NJEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



VOL. XII. 



PmHgHKDBVOBO. C. BARRETT, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ g FEBaiJ^^iT 



JBOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 14, 1834. 



From Hit' a,fi,.i'-' Fanner. 

 1ECTCKE ON HORTICULTURE, 



Delivered before the Young Men's Association of Al- 

 bany, March 1331. % Jesse Duel, Esq. 



Neither education nor habit has qualified un- 

 to address a public assembly. But tlie high ap- 

 probation with which 1 have seen your associa- 

 tion formed, and acquire strength and respectabil- 

 ity, ami the individual and public benefits which it 

 promises in its results, have induced me to contrib- 

 ute my mite towards your entertainment and im- 

 provement in useful knowledge, by addressing you 

 some brief remarks on the business of Horticulture. 

 This subject is commended to your notice as one 

 which contributes largely to supply our wants and 

 to heighten our enjoyments ;— as a healthful rec- 

 reation to the studious and sedentary, and as sur- 

 passing most other employments in the high grat- 

 ification which it is capable of imparling to the 

 in tin I. 



Horticulture is another term for gardening. It 

 embraces the management of the garden, whether 

 intended for the production of fruit, culinary veg- 

 etables or flowers. The art is co-extensive with 

 our race. It was the employment of our first pa- 

 rent in Eden. Its early history is too obscure to 

 lie traced. Suffice it to say, that in the polished 

 ages of Rome, it was cultivated with tasie and 

 assiduity, and ranked with the tine arts ; and that 

 with these it sunk to obscurity at the downfall of 

 that empire. All of the art that survived the shock 

 of Vandalism, remained cloistered with the monks 

 during the dark ages. Willi learning too, it re- 

 viled, first in Italy and Holland ; to which' coun- 

 tries many exotics, and a taste for their cultiva- 

 tion, were introduced during the crusades. It was 

 not until the reign of Henry VIII, i„ tr / e begin- 

 ning of the 16th century, that gardening was much 

 cultivated in England. Previous to this time, even 

 cabbages and pot herbs were imported from' Hol- 

 land for the tables of the opulent. During this reign 

 apricots, melons, herbs, and esculent roots, were 

 introduced first into the royal gardens. Among 

 the varieties of that day is mentioned " the black 

 trees which bear no fruit, but only a pleasaunte flow- 

 ere." Improvement in horticulture progressed 

 under Elizabeth, and Charles I,— during the reign 

 of the latter, the first general book of English' 

 gardening, was published by Parkison, a work 

 which is yet quoted with high commendation. 

 At this time the first mention is made of potatoes 

 cauliflowers, celery, &c. 



About the middle of the seventeenth centur* 

 several valuable publications upon horticulture ap- 

 peared in England and France ; and in 1724 

 Philip Miller published bis celebrated Gardener's 

 Dictionary, an original work of merit, which at- 

 tracted general notice, and gave a new impulse to 

 improvement. British and other foreign works 

 on gardenmg, have since been greatly multiplied ; 

 and improvement has kept pace with the increase 

 ot wealth and refinement, until horticulture has 

 attained to a high state of perfection, both as a 

 useful and ornamental art, in most of the civi- 

 lized countries of the old continent. Horticultu- 

 ral Societies have done much to accelerate im- 

 provement, and to multiply the subjects of cul- 



NO. 44. 



Hire.* The Society of London, established a gar- 

 den in 1818, and sent agents into every quarter of 

 the world, to collect whatever could be found use- 

 ful or ornamental. One of these agents, after tra- 

 veling the United States and the Canadas, for 

 ibis purpose, has spent four years on the Pacific 

 coast of our continent, exploring the country from 

 California to Columbia river, and from thence 

 across the continent to the Hudson Pay factories, 

 in collecting rare plants and seeds; Some idea 

 oi the extent of the Society's labors, may be form- 

 ed from the fact, that in its catalogue for 1830, 

 there are enumerated as growing in its garden' 

 3400 varieties of hardy edible fruits, and 58 vari- 

 eties of edible nuts, exclusive of 89 varieties of 

 the tig, 132 of the grape, 56 of the pine apple, 

 and 131 of the melon, nearly all of which last 

 named are cultivated in bouses, with the aid of 

 artificial heat— making an aggregate of about 4000 

 varieties of fruits, independent of ornamental plants. 

 This Society has been highly useful to us, not 

 only by awakening here a spirit of horticultural 

 improvement, but by distributing through its cor- 

 responding members among us, many of its choice 

 fruits and ornamental plants. 



