Vol. IX.— No. 24. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



187 



j MR COOK'S ADDRESS, 



5.. DELIVERKl) BEfORE THE MASSACHUSETTS HOR- 

 il TICILTIRAL SOCIETY, AT THEIR SECO.ND AN- 

 1 KIVERSARY, SEPTEMBER 10, 31 D CCC XXX. 



« 31r rresideiii, and Gentl>>m«ii of ihe 



I Massachiiseits ilonicuUuM! Society— 



The propitious circumstances under wliicli we 

 . have assembled to celebrate our second annual 

 festival, uuist be gratifying to all who cherish an 

 interest in the prosperity of our institution, and 

 more particularly to those who have labored to 

 acquire for it its present prosperous and elevated 

 condition. The experiment has been fairly tested, 

 Uld thus far its results are too apparent to permit 

 sven the most sceptical to doubt of either its utility 

 it its final success. Its interests are too closely 

 identified with the general good, as well as with 

 ndividuul comfort and happiness to allow us to 

 ivaver in our hopes, or to falter in our exertions to 

 ffect the original design of its creation. 



We have not come up hither to recount the 

 iXploits ol military prowess, or to mingle in the 

 itrife, or participate in the conquests of political 

 ladiators. We come not to swell the pneans of 

 he conqueror or to mourn over our prostrate liber- 

 We come not to indulge in the feelings 

 vhich are incited by the contemplation of such 

 objects, for we war not with the sword, nor seek 

 o gather laurels in the field of hostile or fierce 

 iontentions. 



But we have come together at the ingathering 

 if the harvest, to. exhibit an acceptable offering 

 fa portion of its bounties. We have come in the 

 lacific and general spirit of the pursuits we love, 

 ) participate in the enjoyments the occasion im- 

 arts, and we have come to reciprocate the con- 

 ratulatious of the season, in the success with 

 rhich our labors and our experiments have been 

 ■owned. 



The primitive employment of man was that of a 

 Her of the ground, and the garden of Eden, 

 (anted and ornamented by the hand of its Crea- 

 •r, was assigned to the care of our great pro- 

 enitor, ' to dress and to keep it.' From the ear- 

 ESt period of the world to the present day, the 

 pltivation of the ground has been viewed with 

 cial favor by all civilized nations. Even 

 eroes, philosophers, and statesmen have sought 

 rural emjiloymcnts a temporary relaxation from 

 e cares and perplexities incident to their public 

 bots. It is not necessary to explore the annals 

 ancient history for the names of individuals who 

 ive been thus distinguished. The records of 

 ir own times, and especially of our own country, 

 id our own personal observations, aflford instan- 

 is of illustrious men who have been thus preemi- 

 snt, and there are those now living among us, 

 o, by their precept and example, by their 

 aentific and practical knowledge and skill, and 

 votion to its interests, have imparted an impulse 

 the pursuit, that will be felt and acknowledged 

 tig after they have ceased to cheer us by their 

 esence, or to influence us by their personal illus- 

 Itions. 



The pursuits of horticulture are peaceful. The 

 hivation of fruits and flowers is an unfailing 

 urce of pleasant and instructive occupation 

 id atni'sement. Labor is lightened, and care is 

 compensed, and industry is cheered in the con- 

 nplation of the expanding beauties of spring, in 

 6 delightful fragrance and glowing and grateful- 

 ticipations of summer, and in the consumma- 

 in of our hopes iu autumn. 



The pursuits of horticulture are salutary to the 

 physical and moral nature of man. They impart 

 vigor to the body, and expansion and elevation to 

 the mind. The plants that are everywhere scat- 

 tered in his pathway, and around, above and 

 beneath him, delighting the senses with their sweet- 

 ness, their simplicity, their grandeur, and perfect 

 adaptation to his joys and to his necessities, are 

 silent but impressive emblems of the benignity of 

 our heavenly Father, admonishing the recipient of 

 his indebtedness, and claiming from him the 

 return of a sincere and lively gratitude. 



Industry, intelligence, and skill are indispensable 

 agents in the business of horticulture. A thorough 

 acquaintance with the views of eminent scientific 

 and experimental writers, as well as with the more 

 legible and definite compositions of nature, are 

 essential to the formation of an accomplished, and 

 distinguished cultivator. The information we de- 

 rive from study, as from the practical observations 

 of the workings of inanimate nature' will adminis- 

 ter to our success, and prevent in a measure the 

 recurrence of errors which flow from inattention, 

 or from the want of some established system of 

 operation. A judicious selection of soil and 

 aspect is necessary to the health of the plant, and 

 will repay our care in the vigor of its growth, and 

 in the improvement of the quality and quantity of 

 its fruit. 



The opinions of foreign writers, however applica- 

 ble they maybe in practice tothe mode of cultiva- 

 tion pursued in those regions of which they treat 

 are not always suited to the climate and soil of 

 that which adopts them. That which is ascer- 

 tained to be of practical utility in one country, 

 under one climate, may be unfavorable to the 

 production or maturity of the same variety of 

 fruit or vegetables, or ornamental trees in another. 

