98 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



tumnal forests the charms of all colors intersperspd.* Even now may be distin- 

 guished the deep, dark green of the Chestnut-Oak and Hickory, from the paler 

 shades of the Dogwood and Locust ; while here and there these mountain slopes 

 are dotted to their very summits with small cultivated farms, as if at once to en- 

 liven the prospect and to show that Nature has here throv»rn up no liight inacces- 

 sible to the spirit of human industry. 



In thus casting behind a " long, lingering look " on the beauties of a private 

 establishment, there has been, it may be confessed, something of an inward pur- 

 pose to reproach, impliedly, that all-cugrossing spirit of accumulation which 

 leads our countrymen, characteristically, as il has been alleged, to regard nothing 

 but the " almighly dollar " as worthy of any concern. Hence it is that we see, 

 all along our public roads, so many dwcliiiigs exposed to the unmitigated heat 

 of the sun, with scarcely a tree or shrub for shade or ornament; while most of 

 the few attempts that are made at embellishment violate at once every principle of 

 Art and all the rules of Nature. Savages may have their strong local attachments 

 to their native forests and hunting-grounds ; but these are founded in sensual as- 

 sociations, for in these have they found the means of appeasing their animal ap- 

 petites. Here have been the theatres on which have been indulged the kindred 

 passions for the chase and for war; but when was Indian or African ever known 

 to take any pleasure in the mere quiet beauties of Nature as they commend them- 

 selves to imaginations refined by moral culture ? When were they ever seen to 

 evince any pleasurable emotion at ihe sight of the most extended prospect of 

 mountain and valley — or to lift up their hands with rapture at the limitless ex- 

 panse of the Ocean itself! No, Sir, the perception of the picturesque and the sub- 

 lime is the tine fruit of intellectual cultivation — and he whose soul is insensible 

 to the beauties and the grandeur of Nature may v/ell be suspected of a like in- 

 sensibility to the finer feelings and duties of social and domestic life. On the 

 other hand, a taste for rural ornament may serve to assuage the cares of adversity, 

 and has even been thrown in, with a judgment true to nature, as a relieving vir- 

 tue to save the worst of outlaws from unmitigated abhorrence. Thus with the 

 Pirate Lambro, there was 



" A taste seen in the choice of his abode, 



A love of music, and of scenes sublime; 

 A pleasure in the gentle stream that flowed 

 Past him in crystal ; and a joy in flowers, 

 Bedewed his spiiit in his calmer hours." 



Is it not, then, Mr. Editor, time for the community to cultivate among our 

 young people, more generally and systematically, as you ha.ve strongly urged, a 

 taste for, and knowledge of the principles of Rural Architecture and embellish- 

 ment of their homesteads, if we v/ould aspire, as a nation, to any of the graces of 

 Civilization and the softer amenities that should characterize a refined and pol- 

 ished people? Alas ! that in this age of Christianity and of boasted Progress, 

 in this our republican country, the Government should be deemed incompetent to 

 give or provide for instruction of the rising generation in anything but the — art 

 of destruction of their fellow-men ! And shame to say ! the landholders of the 

 United States — the single class whose labor produces more of the national wealth 

 than all others united — seem either content lo have il so, or have not the spirit or 

 understanding to redress themselves ; nor will they have until they have the dis- 

 cernment and independence to be represented, in much greater proportion, by cul- 

 tivated men of their own class animated by that perfect sympathy which is only 

 the fruit of perfect identity of condition and pursuit. 



Were I to suggest any addition to an Arboretum so handsome and well ar- 

 ranged as that at Montpelier — where ars colore artcm seems to have been the 



* Our correspondent adverts here to a rcmark'tblc leutnre in the character of these moutv- 

 tedns. Their tops are covered with a stitnted and not very various growth, while the Valley 

 iinmetliatoly beneath throws up timber fitted for any puiposc. We gathered, some days 

 eince, on one of the spurs near the foot of the AVarm-Spnngs mountain, within a very small 

 ppace, brunches of more tbun twenty trees, viz : the Chestnut, Chejtnut-Oak, White-Oali, 

 Red-Oak, Black -Cak, Hickory, Linn, Gimi, Elm, Cucumber-tree, Sassafras, Iron-wood, 

 "Wild Cherry, Locust, Sugar-Maple, AValnut, Wild Plum, Dogwood, and two kinds of Pine. 



Ed. Farm. Lib.^ 

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