130 Horticultural Chemistry. 



stumbled upon by chance. As evidence of what can be 

 effected by a combination of chemical and practical know- 

 ledge in the cultivation of the soil, we may quote the example 

 of Lavoisier. He cultivated two hundred and forty acres in 

 La Vendue, actuated by the beneficent desire of demonstrating 

 to his countrymen the importance of sustaining the art of cul- 

 tivation on scientific principles. In nine years his produce 

 was doubled^ and his crops afforded one third more than those 

 of ordinary cultivators. It would be as supererogatory to 

 dwell upon the importance of this improvement, as it is to 

 dilate upon the distinguished station which horticulture main- 

 tains among the arts of life. A garden was the first habit- 

 ation of man ; it has ever since been a source of his purest 

 pleasures, of his most healthful employment and sustenance. 

 We ought to hail, with well founded satisfaction, the gigantic 

 strides which the art has made in the march of improvement 

 during late years. 



The political economist may view its improved diffusion 

 among the poorer class, as an earnest or means of more 

 important benefits. The labourer who possesses and delights 

 in the valuable appendage of a garden to his cottage, is 

 generally among the most decent of his companions ; he is 

 seldom a frequenter of the alehouse : and there are few among 

 them so senseless as not readily to engage in its cultivation, 

 when convinced of the comforts and gain derivable from it. 

 When the peasantry of a state are happy and contented, the 

 abettors of anarchy will cabal for the destruction of its social 

 order in vain ; for they will have first to efface the strongest of 

 all human associations, home and its hallowed accompani- 

 ments, before the rustic will assist in the tearing of them from 

 others, in the struggle to effect which he has nothing definite 

 to gain, and all these flowers of life to lose. Of the taste for 

 horticulture, so diffused among the higher orders of society, 

 we have only to speak in a strain of commendation. It is 

 from persons of cultivated minds, and beneath the fostering 

 care of fortune, that improvements can chiefly arise ; and no 

 pursuit is more worthy of such patronage, " Nihil est melius," 

 says Cicero, " nihil uberius, nihil homine libero dignius." 

 (Nothing excels, nothing is more profitable, nothing more suit- 

 able for a man of leisure.) Many theoretical speculations must 

 be demonstrated to be futile, many experiments will fail of the 

 desired object, in the progress of investigation ; but one happy 

 result confers a benefit on mankind through remotest ages, 

 every failure serves as a beacon for future travellers. 



