28 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan. 





HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



CONDUCTED BY P. BARRY. 



The New Year. 



'• We take no note of time but from its loss." 

 The advent of a new year can hardly fail to 

 incline the most unreflecting minds, even in 

 these busy "progressive" days, to moralize — to 

 review the past, and plan and project ibr the fu- 

 ture. It were well indeed if every man, what- 

 ever might be his situation or pursuit in life, 

 would do so. The present is never truly esti- 

 mated. In the past, only, can we see things in 

 their proper light : " we take no note of time 

 but from its loss." So we should pause a moment 

 now, at the commencement of a new year, and 

 make a sort of retrospect of the one we liave just 

 terminated. 



In relation to Horticultural matters, to which 

 alone it is our purpose to allude here, let us ask 

 ourselves if we have taken our proper part in the 

 great work of improvement that is going on 

 around us, with such astonishine rapidity and 

 happy results. Whether we have, as far as our 

 means permitted us, enriched our Gardens and 

 Orchards with the most valuable fruits that have 

 been brought to notice — added to our homes the 

 comforts and embellishments of trees, shrubs, and 

 flowers — availed ourselves of the vast improve- 

 ments in the modern construction of implements 

 and modes of culture ; or whether we have com- 

 paratively neglected all these things — planted 

 one tree where we should have planted twenty — 

 allowed weeds to grow up around our doors and 

 windows, instead of flowers — and without read- 

 ing or study rolled along, with time, in our old 

 way, with our old notions and prejudices buckled 

 tightly on, like a coat of mail, preventing a new 

 idea from entering our head, or our recognising 

 in any improvement but an " innovation" or a 

 "humbug." 



These may not prove unprofitable reflections 

 to any of us. We rejoice that there are but a 

 few, comparatively, that have been altogether 

 dead to progress in rural matters ; but there is 

 yet a vast number who have done much less than 



they ought to have -done, or might be expected 

 of them. The aggregate advancement which this 

 country has made, within a short period, aston- 

 ishes the worldi; but when we come to investigate 

 the subject somewhat in detail, we cannot avoid 

 the conclusion that there is yet much to be done 

 — that we have in fact but started. Sitting at 

 home and reading the accounts of Agricultural 

 and Horticultural societies, and the progress of 

 gardening in every part of the country, we are 

 sometimes half inclined to imagine the whole 

 country a garden, as it were, where every dwel- 

 ling had its fruit and its flower gardens ; but let 

 us go abroad into the country among the farmers 

 and we will find, at this day, the largest propor- 

 tion without either. We have traveled through 

 a portion of some eight or ten States of the Union 

 the past summer, in the best and worst cultivated 

 portions, and we know this to be the case 

 throughout. 



The want oi' leisure is urged in a multitude of 

 cases ; but a farmer might as well say that be 

 had no leisure to cultivate his farm, as his orch- 

 ard or garden — both are indispensable to com- 

 I fortable life, and are highly remunerative ; and 

 i as to ornament, a few days work during the sea- 

 json with a little taste would plant and k^ep a few 

 ! trees, shrubs, and flowers around a dvv'elling that 

 'would make it a paradise in comparison. A 

 ' want of kozcledge is urged by thousands, and why ? 

 Are books scarce and dear ? In no country in 

 the world are they so cheap or plenty. 



We allude to these things now, not in a spirit 

 of fault finding, or to depreciate the progress we 

 have made and are making. By no means. — 

 We rejoice that such a spirit of improvement 

 pervades the community in'relation to gardening; 

 but we wish to see that spirit manifested more 

 generally out from cities and villages among the 

 actual tillers of the soil. If the merchant, arti- 

 san, or laborer, confined in their offices or work- 

 shops from 6 A. M. to 6 P. M., can have their 

 fruit gardens and tasteful "door yards," why 

 can not the farmer, whose business is with the 

 soil and its products, and who has all the facili- 

 ties, and OUGHT to possess the requisite knowl- 

 edge, for the culture of Fruits and Flowers ? 



Now, at the commencement of the new year 

 let us urge upon young farmers more particularly, 

 whose habits, tastes, and opinions are not com- 

 pletely fixed and unchangeable — who are full of 

 I liopc and energy, and should aim at keeping pace 

 with the spirit of tiieir age and country — to be 

 active in these matters. With the study of the 

 science and practice of Agriculture, their pro- 

 fession, let them mingle the science and art of 

 gardening, that their homes may be homes of 

 comfort and taste, and the aggregate wealth and 

 prosperity of their country augmented, and its 

 surface beautified, 



Ik the counsel be good, no matter who gave it. 



