens it that so little attention is given 

 to Horticulture in the United States ? The people 

 are industrious ; they are intelligent: and much is 

 done for the promotion of science in its various de- 

 partments ; but it must be confessed, although it 

 may cause a blush, that horticulture is shamefully 

 neglected. True, every farm-house has as its ad- 

 junct, a kitchen-garden ; but what a garden ! 

 Would you walk through it — there is no walk 

 there ; or if there be, it is hidden by the crops, per- 

 liaps of vegetables, perhaps of weeds, or more prob- 

 ably, an unseemly commixture of both. Would 

 you partake of some desired portion of its fruits, 



the chanee is you cannot reach it witliout trampling 

 on some other fruit which you do not need. Over 

 beds of earth carelessly piled up, seeds of various 

 kinds are Irequenlly thrown, as if the entire crop, 

 like that of the field, were to be reaped during a 

 single gathering time. Neither ornament nor con- 

 venience, nor even actual profit, seems to enter in- 

 to this garden without a plan. The farmer acts as 

 if he vvonid not waste on the " little patch," the la- 

 bor which would be more profitably employed in 

 the wide extended meadow, or the large cornfield. 

 Here rests the error. There is no other acre on 

 the farm, which produces so large a return as that 

 of the kitchen garden, nor is there any other acre 

 on the farm, winch will produce so large a return 

 of profit in proportion to the labor and capital ex- 

 pended. The larmer instead of saying, " I am ex- 

 pending too much on this spot," might better say, 

 " I am expending too little." The kitchen garden 

 in truth, IS the proper school of the agriculturist. 

 There he will learn the great value of properly 

 prepared compost, without which his garden will 

 produce a scanty crop ; he will there learn that 

 manure, in order to secure its utmost benefit, must 

 be buried beneath the surface, and not thrown 

 loosely on the surface ; he will there learn the 

 great value of irrigation. The principles of the 

 kitchen garden are in many instances applicable 

 to the farm generally, and may often be adopted 

 with great advantage. 



A well furnished garden embraces the choice 

 specimens of both nature and art, carefully select- 

 ed and judiciously and harmoniously blended to- 

 gether — assisting nature to improve lier own pro- 

 ductions. 



The amateur will not only collect from every 

 quarter the beauties of nature, and arrange them 

 to the best advantage ; but calling to his aid the 

 ornamental arts, lie will heighten their effect by 

 suitable displays of rural architecture; he will em- 

 bellish his garden with jets and fountains, and with 

 appropriate specimens of sculpture ; and the pen- 

 cil of the artist will give delight to his evening 

 walks with pleasing transparencies. He will also 

 avail himself of the treasures of Conchology — "pei- 

 haps none but the department of Flora, can vie 

 with this in variety, symmetry of form, and in rich- 

 ness of coloring." 



The head of a family, if he cherishes the social 

 virtues, will prefer his home to any other place. 

 It is like a centre of gravity to all his pleasures 

 and attachments to life. If you see a good vege- 

 table, flower and fruit garden attached even to an 

 otherwise humble cottage, there can scarcely be a 

 doubt but that that cottage is the abodn of happi- 

 ness — that home is the most pleasing place to its 

 occupant. 



The God of nature paints the flowers of the field 

 most exquisitely, and gives us powers to discover 

 and admire their inimitable beauty. " Do you 

 know," said the amiable Wilberforce, as he was 

 sinking under the infirmities of old age, opening on 

 some flowers shut up in a book — "Do you know 

 that I am very fond of flowers.' — the corn, and 

 things (if that kind, I look upon as the bounties of 

 Providence — the flowers I look upon as his smile." 



" Your voiceless lips, oh flowers ! are living preachers, 



Each cup ,\ pulpit, and each leaf a book, 

 .Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers 



From loneliest nook !" 



To conclude : — In gardening, as in all other sub- 

 jects, a plan is necessary to success; and having 

 been frequently solicited by Messrs Cultivator, and 



by other friends in this and the adjacent counties 

 for something of the kind, and consideung this the 

 proper season to commence prefiaratory operations, 

 I herewitli present a diagram and 'lescription of a 

 garden, which, if it answers no other good purpose, 

 may be the means of procuring a better from some 

 other source. 



Little has been published in our country on the 

 subject of gardening as an art of design and taste ; 

 and the publications of Europe not being suitable 

 to our wants, it is proper to make a beginning and 

 devise that which may suit ourselves, our country, 

 and our clim-Ue. ALEXANDER WALSH. 



Lansinghurg, Feb. 1, 1841. 



(Plan of a Garden— Fig. 1.) 



DESCRIPTION. 



The garden and pleasure ground I would de- 

 scribe, is of an oblong form, 1(1,5 feet by 120 feet, 

 with one end next the north side of the house, (fig. 1.) 

 A walk 5 feet in width, A A, of a semi-elliptical 

 form, passes from the north hall door to the princi- 

 pal rear building on the west, extending in its 

 course to the north 60 ft. ; a walk of .5 tt. in width 

 extends through the centre from south to north, 159 

 ft. A A, and is crossed at right angles by another 

 of the same width 47 feet from the north edge of 

 the elipsis ; walks of 4 ft. width C C C C, surround 

 the four squares. The walks graveled ; formed 

 rising at the centre to the height of the beds, with 

 a descent each side, of an inch and a half to the 

 border, which border is composed of bricks laid 

 edgewise, the outer side flush with the soil, the in- 

 ner side an inch and a half above the lowest part 

 of the walk. H and I two mounds 12 inches di- 

 ameter, .'5 feet (5 inches high, enclosed by octagons, 

 leaving a walk 4 feet in the narrowest part, with 

 openings of 6 feet to the centre walk and elipsis ; 

 the mounds enclosed with brick, placed endwise, 

 inclining to the centre, and sunk 3 inches in the 

 ground; the enclosure filled with soil ; each mound 

 has growing in its centre an evergreen tree. H 

 covered with evergreen periwinkle, Vica minor, and 

 I covered with variegated periwinkle, Vica minor Jl. 

 alba. 



At the proper season, green-house plants and al- 

 so shells, will be prettily accommodated arouod 



