64 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap 



age. But, I look still further, as to effects. There 

 must be amusements m every family. Children ob- 

 serve and follow their parents in almost every thing. 

 How much better, during a long and dreary winter, 

 for daughters, and even sons, to assist, or attend, 

 their mother in a green-house, than to be seated 

 with her at cards, or at any other amusement that 

 can be conceived ! How much more innocent, more 

 pleasant, more free from temptation to evil, this 

 amusement than any other ! How much more in* 

 structive too ! " Bend the twig when young :" but, 

 here, there needs no force; nay, not even persua- 

 sion. The thing is so pleasant in itself; it so natu- 

 rally meets the wishes ; that the taste is fixed at 

 once, and it remains, to the exclusion of cards and 

 dice, to the end of life. 



123. This is, with me, far more than sufficient to 

 outweigh even a plausible objection on the score ol 

 expense. Such husbands and fathers as are acces- 

 sible by arguments like these, will need nothing 

 more to induce them to yield to my recommenda- 

 tion • with such as are not, no arguments within 

 the reach of my capacity would be of any avail. 



CHAPTER in. 



On Propagation and Cultivation in general, 



124. In order to have good Vegetables, Herbs, 

 Fruits, and Flowers, we must be careful and dili- 

 gent in the Propagation and Cultivation of the 

 several plants ; for, though nature does much, she 

 will not do all. He, who trusts to chance for a crop, 

 deserves none, and he generally has what he deserves. 



125. The Propagation of plants is the bringing 