From the restricted means and economy inci- 

 dent to a new country, gardening has with us 

 been limited to what has been deemed necessary 

 seldom aspiring to elegance. The neighborhoods 

 of our commercial towns form but a partial ex- 

 ception to this remark. Indeed until within a 

 lew years, the progress of horticultural improve- 

 ment has been slow among us. And even now 

 the cultivation of fruits and esculent roots, is but 

 imperfectly understood, or their value in promo- 

 ting the health, comfort and economy of a family 

 not duly appreciated by the generality of our 

 countrymen. Few of the fine varieties of fruit, 

 and other choice productions of the garden, are' 

 seen in travelling through our country. But a bet- 

 ter taste is gaining ground. We have effected 

 much m the last twenty years, and have abun- 

 dant reason to anticipate greater improvements in 

 the twenty years to come. 



A good fruit and vegetable garden is a source 

 "f high gratification, as it regards the reasonable 

 indulgence of the appeti/e. No fruits are so de- 

 licious as those we pluck from our own trees and 

 vines— no vegetables so grateful as those which 

 have been cultivated by our own hands— and no 

 productions of the garden so truly good and health- 

 ful at any time, as when fresh gathered for use. 

 But if we add to these enjoyments the pleasura- 

 ble sensations which arise from the ornamental 

 department,— from the novelty, the fragrance, and 

 the beauty, with which nature in summer, is ever 

 varying her pencilings upon the flower border 

 ami in the shubbery, we shall find that a garden 

 is intimately connected as well with the pleasures 

 of the mind, as the wants of the bodv. 



Few of my hearers, I apprehend, 'have ever re- 

 flected on the extent to which we are indebted to 

 foreign countries for the vegetable productions 

 Which enrich our tables and regale our senses. 

 Did our gardens contain only the plants that are 

 indigenous to our country, the supply would in- 



* We have seen in a monthly publication, accounts of exln 

 bilious al 68 of Uiese Societies in England alone. 





<'eed be. scanty. Put we have laid almost every 

 '■bine under contribution to administer to our 

 wants and to embellish our grounds. Most of our 

 gram, and a large portion of our esculent roots, 

 derive their origin from other countries The 

 greatest part of them came to us from Great Prit- 

 ;!"' and Holland, which in turn received them 

 frorn Italy, Italy from Greece, and Greece from 

 tlie Last. Rye and wheat are indigenous in Sibe- 

 ria and Little Tartary ; rice is ,he natural pro- 

 duce ot Ethiopia; buckwheat of Asia; kidney 

 beans of the East Indies ; the beet and onion of 

 .-pain and Portugal ; peas came from the south 

 "I Europe; Jerusalem artichokes from Brazil- 

 Peppers and cucumbers from India; the egg plant 

 Iron, Africa ; the tomato from South America • 

 pompions from Astracan ; nrta baga from Swe- 

 den ; the cauliflower from Cyprus ; and aspara- 

 gus from Asia. Our fruits originated in coun- 

 tries equally remote from each other. Without 

 pretending to decide upon the disputed questions 

 whether all the cultivated apples have originated 

 from the wild crab, or whether any of the«e vari- 

 eties existed here when our shores were first vis- 

 ited by Europeans, I can say, that we have es- 

 teemed varieties of this fruit growing amoim- U3 

 which originated on the banks of the Po aiid"the 

 Danube, of the Rhine and the Oder, of the Seine 

 and the Thames ;— and on the shores of the Bal- 

 tic and Caspian. The peach came from Persia • 

 the plum from Syria; the cherry from Pontus ': 

 the quince from Austria; the almond from Bar- 

 bary and China ; and the pear from Europe. 

 Our pot herbs, and medicinal cultivated plants are 

 also mostly exotic; parsley is from Sardinia ; purs- 

 lam from South America ; nasturtium from Peru • 

 thyme from Spain ; sage from the south of Eu- 

 rope ; savery from France ; marjorum from Sicily • 

 rhubarb from Asia; and balm from Switzerland' 

 So of our flowering shrubs and plants. Pinks 

 the narcissus and daffodil, are from Italy, the Dahl 

 lia Iron, Mexico, the ranunculus and" anemonie 

 from Cappadocia, the hydrangea, balsam, aster 

 and camellia from China and Japan, the tulip and 

 hyacinth from the Levant, the tuberose from Cey- 

 lon, and our finest paeouies from China. And 

 of trees, we are indebted to the north of Asia 

 for the ornamental horse chesnut, and to farther 

 India for the stately ailanthus. These are but a 

 small part of the contributions which horticulture 

 has gathered from foreign lands for your conve- 

 nience and pleasure. And every year adds to the 

 list new varieties. 



The size and style of gardens vary according 

 to the purpose which they are intended to serve" 

 and the expense which it is designed to bestow 

 upon them. 



The royal gardens of Europe are of great ex- 

 tent and magnificence. . That of Kew comprises 

 120 acres, and is maintained at vast expense. 

 Gardens of this description are not indigenous to 

 our country, and I trust it will be long ere they 

 become acclimated among us. 



Botanic gardens are found attached to most of 

 the colleges of Europe, and to some few in the 

 United States. Many of these are of considera- 

 ble extent, aud abound in rare exotics as well as in 

 indigenous plants, and embrace those that are 



