ESSAY 



15 



t 

 The hills of Worcester County produce better butter 



and cheese than the hills of Ayr. The soil of Cambridge, 



better pears than France the home of peirs. Hovey's 



Seedling, the result of careful horticultural science, 



originated there to be known beyond the Atlantic ; 



and the Habbardston Nonesuch, Roxbury Russet, and 



Rhode* Island Greening are household words. There 



is no better latitude than that from Boston through 



to the lakes, for the growth ot apples. Exporters say 



that apples produced there are less liable to decay. 



Very much farther north, the seasons are too short, 



and much farther south, they are too long. The trees 



grow to wood, form too few fruit spurs, and store 



too little starch, gum and sugar, for the ^support of 



blossoms the ensuing 3'ear. Thoreau says in the Atlantic 



Monthly : " The trees of New England embrace all the 



most valuable kinds on the continent. I never have 



a Botanical specimen sent to me, but I am sure to find 



something like it in my rambles ; and I even expect to 



find the victoria regia, on Concord River." 



But what must be done to arrest the decay which in 

 many places is going on ; which, while the land around 

 our cities is becoming a garden, is blighting some 

 country neighborhoods. What must be done to keep 

 the sons of New England on their native soil ; who now 

 yield to the allurements of the fertile West ; pour into 

 cities, or adopt any other pursuit rather than cultivate 

 their native fields. 



In farming there has been too great a strain upon the 

 muscles, and too little upon the brain ; too much phys- 

 ical, and too little intellectual labor. TJie muscles have 

 become stiffened, while the brain has suffered by inac- 

 tivity. Says Charming : " Manual labor is a great good, 



