No. 4. 



Address of Dr. William Darlington, Sfc. 



117 



day: and I would heartily concur in the 

 judgment pronounced by the bard : 



" Let no such man. be trusted." 



Such, then, being the nature, the influences 

 and the tendencies of Horticulhire, in the 

 comprehensive and just acceptation of the 

 term, it is an occasion of sincere congratu- 

 lation, to see the citizens of this ancient 

 county awakening to a perception of its 

 benefits, and associating to promote its ad- 

 vancement. Having, by their skill and in- 

 dustry, made the agriculture of Chester the 

 admiration of all observers, it next becomes 

 an urgent duty to make their gardens, their 

 orchards, and the lawns appurtenant to their 

 dwellings, correspond with the beauty and 

 excellence of their farms. The time, in- 

 deed, has fully arrived, when such a move- 

 ment is due to our character as a commu- 

 nity: for candor will oblige us to confess, 

 that while our farmins^ has been managed 

 with commendable skill and neatness — we 

 have been sadly neglectful of our Horticul- 

 ture — that elegant department of the pro- 

 fession, which is the crowning attainment 

 of an accomplished agricultural people. The 

 true science of gardening does not come by 

 intuition; but is to be acquired by a rational 

 and studious attention to the operation of es- 

 tablished laws. The art of increasing the 

 size and improving the quality of vegetable 

 products, — to be completely successful — de- 

 mands a close observation of natural phe- 

 nomena, and an intimate acquaintance with 

 the physiology of plants. TNfe influence ot 

 culture and soil upon vegetable develop- 

 ment, is a most interesting problem, which 

 has not yet been thoroughly solved, and is 

 generally, in fact, but little understood. 



Those plants which have been long under 

 cultivation, are continually undergoing mo' 

 difications in their tissues, and producing 

 variations of form, dimensions, texture, co- 

 lour, or flavor. This phenomenon is espe- 

 cially remarkable in some old favourites, 

 which have been carefully nursed for ages; 

 such as the Rose and the Tulip, among 

 flowers, — and the Pear, the Apple, and the 

 Peach, among fruits: and it is by watching 

 this process in the vegetable economy — by 

 a skilful selection and management of the 

 best varieties thus produced, that the appa- 

 rently accidental features and qualities are 

 fixed, or become permanent; establishing 

 what are called races, in the language of 

 Botany. It is in this way that the count 

 less sorts of our choice fruits and vegetables 

 have been obtained. They are all mere 

 progressive developments or modifications of 

 a few wild unpalatable originals, which 

 have been gradually tempered and melio- 



rated by the influences of a kindly nourish- 

 ing soil, a propitious situation, and a con- 

 tinued skilful treatment. The sagacious 

 gardener avails himself of those occasional 

 developments, and by a careful culture, per- 

 petuates beautiful forms or valuable qualities, 

 which otherwise would be as transient as 

 the individual specimens in which they 

 occur. 



If an excellent variety happen in a woody 

 perennial — such as a fruit tree, — the origi- 

 nal tree — and of course the identical sort of 

 fruit may be multiplied indefinitely, by the 

 process of budding or engrafting. If it 

 occur in a herbaceous or annual plant, it 

 may often be perpetuated as a distinct sort, 

 or race, by a proper attention to the culture, 

 and a careful selection of the fairest seeds 

 for planting. This truth is constantly ex- 

 emplified in the preservation of distinct va- 

 rieties or races of cultivated grains — such 

 as bearded and beardless wheat, white wheat, 

 red chafl^, &c., — and also in numerous gar- 

 den vegetables, in which the peculiarities 

 are fixed, and transmissible to future crops 

 by the seeds. The character of the best 

 varieties yet known, may doubtless be still 

 further improved by the continued influence 

 of appropriate management; as is evinced 

 by the specimens annually exhibited by the 

 various Horticultural societies. 



That these important facts and principles 

 have been but little heeded or considered by 

 a portion of our people, is too obvious to be 

 denied. We are bound in honesty to admit, 

 that while our agricultural fellow citizens 

 may justly pride themselves on the condi- 

 tion and products of their fields, numbers of 

 them have been utterly neglectful of their 

 orchards and gardens; and have discovered 

 no manner of taste in the arrangements 

 around their dwellings. There are yet too 

 many instances in Cliester county of tolei^a- 

 bly cultivated farms, on which there la 

 scarcely any other visible evidence of im- 

 provement; — no horticulture — except a pal- 

 try, weedy, neglected kitchen garden; no 

 well-selected orchard of fruit trees; no green 

 sward, nor clustering flowers, nor ornamental 

 shrubbery, around the farm-house ; not even 

 a friendly shade-tree, to protect the dwelling 

 from the glare of the summer's sun. Too 

 often we may see the residence of a sub- 

 stantial farmer naked and broiling, as it 

 were, in one of his open treeless fields, — 

 without so much as a palisade to keep the 

 stock at a respectful distance from his doors 

 — the persecuted cattle contending hopeless- 

 ly against a swarm of flies under the win- 

 dows of his sitting-room, and crowding, as 

 to a place of refuge, into the narrow shadow 

 afforded by the building itself; while the 



