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''Do you wonder that I cultivate my garden with my own hands ?" said King Cyrus to 

 Lysander ; " I swear by the diadem I wear, that if 1 be in health. I never eat any food until I 

 have exercised my body till I perspire ; sometimes in martial exercise, at other limes in gard- 

 ening or similar laborious exercises ot husbandrj-."' — Plutarch. 



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ARDEXIXG is lae m'~>st arcient of all arts. The first 

 gardener, was the first rian ; for \vc rend in Holy 

 Scripture, that aftei the creation of our progenitor, 

 " the Lord God took the man and put him into the 

 Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." 



An occupation so ancient, and so productive cf 

 pleasure and profit to man, is entitled to respect, and is 

 worthy the devotion of all who have control over even 

 the smallest portion of " mother earth," Mahommed, 

 it is said, made the heaven of his religion, p. vast garden, on the principle of 

 representing the celestial state by that which ministered most terrestrial happi- 

 ness to mankind. Sir William Temple represented horticluture as " the inclina- 

 tion of kings, and the choice of philosophers." We have learned in this western 

 world that it is also the preference of the sovereign people. 



The broad prairies, the limestone hiils and alluvial valleys, the wide variety 

 of soil and climate, reaching from the rocky cliffs of Oregon to the glades of 

 Florida, on whose AWldemess of beauty the light of an almost tropical sun loves 

 to linger, supply a great and active people with unparalleled scope for develop- 

 ing all the products of nature. The increase of gardening in all its branches 

 on this continent, is marv'elous, as any one will perceive in reflecting on these 

 two facts : the large literature, periodical and permanent, pertaining to the sci- 

 ence and practice of horticulture, and the surprising volume and breadth 

 OF THE Seed Trade. 



And yet our people have made but a beginning ! To say nothing of the 

 yet untrodden areas of the continent, how many lots, yards and fields are left to 

 the profitless control of the weeds, which might, with proper culture, be made 

 to yield an abundance of those vegetable products which are so necessary to 

 health and comfort ! There is no one, whether he be the merchant absorbed in 

 the duties of his store or office, or the mechanic engaged in his laborious art, or the 

 housewife cumbered wdth domestic cares, who would not be better for the change 

 of employment for bod\- and mind, which an hour or two devoted daily to gard- 



