No. 129.] 335 



year. In the fall I put all the pots side by side out of doors, and 

 exposed to all the rigor of winter. In the following spring, all 

 the seeds germinated and have been set out in the gardens of the 

 Society. 



See how I explain this. When you take a seed out of the 

 fruit it is all covered with a viscous fluid, and as I did not wash 

 the seed, this viscous matter concreted on them, forming an en- 

 velope strong enough to resist the developement of the germ for 

 a year. 



A gardener of Loisson tells me that the same thing happened 

 to him in seed planting. 



Statistics of U. S. Agriculture, from 1826 to 1851. — As the 

 value of Agriculture when compared with the other business of 

 men, has greatly risen in the estimation of the civilized world 

 within the last ten years. Governments, and the wisest men in 

 all countries give new encouragement, by honors and by rewards. 



In 1810, there had been commenced, on the exhausted land of 

 the South, by a very few intelligent citizens, among whom John 

 Taylor of Carolina — Virginia shines bright. He restored large 

 fields to fertility, and hundreds of acres which had refused to 

 give a bushel of wheat, gave twenty and more. 



The view on each side of the roads, from North to South, twen- 

 ty years ago, was melancholy indeed. A desert made by man's 

 own hands, the garden of Eden smitten with man's disobedience 

 to the great original mandate to till the garden and keep it. 



Like the army worm and the locust, they alighted upon a rich 

 field to lay it waste — and as they became unable to live on it, 

 removed to new lands but to recommence their ravages upon its 

 natural riches. Nor was all tliis tlie only evil. Disease kept 

 pace with the moves. Few, if any, remained long enough to en- 

 joy the health resulting from long clearing — much less the beau- 

 ty and profit of long continued, good cultivation. But all this 

 darkness of that period begins to disappear. The Profession 



