AND GAR DENE R'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse.) 



VOV. X\I. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 4, 1838. 



NO. 39. 



^i.^mE^'f^lL^Wl^^E.: 



^port by Mr A. Walsh, of Rensselaer, at the New 

 York Agricultural Convention, on Horticulture. 

 The committee iippoiiited to " inquire into the 

 cessity and importance of an increased attention 

 Horticulture and the HousehoM Arts, as inli- 

 itely connected with the improvement of Agri- 

 Itiire," beg leave to report — 

 That on investigating the subject in pursuance 

 the duty assigned them, they have become 

 cply impressed with a sense of its importance ; 

 d they regret that the necessary degree of brevity 

 II only permit them to touch the mere outlines 

 some of the most prominent arguments which 

 Bsent themselves in its favor. 

 By the term horticulture, they understand that 

 rtion of agriculture which embrnces the labors 

 the garden — the cultivation of vegetables, fruits, 

 c. 



It is strange, as well as lamentable, that though 

 s appears especially designed, by the Creator, 

 the first and most important employment of 

 m, yet while every useful art is improving and 

 rfecting by the light of science, this most vahi- 

 le art should be left to grope in darkness — its 



;ue remaining unknown and unappreciated 



I, therefore, that your committee can do is, to 

 Jeavor to awaken the public mind froin the 

 ithy under which it sleeps on the subject ; to 

 nove the strange prejudice which exists against 

 and to open a way for the reception of those 

 )ntaneous rays of liiht which present ihem- 

 ves from luminous sources. 

 And here, at the out.set, your cotiimittee feel 

 ider peculiar embarrassments ; for what argii- 

 nts can he offered, to awaken to understand- 

 ; the mind of him who can discover no profit, 

 receive no pleasure, from a well cultivated 

 den. 



t is in vain that Infinite Wisdom has exerted 

 utmost skill in forming, perfuming and painting 

 wers to decorate his path, and sweeten the toils 

 ife, if the same power has denied him a mind 

 iceptible of the enjoyment. The depravity of 

 ilic taste, with respect to gardening, has given 

 rency to a common saying, that "good farm- 

 seldom have good gardens," but never was a 

 tence more in opposition to the truth. It is 

 completely so, that if we look on even a remote 

 ner of a farm, and see it well fenced and cul- 

 ited, we may almost rest assured that on visit- 

 the dvvelling of its owner, we shall find a neat, 

 eful and well stocked farm garden. Indeed, 

 intimately connected are the moral and social 

 ues, with a taste for admiring and improving 

 beauties of nature, that we can rarely find one 

 hoiit the other. There is, perhaps, no other 

 thly subject so well calculated to awaken and 

 and every faculty of the mind, and fill the soul 

 h pleasing admiration, as a garden of culinary 

 nts, fruits and flowers, where art and science 

 e done their duty in assisting nature. 



Horticulture, both as an art and as a science, 

 has undergone great improvements, in several 

 countries in Europe ; and it must be painfully 

 mortifying to an American of patriotic feelings, 

 who is acquainted with the subject, to see respec- 

 table foreigners, in passing throcrgh our country, 

 notice the almost total neglect of this beautifying, 

 and moralizing branch of sociid economy. 



The mode in which agriculture, if it can be so 

 called, has hitherto been conducted, ha<l its origin, 

 no doubt, in ihe circumstances of theearly settlers 

 of our country. Those pioneers were not in situ- 

 ations to indulge refined taste ; being only enabled 

 by their utmost exertions to procure what would 

 barely sustain life ; and pecuniary necessity com 

 pelled them to cultivate such simple articles as 

 they could dispose of, in mass, for immediate re. 

 lief, and the state of society afforded no iriarket 

 for fruits or garden vegetables. This state of 

 things established a distaste for any thing to gratify 

 the eye or the palate, beyond bare necessity ; and 

 this dista^te has contiimed with little improvemcut 

 to the present time. 



But a few, among those engaged in agriculture, 

 have discovered that, by rational improvements in 

 the system', not only the same ground, with the 

 same labor, might be made to double, and even 

 quadruple its former productions; but that horti- 

 culture, tastefully and judiciously managed, is 

 calculated to improve the mind, to excite and ex- 

 pand the intellectual faculties ; and especially to 

 increase wealth, at least as much as any other 

 branch of agriculture. 



