]^EW EMCJl^AW© FARMER. 



PUBLLSUKO I'.V GEO. C. liAKRETT, NO. u'i, NOItTH AH liKFT -<TPl/p r / "' ']__iLSHi!^LL!LiliJL^i"M" Jta ^^^;™.«b 



' ^"':l!if4!^Jl^^^I!!^i!;^^ G. FESSENDEN, EDITOrT 



VfTT- MJrfTLcnrrf-^ 'IT -m-rr ■■-. --^ ■--. --, — .T . " ~" ~~ — —— — — ■ . L^ 



'■OL. xm. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBE 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



[.VSSACHUSETTS HORTICUiTURAI, SOCIETY, 



.'Vt tlii;ir Sixth .Vniiivcrsary, Soptt-mbor 17tli, 1834. 

 BY HO.V. JOHN C. GP.AT. 



Ladies and Gentkintn : — I have been requested 

 If the Hoiticullmal Society to offer .you some re- 

 arks on the present hueresting occasion, law 

 nsihle of itiy iiiuhility to do justice to the stihject, 



■ to present to you any thing equal in merit lo 

 e elaliorate, elegant, and valuable proriuciion,* 

 ith which the public have been entertained oji 

 rmer anniversaries. ISut the respect which 1 

 ire to the wishes of the Society, and the deej) in- 

 fest which I feel in the great object of their 

 :orts, have induced me to comply with their re- 

 est, and I shall briefly notice some of the in- 

 cements which e.\ist to the pursuit of Hortitul- 

 re, more especially in our country. 

 This art may be recommended, in the first 

 ice, as an innocent and salutary amusement. Jn 

 stowing upon it these titles, I have said very 

 ich in its favor. The topic of amusements has 

 Jr been a most perplexing and difficult one to 

 I moral casuist. I suppose that no one would 

 )scribe all rela.vation. All admit that the most 

 lustrious individual must have his intervals either 

 recreation, or of idleness. But, what aniuse- 

 nts should be recommended, or tolerated, is a 

 istion on which there is far less unanimity of 

 timent. In this country, there is, I believe, 

 h a small amount anil a smaller variety of re- 

 ittion, than in most others. We ai>', at lo-'<» iu 

 iv-Kugland, emphatically a grave people. The 

 pie manners and rigid morals which have de- 

 ided to us from our puritan ancestors, our ri"-- 

 .is climate and stubborn soil, the equal distri- 

 iou of propel^ by descent and its necessary 

 sequence, the small number of men of wealth 



leisure, have rendered us, though certainly not' 

 oomy, yet a serious and practical community, 

 ly amusements, which have prevailed in other 

 ntries, never have, and we trust never will take 



in our land. Of those which are fashionable 

 ing us, there are several, which are denounced, 

 er as deleterious, or at least perilous to our 

 «ls, iiy a large and respectable portion of our 

 Illation. This is not the occasion to inquire 



■ far such sentiments are correct. It is mure 

 ly purpose lo observe, that there is, I wdl not 



no ground, but no prete.\t, for such objections 

 nst the pursuit of Horticulture. He must be a 

 1 and astute casuist indeed, who can detect 

 thing in this occupation, tending to inflame, to 

 ise, or to enfeeble the mind. Yon are well 

 re, on the contrary, that a garden Jias been 

 !ted by all poets of all nations, as the abode ol 

 virtuous in a future state ; that Horticuliure 

 Jften been recommended by the strictest mor- 

 I, not only as a soothing, but as a most relini^ig 

 pation ; and that the wonders of creaiivu 

 2r, with which it renders us conversant, have 

 shed the natural theologian with some of his 



powerful and impressive arguments. 



IS an additional and a most important recom- 

 lation to this art, that it does not call upon 

 ' cultivate the mind, at the expense of the 

 I have already said that we are a crave 



not mean to say, that we are not disposed to occa- 

 sional locomotion, — such an assertion is not light- 

 ly to be made, almost within hearing of onr rail- 

 road cars. But I sfieak of the constant habits of 

 our corumnnity, compared with those of the peo- 

 ple of England, and of most other European coun- 

 tries. A large, and certainly not.miimporlant por- 

 tion of our citizens, are occiipitkl in professional 

 am] literary pursuits, and among these, with one 

 important qualification to be presently noticed, 

 liodily inactivity seems to be a prevailing and an 

 mi-reasiiig habit. Besides, many of the rising 

 gener.ition, at least in onr largest towns, are coii^ 

 lined to study, during by far the greater part of 

 iheir waking hours. It is not for me to determine 

 bow far this confinemen' is necessary or beneficial, 

 I in the degree to which it is now carried. It is for 

 those moro interested to decide, whether, in en- 

 deavoring , to accelerate the march of mind, we 

 have not forgotten, that the mind is vitally con- 

 nected with an associate of delicate and curious 

 structure indeed, but of grosser elements, whose 

 wants and who.se welfare are, nevertheless, not to 

 be overlooked with impunity. 



li there be evils attendant on our present sys- 

 tems of literary discipline, perhaps the greatest is, 

 that they create habits of bodily indolence, and 

 the scholar, when emancipated from the dominion 

 "t his instructers, and invested with the command 

 of his own time, carries with hiin a fondness for 

 sedentary amusements. Consequently, if his bu- 

 shiess sho»Ul be r.ho of a ^,.,l(iitary cbaracter, his 

 whole life, while it lasts, is one of close confine- 

 ment. At any rate, the debilitated health of many 

 of our most distinguished professional men, has 

 long been a subject of the deepest public concern ; 

 and to no cause does the evil seem to be more 

 imptite<l, than to their neglect of habitual exercise. 

