THE SWEET PEA. 47 



remarkable than all these is the wonderful progress made in the 

 past ten years in evolving improved forjns and multiplied varieties 

 in many of our garden favorites. Our country is still in but the 

 infancy of its floral development. 



It is easy of course to glut the market and make it appear that 

 the florist's and the seedman's business is overdone. But a 

 Avhole continent of educational work is before us, in which men, 

 women, and children are to awake to the floral needs and joys of 

 their nature. We have not begun to put the art of floriculture 

 where it belongs — in the very van of the finest arts. Tlie arts of 

 painting, drawing, and sculpture long ago attained the dignity 

 of having schools, and masters, and pupils without number, and a 

 splendid patronage. The musical arts are on a basis of careful 

 training, and our admission to civilized society almost depends 

 on our either being musicians of some sort or having an edu- 

 cated appreciation of music. These things have asserted their 

 right to the name of " art," and to universal recognition. But 

 floriculture is in its undeveloijed stage. It is still little more 

 than a voice in our nature crying for attention. It has won as 

 yet from people generally only enough response to prove that it 

 is destined to become an art of arts for our universal pleasure 

 and profit. The " fine arts " are indoor arts, and since one-half 

 our life is spent indoors the refinement of society has been 

 shaped accordingly into the arts of the parlor and the drawing- 

 room. But our Creator turns us outdoors for the other half of 

 the year, and here in this country we are only learning how to 

 use our summer leisure, and in what direction to look for out- 

 door pleasure. Our American life is being redeemed from a state 

 of grinding toil. We have largely passed the pioneer stage of 

 hard grubbing for a living. As fast as we get above tlie level of 

 a precarious livelihood we have time coming back on our hands, 

 or at least can afford to take time for healthful and enjoyable 

 diversion. Home may mean a bed, a table, and a roof, at first, 

 but as surely as we prosper home comes to mean things beautiful 

 within and without. A well-kept lawn and blooming garden are 

 inevitably in the line of our mental and social development, and 

 we get them at about the same time that we have means, leisure, 

 and appetite to devote to these things. 



Some very interesting conclusions in this direction might be 

 drawn from the multitude of letters I receive from men of all 



