A LOOK ABOUT US. 61 



when it rouses the farming class to a sense of its rights in the state, 

 its rights to good education, to agricultural schools, to a place in the 

 legislative halls ; when farmers shall not only be talked about in 

 complimentary phrase as "honest yeonien," or the "bone and sinew 

 of the country," but see and feel by the comparison of power and 

 influence with the commercial and professional classes that they are 

 such, then we shall not hear so much about the dangers of the 

 republic, but more of the intelligence and good sense of the 

 people. 



Among the good signs of the times, we notice the establishment 

 of an Agricultural Bureau at Washington. At its head has been 

 placed, for the present, at least. Dr. Lee, the editor of the Genesee 

 Farmer — a man thoroughly alive to the interests of the cultivators 

 of the soil, and awake to the unjust estimation practically placed 

 upon farmers, both by themselves and the country at large. If he 

 does his duty, as we think he will, in collecting and presenting sta- 

 tistics and other information showing the importance and value of 

 the agriculture of the United States, we believe this Agricultural 

 Bureau will be of vast service, if only in showiag the farmers their 

 own strength for all good purposes, if they will only first educate 

 and then use their powers. 



In our more immediate department — horticulture — ^there are the 

 most cheering signs of improvement in every dii-ection. In all parts 

 of the country, but especiall^aflthe West, horticultural societies are 

 being formed. We think Ohio alone numbers five at this inoment ; 

 and as the bare formation of such societies shows the existence of 

 a little more than private zeal on the part of the inhabitants, in gar- 

 dening matters, we may take it for granted that the culture of gar- 

 dens is making progress at the West, with a rapidity commensurate 

 to the wonderful growth there in other respects. 



It is now no longer a question, indeed, that horticulture, both for 

 profit and pleasure, is destined to become of far more consequence 

 here than in any part of Europe. Take, for example, the matter of 

 fruit culture. In no part of Europe has the planting of orchards 

 been carried to the same extent as it has already been in the United 

 States. There is no smgle peach orchard in France, Italy, or Spain, 

 that has produced the owner over $10,000 in a single year, like 