 Why else is it that our clergymen are so often 

 driven from the desk, and our lawyers interrupted 

 in the midst of their most intense and important 

 labors, while our physicians, the only class of pro- 

 lessioual men, who are compelled to pass much 

 of their time in bodily motion, are proverbially 

 healthy, — and it is no rare sjiectacle to see tliefii 

 dispensing, in their own case, with the rules, 

 vvbich they feel it their duty to prescribe to others'! 

 That amnsenient, then, is certainly to be highly 

 valued, which calls us forth into the open air, 

 during a large portion of the year, and by its 

 double operation on the body aud^mind, contri- 

 liiites at once to our strength and spirits two ob- 

 jects which it needs no physician to inform us 

 lire most nearly connected. 



It is, therefore, a highly gratifying fact, that the 

 directors of several of our literary and tbeolo"ical 

 institutions, have labored to inspire their students 

 with a taste for gardening, and have furnished 

 ihem with every facility for its cultivation. For, 

 however incontestible the value of exercise, every 

 one knows, that it is beneficial to a great degree in 

 proportion as it is agreeable ; that of two descrip- 

 tions of exercise, that is by far the most salutary 

 which is taken with the keenest relish. Compare 

 the resolute dyspeptic accomjdishing his measured 

 walk or ride, with the same dogged pertinacity, 

 with which he would prepare himself for a surgi 



in 01. r (me woods, or cultivating them in his neat 

 gard .,, while hour after hour glides by unmarked, 

 and the sun goes down upon him in the midst of 

 Ins mleiesting labors. Compare, I say, these in- 

 dividuals, and then ask, if you can, seriously, 

 which is pursuing the shorter road to health and 

 cheurlulness. 



It is not, however, in our brilliant thongh short 

 ?!'"^''.,°'"' .^''"^i"? summer, or our glorious au- 



[ think I may add a sedeutaVv neonre 1 7' "',"' "'''''' ''^ '^°"''' '"'^'""■'^ '"'"^'^'^ for a surgi- 

 ay add, a sedentary people. 1 do | eal operation, with the florist, culling his plants, 



nmn, that the charms of this art are most deeply 

 lelt, hut amid the rigors of our stern though splen- 

 did wmrer. It is then, when the whole vegetable 

 world IS hushed in dread repose,_when the earth 

 is covered with a .sheet of ice, as with a plate of 

 bnrnished steel, that Horticulture proves herself a 

 Hue friend to her faithful votaries. It is then that 

 she goes with them to their dwellings, there to 

 difl-nse her soothing and enlivening influence 

 while all without is wild and desolate. Who' 

 would not court the visits of such an inmate ? 

 Who but would delight to give her her appro- 

 priate and honorable place at the fireside or the- 

 window ? 



This art is, hojvever, something more than a 

 mere passing amusement. It well deserves to be 

 cherished in our country, for the auspicious inflb 

 ence which it must exert on the manners anu 

 feelings of the community, should a taste for its 

 splen.lnl productions become a prevalent one. 

 Mankind have found by experience, that the con- 

 templation of what is graceful or beautiful, serves 

 '"•..:,-• "id refine the taste, to expand and ele- 

 vate the understanding, to soilen aim puri/y the 

 beart. How these results are produced, it Is for 

 Ibe mataphy.sjcian to explain, if he can ; the 

 results themselves are not the less real nor the less 

 manifest. It is on this principle, that the fine arts 

 have been so cnrefully cherished by the ablest 

 statesmen of older communities. No one, acquaint- 

 ed with the history or condition of those commu- 

 nities, can doubt, that those arts have done much 

 to counteract the evils of defective systems of 

 government, and to supply the want of general 

 education. With us, their progress must be for a 

 long time, for obvious and cogent reasons, ex- 

 tremely limited,— at least, this must be said of 

 those two most delicate arts, painting and sculp- 

 ture. 



It is, therefore, a most fortunate circumstance 

 that we can supply their place with other elegant 

 pursuits, and, among these, that of which I^ain 

 now speaking, surely deserves a most conspicuous 

 rank. If the assiduous contemplation of choice 

 specimens of art is not only a pleasing but a most 

 useful occupation, it is certainly something more 

 than a mere frivolous amusement, to contemplate 

 those lovely forms of vegetable life, with which 

 Horticulture renders us conversant, which, to say 

 the least, are neither less curious nor less splendid. 

 If an exquisite taste for the beauties of fine pic- 

 tures is to be deemed an elegant accomplishment, 

 I know not how an equally exquisite taste for the 

 beauties of fine flowers, should deserve any less 

 honorable title. " Some people," says Cobbett, in 

 his usual homely but perspicuous style, " may 

 think that flowers are of no use, that they arc 

 nonsensical things. The same may be, peiibap* 

 with more reason, said of pictures. For my part. 