 In some climates, indigenous and exotic plants and 

 fruit, that require the aid of artificial culture and 

 great care in their preservation, are matured in 

 others with comparatively little labor. Unassist- 

 ed nature performs nearly all that is needful in 

 their production, relieving man from the toil and 

 anxiety of cultivation, and affording him, at the 

 appropriate season, a portion of her abundance. 

 The present flourishing condition of horticulture 

 in our country may, 1 think, be ascribed to the 

 refined taste and liberality of its citizens, and in a 

 measure to the improved condition of those whose 

 ingenuity and industry is exerted in affording the 

 means of gratifying that taste, and exciting that 

 liberality. A laudable spirit, of competition has 

 been awakened among the practical and amateur 

 cultivators in this vicinity, which I hope will be 

 productive of great and useful results to the 

 community. We have witnessed with no ordinary 

 gratification the increasing variety of flowers, the 

 introduction of new and valuable kinds of fruit, 

 and the amelioration of those which have been 

 long familiar to us. And among those fruits which 

 we may, without the imputation of a violent pre- 

 sumption, consider as original native productions, 

 the Baldwin Apple, the Seckle, Gushing, Wilkinson, 

 Gore's Ileathcote, Lewis, Andrews, and Dix Pears, 

 the Lewis or Boston Nectarine, and the Downer 

 Cherry, may be classed among the most desirable 

 of their kinds. 



It is true that the introduction of theso sereral 

 varieties of fruits was the result of accident ; this 

 consideration does not diminish their value, nor 

 should detract from the merit of those under 



whose auspices they were derived, or introduced to 

 public notice. 



An opinion seems to be entertained by some of 

 our most experienced cultivators that few if any of 

 the choice varieties of pears, considered by others as 

 native fruits, are indigenous to our soil. That this 

 opinion is not well founded, I think has been 

 abundantly demonstrated by the production of some 

 in the instances to which 1 have before referred. 

 Those fruits were discovered in isolated situa- 

 tions, in pastures or in the woods, or generally 

 remote from habitations, and where no traces of 

 ' mail's device' could be discernible in their vicinity 

 or the ameliorating effects upon the tree itself, by 

 engrafting or inoculation. In some cases we have 

 positive evidence, derived from the personal obser- 

 vation of the proprietor, that the tree originated in 

 the place it now occupies, and has never been sub- 

 jected to the operation of artificial change. The 

 process of raising ameliorated fruits of this de- 

 scription is very slow, if we wait the development 

 of the product in the maturity of the original tree. 

 The first generation of fruit may afford the desir- 

 ed degree of amelioration, although the balance 

 of probabilities may be against the fulfilment of 

 that expectation. A more summary mode of pro- 

 ducing the desired result is to transfer a shooter 

 a bud from a young plant to a* thrifty mature tree, 

 and to plant the seed of the fruit that it may pro- 

 dijce, and thus proceed in the multiplication of 

 chances by alternate planting and engrafting from 

 the fruit and plant produced, until the required 

 quality is obtained. This, according to the theory 

 of an ingenious modern writer, may be effected 

 in the fifth or sixth generation. The experiment, 

 though it may require much time and labor, and 

 demand no inconsiderable share of patience, is 

 worthy the attention of those, whose views are not 

 confined so the narrow |)reci nets of a selfish tmd 

 exclusive policy, but are disposed to imitate their 

 predecessors in the liberal provision they made for 

 their successors. But I make not this appeal to 

 any who are actuated by similar feelings to those 

 which were indulged by the enlightened legislator, 

 who, in the discussion of a subject bearing some 

 analogy to this, inquired, what lias posterity done 

 for us I that we should be required to do this for 

 our posterity ! 



The reflection that we may not realize the 

 advantages of those experiments, should not deter 

 us from making them. We should be influenced 

 by more patriotic and liberal sentiments. Every 

 generation of men is a link in the great chain that 

 has been forming ft-om the creation of the world, 

 connecting the present with the past, and is to be 

 lengthened oiittlirough succeeding ages. Be it our 

 province then, as it is our duty, to preserve the 

 brightness of this chain, that our appropriate divi- 

 sion of it may loose nothing upon a comparison 

 with all its parts, but that the period of which it 

 is typical, may be regarded as one that was chaiv 

 racterized by a suitable respect for ourselves, and 

 as a stimulus to the coming generation to evince 

 a like regard to the claims of those who are ta 

 follow. 



[To be continued.] 



* It has been suggested to me by a distinguished Hor- 

 ticulturist, that this experiment would probably succeed 

 better, if the shoot or bud were placed upon an old tree, 

 or one of slow growth, as it would thus earlier develope 

 the tVuit. 



The first tri-colored flag hoisted during the 3 glo- 

 rious days was made of the garments of a dead soldier 



