THE GENESEE FARMER 



Jan. 1,1831. 



H0RTICULTUR4I. 



SOCIETY OF MONROE: COOXTT. 



The following Address was prepared by a 

 Committee appointed for the purpose, and 

 submitted by Jesse Hawley, Esq. to the meet- 

 ing at which was organized the Horticultural 

 Society of the County of Monroe : 



Hobticdltobe, means the cultivation of a 

 garden — in tho general icciptation it is exten- 

 ded to include fruit and forost trees, also laud 

 scape and flower, as well as culinary garden- 

 ing- 



According to the Mosaic history, gardening 

 Was the first occupation of man, taught by the 

 Creator himself, to Adam: — "And tho Lord 

 God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and 

 there he put the man whom he had formed:" 

 •'And God said, Behold I have given you cv 

 ery herb bearing seed, which is upon the face 

 of all the earth, and every tree in the which is 

 the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall 

 be for meat :" — " And the Lord God took the 

 man and put him in the garden to dress and 

 keep it:" — and commanded him to " Be fruit- 

 ful and multiply and replenish the earth, and 

 subdue it." 



Hero then, we find the history of Horticul- 

 ture commenceswith that of the creation ; un 

 der the immediate superintendence of the Al- 

 mighty Parent, on the day when he created 

 Man with the Heavens and the Earth. 



How ancient the date! how natural the pur- 

 suit, when we consider it as a part of the grand 

 design of God in the creation of all things j 

 for, in his enumeration of the generations of 

 the heaven3 and the earth, and before the crea- 

 tion of man, he said, " there was not a man to 

 till the ground." 



How sublime tho idea, — when we further 

 consider the moral design of the whole crea- 

 tion, that man, by the toils of his labor in the 

 peaceful and quiet pursuits of the tillage of the 

 earth, should bo made to increase the means of 

 the sustenance of his species; and by his con 

 nubial affections, to multiply and replenish the 

 human family, for tho purpose of increasing the 

 number of souls for the Almighty Father to 

 bless and save through the munificence of hi- 

 Grace, as the only positivo act of duty which 

 man could render to his God; all other acts of 

 duty being necessarily relative, as rendered to 

 his fellow man 1 



But Adam by his transgression, soon fell. 

 and lost his garden with his innocence, and his 

 primeval happiness ; and was turned out to till 

 the crude ground " cursed for his sake, infested 

 with thorns and thistles, and made to eat of it 

 in sorrow all the days of his life." 



Tho posterity of Adam, for many ages and 

 centuries afterwards, -was contented to subsist 

 upon the wild and uncultivated productions of 

 nature, in the field and in the forest. In this 

 rude state, man was a pursuer of the chase — a 

 hunter; in which condition it took many acres 

 — a township of land, to subsist an individual 

 A small increase in their numbers soon served 

 to over-stock a portion of the country, then 

 when the stronger began to cortend with the 

 •weaker for the better choice, and from whence 

 wars, conquests and desolation ensued among 

 the vagrant tribes and hordes of men. Thi 

 strife for his subsistence, made man ferocious 

 an lus disposition tottrard his fellow-man; and 



thus we have been led to call him lavage while 

 in the hunter state. 



The Indians of our forests, who still retain 

 these primitive habits, well illustrate to us the 

 miserable condition of human society in the 

 early ages, for the pancity of their numbers; 

 for their precarious and scanty means of sub- 

 sistence ; for the coarseness of tho fare and fla- 

 vor ot their food; and for the impotency of 

 their skill, ingenuity, and productive labors to 

 provide themselves with the comforts of life . I 

 :n ail the vanetieo of food, raiment and shelter 

 Irom tho weather. 

 For many ages, man did surely eat his bread in sorrow ' 



With all the energies and resources of the 

 human mind, man but slowly emerged and pro 

 gressed from the hunter's, to the shepherd'.- 

 Iife. Tho propagation of the flocks and herds 

 of animals for the food of man, greatly increas- 

 ed the means of subsistence and reduced the 

 requisite acres for his supply, from thousands 

 to hundreds. This increased supply of fcod 

 Boftened the disposition and improved the mor- 

 al character of man and fitted him for more so- 

 cial habits — yet as be still increased in num 

 bers there were strifes for right and choice a- 

 mong them. Abraham, Lot, and Jacob, had 

 iheii conflicts and difficulties respecting their 

 possessions. 



It was even still slower that man made his 

 advances from the shepherd, to the agricultur- 

 ist, or farmer's life. 



The tillage of land, duly proportioned with! 

 the propagation of flocks and herds, so mnch 



the past ; — until the human family shall increase- 

 in the myriads of their numbers, corering the 

 face of the earth " as the stars of the heavens: 

 and as the sands which id upon the sea-shore." 



