78 HORTICULTURE. 



is developing itself anew every day. On the other hand, the great 

 facility with which excellent fniits and vegetables are grown in this 

 climate, as compared with the North of Europe, makes our gardens 

 compare most favorably with theirs in respect to these two points. 

 The tables of the United States are more abundantly supplied with 

 peaches and melons, than those of the wealthiest classes abroad — 

 and the display of culinary vegetables of the North of Europe, which 

 is almost confined to the potatoes, peas, French beans, and cauli- 

 flowers, mates but a sorry comparison with the abundant bill of 

 fare within the daily reach of all Americans. The traveller abroad 

 from this side of the Atlantic, learns to value the tomatoes,. Indian 

 com, Lima beans, egg-plants, okra, sweet potatoes, and many other 

 haJf-tropical products, which the bright sun of his own land offers 

 him in such abuni^/nce, Tvith a new relish ; and putting these and 

 the delicious fruits, which are so cheaply and abundantly produced, 

 into the scale against the smooth lawns and the deep verdure of 

 Great Britain, he is more than consoled for the superiority of the 

 latter country in these finer elements of mere embellishment. * 



In the useful branches of gardening, the last ten years have 

 largely increased the culture of all the fine cujinary vegetables, and 

 our markets are now almost every where abundantly supplied with 

 them. The tomato, the egg-plant, salsify, and okra, from being 

 rarities have become almost universally cultivated. The tomato 

 affords a singular illustration of the fact that an article of food not 

 generally relished at first, if its use is founded in its adaptation to 

 the nature of the climate, may speedily come to be considered in- 

 dispensable to a whole nation. Fifteen years ago it would have been 

 difficult to find this vegetable for sale in five market towns in 

 America. At the present moment, it is grown almost every where, 

 and there are hundreds of acres devoted to its culture for the supply 

 of the New-York market alone. We are certain that no people at 

 the present moment, use so large a variety of fine vegetables as the 

 people of the United States. Their culture is so remarkably easy, 

 and the product so abundant. 



We have no means of knowing the precise annual value of the 

 products of the orchards of the United States. The Commissioner 

 of Patents, from the statistics m, his possession, estimates it at ten 