The ancient prejudices against horticulture, 

 are now beginning to be overcome, by the con- 

 vincing evidence of successful results, and some 

 of the more industrious and thinking farmers be- 

 gin to see that a well selected assortment of choice 

 fruit yields a greater profit, than perhaps any oth- 

 er crop from the same ground ; that the choice 

 new garden vegetables cost no more in cultiva- 

 tion than the most coarse and common, while they 

 add comfort and healthy variety to the table, and 

 lessen the heavier expense of animal food. They 

 begin, in a few instances, to find that the value of 

 a fiu'tn depends not so much upon the number of 

 acres as upon its judicious mode of culture, and 

 its productiveness. They see that a handsome 

 and convenient, but not a large aiul extravagant 

 dwelling, surrounded by fruit and ornamental 

 trees, but more particularly a well stocked farm- 

 house garden, not only increase their comforts and 

 respectability, and even their wealth while in pos- 

 session, but if they wish to sell, attracts the no- 

 tice of purchasers and enhances the price. 



Our forests abound wiih maple, elm, ash, and 

 other elegantly formed ornamental shade trees, 

 which we would recommend our agriculturists to 

 p'ant along the road side, bordering their home- 

 steads. They will thrive in almost any situation, 

 and add beauty and value to their [)os.5essions and 

 improve the general aspect of the country. " We 

 never pass a tree which has been planted and 

 nurtured by man, but we feel gratitude and respect 



towards the hand that done it." The cultivation 

 of the Mulberry and the growth of tiitd)er, partic- 

 larly live oak, locust and cedar, deserve the high- 

 est consideration, such trees being required, and 

 commanding a high price for ship building, and 

 in our growing manufactories. 



In shorl, from the palaire to the humblest cot" 

 tage the business of horticulture, when cr.rried to 

 the perfection of which it is susceptible, appears 

 to your coiumittee, to be calculated, above all oth- 

 er branches of industry, to improve the mind and 

 manners; to increase and multiply the comforts, 

 and promote the wealth and respectability of the 

 community. 



We would therefore .recommend to all, to us3 

 all justifiable exertions to excite a more general 

 taste for horticulture, and to promote a more thor- 

 ough and generally diffused knowledge of its prin- 

 ciples and practice. To this end, we would re- 

 commend, that those who have, any knowledge of 

 the sidijeci would conununicate it to those who 

 have none, and that more general attention should 

 be paid to the various periodicals which are pub- 

 lished and pul)lisliiiig on horticulture, and subjects 

 connected with it — and they would also suggest, 

 that should the honorable legislature think proper 

 to lend their aid to the subject, as they have done 

 in some of the other states, rmieh might be effect- 

 ed by their employing and paying some suitable 

 person to write or compile a text book, as a man- 

 ual for tiie use of farmers and mechanics, on hor- 

 ticulture and the household arts, and particularly 

 on the subject of the growing of silk. 



With respect to the " necessity and importance 

 of the household arts," your committee are fully 

 convinced, that, in the thriftiness, end good regu- 

 latio^ns and consequent happiness of societ/, as 

 miich depends on good housewifery as on good 

 /'I'usbandry. It is a common saying, that "the 

 man who would thrive must ask his wife." These 

 arts are not only more numerous and complicate, 

 but susceptible of even greater improvements both 

 from the aid of science and the dictates of com- 

 mon sense,than those which belong to the out-door 

 economy ; and they principally belong to the fe- 

 male department. The culinary arts alone em- 

 brace a more extensive and complicaied system 

 of knowledge than probably appertains to any one 

 trade in the compass of the mechanic Tins. On 

 that system depends, not only our comfort and 

 satisfaction in eating and drinking, and our health 

 in the choice and preparation of food, but our 

 prosperity in the economy of its management. — 

 The important business of the dairy depends al- 

 most entirely upon the skill of the housewife. But 

 a few years ago they were the sole manufacturers 

 of most of our clothing, and still a poriion of it 

 depends for its formation on their ingenuity and 

 industry ; even in the cottages of the poor, we may 

 often admire the talents of the industrious house- 

 wife where 



" The mither, wi' her needle an' her shears. 

 Gars ould claeslook amaist as weel's the new." 



