PROCEEDINGS OF THE HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 651 



hard work is. Let him go at the stones of the little or large quarry with 

 sleilge-hanimer and crow-bar, or try his hand with the axe at A.'lling some 

 dead or doomed cedar or sycamore, »nd his aching flesh and bones, and 

 panting breath, and swelling veins will soon teach him his liiriitations, 

 give him new respect for his rough comrades at the business, and read him 

 a new version of the old Latin saw, " Non onuies omnia possumus,^' or, " We 

 cannot all do all tilings." 



Skill as well as strength is found in tilling the ground, and the horticul- 

 turist who is master of his art, need not hang his head before any adept 

 in accomplishment. To be able to adapt each plant to its soil and condi- 

 tions, to train and prune,, to bud and graft, and perform all the nice ofiBces 

 of gardening, with the attendant supervision of fowls, cattle and horses, 

 and the due prevention of blights from the elements and ravages from 

 noxious insects, requires a rare union of aptitudes and crafts, and seems 

 almost to call for all handiworks and vocations in one. Some persons have 

 a charmed touch for trees and flowers. A good nurseryman has his own 

 gift of nature as well as training, and there is something more than super- 

 stition in the legend of St. Rosa of Lima, one of our few American saints 

 of the canon, who is said to have had such witchery over vegetation that the 

 roses and lilies bloomed out at her approach. Some temperaments are cer- 

 tainly in peculiar harmony with plants, and seem to be loved by them as 

 well as to love them. Perhaps there may be something in the influence of 

 animal electricity over the growth of vegetation that may explain the 

 apparent marvel, though I am not one of those who insist upon explaining 

 all faith away by the materialist's creed or no creed. 



If we add the skill of horticulture to the rugged health that belongs to 

 out-door labor in the wholesome air of the country, we certainly have a 

 work-shop worthy of the school which should prepare us for it. Little as 

 the rural population come up to the proper standard of their privileges, we 

 may be quite sure that we need them to recruit our exhausted city vitality, 

 andthat our great towns would miserably degenerate without constant 

 reinforcement from the bone and sinew, the fresh blood and brain of the 

 green fields. So far, indeed, as the science of health and the art of living 

 are concerned, the city has the advantage; and were it not for our better 

 knowledge of medicine, ventilation, bathing, cooking", etc., we might all 

 .anguish and die, until a fresh migration came in from the bush. Undoubt- 

 edly the best science as well as art is to be found in the great centres of 

 life, and if we, therefore, receive much from the country, we are bound to 

 give much in return, and carry .our culture and knowledge into the villages 

 and fields. 



There is probably no piece of ground in the whole land better worth 

 seeing than our Central Park, that work-shop of so much labor and studio 

 of 90 much art. We ought to rejoice in it not only for its direct pleasures, 

 but for its influence as a model garden upon the whole nation. Every 

 man's acres ought to be lovelier for that careful and magnificent enterprise 

 and achievement. There is something there for every man to learn, 

 whether for the millionaire bent on laying out his princely acres wisely, cr 



the thrifty workman who would know what is the best vine to trail over 

 his cottage or the best shade trees to set before his door. The clement of 