In taking a retrospect through the vista of 

 time, the progressive improvement in nature 

 is obvious — animals, by being domeslicateili 

 by feeding, and by cross-breeding, have been 

 made to advance from a wild buffalo of the wil- 

 derness, to the many varieties in the herdt 

 of our farm yards — vegetables, by redeeming 

 ullage, by natural seedlings, selected and 

 extended by inocculation, ingrafting and in- 

 arching, have been made to advance from the 

 oriental crab Apple up to the hnndred varie- 

 ties of our orchards ; the delicious and melting 

 Peach originated from the bitter Almond, and 

 from which it is scarcely distinguished while 

 it is in the green state. The rich and juicy 

 Plumb from the wild stock of the hedges, 

 which produce the uneatable haws. The. 

 Egyptian corn, was formerly but little better 

 than our illet seed. The Potatoe, in its o- 

 riginal state, and which is still found in the val- 

 ley of the Mississippi, was a small uneatable 

 production, not larger than a walnut, by culti- 

 vation has become a v?luable esculent, and 

 with some nations, almost a staple article of 

 human food. 



The first coffee tree planted in the island of 

 Jamaica, was in 1728; the berries produced 

 from this tree were sold at sixpence each, si/ 

 rapid was the extention of its culture that in 21' 

 years the exportation of coffee amounted tc 



farther increased the supplies of his food, as toij 60,0011 pounds ; and in SO years to nearly thirty 

 reduce the requisite acres of land for his main- ij million pounds. The cotton of the southern 

 tenance from hundreds to units— giving avast I states in the space of 40 years, has grown from 



deal more room for the progressive increase of 

 his numbers; location and stability to his res- 

 idence, with social and moral dispositions ; in- 

 troduced the idea of each man holding tho right 

 of his home and property in severalty; and 

 producing a powerful excitement to individual 

 industry and enterprize to acquire it — hence 

 originated the purchase of farms for a fixed 

 home and residence — this led to the re-intro- 

 duction of Gardens, Orchards, &c. 



The Agricultural state of society called for 

 stable governments, to guarantee and secure 

 individuals in the quiet enjoyment of the pro- 

 duct of their labor. 



When thus secured in tho fruits of his labor, 

 man sought to extend the means of his imme- 

 diate necessities ; from a daily and precarious, 

 to a yearly and adequate supply ; and thence 

 onward to provide a patrimony for his succeed- 

 ing generations. 



All nature, both animate and inanimate, has 

 been most wisely and providentially endued 

 with the capacity of progressive improvement; 

 constituting a principle of self-regeneration. — 

 And ibis principle of progressive improvement 

 seems to have been given to all organized bo- 

 dies of creation, for the purpose of giving em- 

 ployment to the rational and moral energies of 

 tho human mind in multiplying the means of 

 sustenance, as mankind shall progress in de- 

 veloping the urts and scienees and render them 

 applicable to the enlargement of the comforts 

 of human life : — each keeping pace with the 

 other throngh the successive generations of 

 time to an infinite scries of variety and exten 

 sion, unconceived by the present, as tho pres- 

 ent march of htrman 'im*elJcct wits flntiiiqwn to 



units to millions of dollars. 



It is not within the limits of our design to 

 trace the history of Horticulture from Eden 

 through the ages of time to the present; tc 

 describe the groves of the ancients, or the 

 hanging gardens of Rabylon, but merely to pre- 

 sent a few faots accompanied with some gen 

 eral observations to serve as inducements for 

 us to form a Soeiety in our county for the pur- 

 pose of combining the exertion of spirited indi- 

 viduals into an united operation in the collec- 

 tion and diffusion of practical knowledge on 

 the subject, that shall contribute something to- 

 ward an improvement of the vegetable and 

 fruit market in the village of Rochester. 



We have been invited to the undertaking br 

 the consideration that all nations have been 

 characterized by their attention to Horticul- 

 ture, in proportion to their advancement in civ- 

 ilization. 



Holland formerly took the lead of the Euro- 

 pean nations in the science of Horticulture 

 and extended the luxuries of her flower gardens 

 to that excess that she has become proverbial 

 Ibr her whimsical Tulip mania in which Tulip 

 roots were sold from $1,000 te $10,000 each, 



England, from being an almost barren island 

 not having in its natural productions more thai; 

 half a dozen species of vegetables suitable for 

 human aliment, has, by her industry, enterprize- 

 and science, borrowed, acclimated and natur- 

 alized almost all the productions of northern 

 latitudes, until she is rendered a garden al- 

 most from one extremely of the kingdom it the 

 other — and she now sustains a population ef 

 13 millions — equal to that of the U. S.— avera- 

 ging SO? to a square- mire—that of fhe' V. 9.' 



