Tree Culture. 19 



him; while at tlie same time his revenue shall steadily increase. If a 

 farmer, at the ago of twenty-one, has the good sense and forethought to 

 plant as many choice fruit trees, and to tend them properly, it is reason- 

 able to anticipate that by the time ho reaches the age of forty they will 

 yield him several hundred dollars of annual profit. As they will then 

 demand but little care, their owner will be at liberty to retrench his mor« 

 laborious operations without curtailing his means of support. He has 

 made a horticultural investment ; and with the smiles of Heaven, without 

 which no enterprise can succeed, the regular and handsome dividends 

 may be expected in their season. 



But this matter deserves to be looked at in a light le<s sordid, a lighi 

 more pure and holy than that reflected from silver and gold. There is a 

 moral, a social, and a civil good connected with the culture of trees, in 

 comparison with which the question of profit and loss shrinks away out 

 of sight. Our first parents were placed by their creator in the position 

 best fitted for the cultivation and enjoyment of their moral and social sus- 

 ceptibilities. They were placed in a garden. Their employment was 

 "to dress it and to keep it." Their home and daily walk was among 

 trees "pleasant to the sight and good for food," which "the Lord God 

 made to grow out of the ground." Human life at its best estate was a 

 life among cultivated trees. If we wish to bring back our spirits to some- 

 thing of that purity and calm enjoyment; something of that freedom 

 from social strife and corroding envy which made Eden a type of Heaven 

 the perfection of earthly bliss, we must not neglect the culture of trees. 



To hoard one's earnings, and gloat over them in secret, is mean and 

 miserly. To invest some portion of the,m in trees is provident and self- 

 ennobling. To amuse ourself in caring for a tree's necessities, in minis- 

 tering to its appetites and development, in protecting it from vicious in- 

 sects, from the blasts of winter, and the fervors of Sirius ; and finally to 

 rejoice over the rich, ripe and ruddy returns which it ought to make for 

 all this solicitude, is a pleasant care that leaves no lust in the soul. Iti 

 rather tends to open the heart, and let in the sunshine of generous emo- 

 tion to its sullenest recesses. It teaches faith in the goodness of Provi- 

 dence. It teaches one to adore that infinite wisdom and skill which erects 

 the stately tree from the crude soil ; which causes the vital sap to run on 

 its errand from root to leaf, and the savory, luscious fruit to emerge from 

 the fragile blossom. 



The social value of trees is also immense. They render home lovely 

 and attractive. They supply children with delightful memories for their 

 years of manhood, and womanhood — memories which bind their heart* 



