154 



NEW ENGLAND FAJIMER. 



April 



familiarity with them in childhood, and by the ease sidered a farmer's life a miserable life of drudgery, 

 with which they can be cultivated in our gardens, and the farmer's home a mere work-house, and that 

 Such are the pansy, or tri-colored violet, and the i they should long to escape from it, and engage in 

 primrose already mentioned ; and such are the daf-;Some more animating employment ? 

 fodil, the tulip, and the crocus, earliest of all, and But if the heads of the family possess a taste for 

 the iris, all of which are flowers of spring, and some the charms of nature ; if they are alive to the beau- 

 already in bloom, under the protection of our gar- ties of a flower, to the warbling of birds ; if they 



den fences and dwelling-houses 



How vividly is the remembrance of our early 

 home associated with these simple flowers, and how 

 greatly do they serve to give cheerfulness and sa- 

 credness to the grounds which they occupy. No 

 farmer's house should be left unadorned with these 

 simple and beautiful flowers, which require no 

 wealth to purchase them, aud no expensive labor 

 to preserve them in all their beauty. 



We do not intend to undervalue the hundreds of 

 new species of garden flowers, which modern taste 

 and enterprise have introduced into our pleasure- 

 grounds ; it is simply our object to prove that the 

 purchase and cultivation of these rare exotics are a 

 needless expense, and that a garden may be made 

 delightfully attractive without them. The common 

 bulbous-rooted flowers, and a few others, already 

 named, are sufficient to embellish our grounds in 

 the early spring. Later in the season come forth 

 the roses, in many beautiful varieties ; the lilac, 

 which must ever hold a place in our affections, and 

 which no generation can ever cease to admire ; the 

 honey-suckle, the most fragrant and beautiful of 

 twining plants ; — all of which are common, easily 

 cultivated, and involving but little expense. Most 

 of the late flowers are annuals, which require more 

 care and attention than the perennials] ust enumera- 

 ted. Many of these are worthy of every one's at- 

 tention ; such as the greater and lesser morning glo- 

 ries, the last of v.'hich is unsurpassed in beauty and 

 delicacy by any newly-discovered flowers. The bal- 

 sams, the marigolds, the German asters, and many 

 others which are fomiliar to us, bring up the rear^ 

 and serve to beautify our gardens in the latter part 

 of summer and early autumn. 



Here we would repeat, that if we wish to inspire 

 our rising ofi'spring with an enduring love of the 

 scenes of home, (for a love of home itself springs 

 from moral influences,) and an attachment to rural 

 pursuits, our farms must not be without their flow' 

 er-gardens — neat, modest and simple gardens — that 

 do not dazzle the eyes, but present hundreds of 

 simple and beautiful objects, to be loved in youth 

 and remembered ever afterwards, as the souvenirs 

 of tnat happy period of life. On the other hand, if 

 while our farmers' sons and daughters are growing 

 up to their adult years, they witness at home noth- 

 ing but toil and drudgery within doors and without ; 

 no flowers around the house, no pictures inside of 

 it, no conversation except of labor and stock, and 

 the prices of produce, nothing expended for taste 

 and ornament, would it be surprising if they con- 



value trees on account of their beauty, as well as 

 for their utility and their shade ; and when they 

 look abroad upon the landscape, they can reflect 

 with delight upon its grandeur, and its lovieliness, 

 as well as upon its profitableness for cultivation, 

 then are they likely to gather around them certain 

 beautiful objects that should be a source of perpet- 

 ual joy to their children, and inspire them with a 

 love for the scenes of home, which must always en- 

 dure. It is from the want of this attention to mat- 

 ters of taste ; this contempt of ornament, and in- 

 diff"erence to the charms of beauty on the part of 

 the parents, that so many young men have grown 

 up without local attachment to the place of their 

 birth, and leave their homes, and forsake the farm 

 to join in trade and commerce, which are thus over- 

 stocked with laborers and adventurers, while agri- 

 culture is neglected. If we would teach our chil- 

 dren to "venerate the plow," we must render it sug- 

 gestive to their minds of something besides unmiti- 

 gated toil. It must be associated with all the beau- 

 ties and pleasures of country life. It must be the 

 remembrance of happiness which the country only 

 can yield, but which are too often absent from the 

 farm ; it must call to mind the flowers of the field 

 and the garden ; it must be associated with instruc- 

 tion in the fields, and with amusing and rational 

 studies on pleasant winter evenings. Then will the 

 enticement to young men, who are farmers' sons, be 

 greater to join the interesting and noble pursuits 

 of agriculture, with their freedom under the blue 

 canopy of heaven, and a competency of all the good 

 things of life, in preference to the slavery and con- 

 finement imposed upon them by the jJursuits of 

 commerce. 



In the course of these remarks, we have said 

 nothing of the style in which the garden should be 

 laid out, because we consider this a matter of no 

 essential importance, provided the style be suf- 

 ficiently plain and simple. Our main object should 

 be to have a plat of ground, or several spots, devo- 

 ted to the culture of flowers — a bower of taste, 

 where the old can find recreation after the release 

 from toil, and where the young may find rational 

 amusement and delight which will bind their affec- 

 tions to nature and to home. Far be it from us 

 to recommend any thing like ostentation around 

 the simple rustic farm. 



"In simple Gardens, Wisdom loved to rove, 

 And smiled to give her precepts from tlie grove. 

 When to the wise, the good, the brave, the G&ds 

 Prepared th' eternal gift of blest abodes. 



