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nature. The cultivator, then, of fruits and flowers is much 

 less selfish. Their sweets are not produced for him alone." 



That you may have good evidence that Mr. Lowell is the 

 best historian of the progress of Horticulture we quote 

 once more. This was in 1825: "As to horticulture, the 

 field is newly explored. In my short space of residence in 

 this mutable world, I remember when the May Duke and 

 the sour Kentish cherry could alone be found in our 

 market. I remember when our strawberries were only 

 gathered from the grass fields. I remember the first 

 boxes of cultivated strawberries ever sent to Boston mar- 

 ket. Who ever heard of an English or Dutch gooseberry 

 or raspberry at market twenty-five years since ? The 

 Jenneting, Cattern, Minot and Iron pears, some of them 

 execrable, were often seen, but not a single delicious 

 variety was known out of the gardens of the«rich connois- 

 seurs. There never was a more rapid progress in any 

 country than that which we have made in horticulture, 

 and yet there is no one point in which we are so defec- 

 tive ; I hope and believe, however, that we shall supply 

 this defect." 



These remarks may seem curious enough to many of 

 you, yet we regret to say that there are still too many who 

 think that a taste for plants and flowers, and a love for 

 fine fruits and ornamental trees, exhibits a sort of eflemi- 

 nacy which unfits those who devote their leisure moments 

 to these objects for the business relations of life. Alas ! 

 that a love of Nature's charming works, and the pleasing 



