The American Garden 



Vol. XII. 



AUGUST, i8cji. 



No. 8. 



THE GREATEST PROSPERITY : 



GREATER THAN MILLIONS OF MONEY ; GREATER THAN GLORY OF CONQUEST ; 

 GREATER THAN POLITICAL POWER. 



HAT HAVE green grass, trees, flowers and fruits — what has gardening to do with 

 all those economic phrases ? Just this. The palmy days of Roman power and 

 glory were founded on a prosperous agriculture, promoted and encouraged by the 

 Caesars as the basis of all prosperity. Frederick the Great was a mighty warrior, 

 but he was a greater statesman, and his most enduring monument is the splendid 

 agriculture — the finest in the world — which he did so much to promote, still evi- 

 denced by the great drainage canals of the Saxon plains and the magnificent Sans 

 Souci gardens. France surprised the world by her speedy recovery after the 

 Franco- Prussian war — a result impossible, save for her innumerable little garden 

 farms that for generations have made her, comparatively, the most productive 

 country of Europe. 



Love of home and land — of the homestead where one is born and reared — is 

 nowhere stronger than in old England ; nowhere are the charms of social life 

 more varied and delightful ; in no other land is there a stronger and better man- 

 hood and womanhood. All of this, we believe, is largely due to the love of rural life, as exhibited in her 

 myriad suburban homes, always surrounded by the refining and healthful influence of beautiful gardens ; 

 in the thousands of lordly manors, always in the midst of parks and gardens, where the children of luxury 

 are reared amid the wholesome atmosphere of true Mother Nature ; in the countless well-kept tenant 

 farms, the homes of English yeomen ; in the almost daily exhibitions of garden products for the educa- 

 tion and entertainment of the poorer classes. In short, the garden homes of England, her agriculture, 

 which is largely horticulture in its principle of intensive culture, her beautiful country of " shady lanes 

 and green fields," are the chief glory of her civilization. In America we have a proverbial saying that 

 the blood of the country is the life of the city. The majority of our leading men were farm-bred boys, 

 and their characters have been developed under the benign influence of rugged hills and smiling valleys, 

 quiet woods and sunlit meadows, mingled with the sturdy vigor and Spartan rigor of American farm life. 

 But there has been so much of the Spartan quality in it that all too many of the brightest and best of the 

 boys have been allured by the brightness and color of city life to forsake the safe rural pursuits for the 

 fate of the moth in the candle. Gardening in its broad sense : making home beautiful and healthful, 

 with room enough out-doors for fresh air and sunshine, trees and flowers, fruits and vegetables — has been 

 sadly neglected in village and farm. Happily, the tide has turned. Agriculture begins to recognize 

 horticulture as her mistress. The 25-foot "lots" in self-respecting communities are widening into re- 

 spectable " grounds. " The farm house and village unkept " yard " gradually becomes a "lawn," with 

 grassy sod, blooming shrubs, vines and flowery borders. The country seats of the millionaires are the 

 example, object lesson and pride of the regions round about. Thus, our rural homes are rapidly improv- 

 ing and increasing their influence for good over the boys and girls, young men and young women. Thus, 

 American horticulture may do much in the moulding of our national life, by promoting the sentiment for 

 garden homes, and thereby instilling into our manhood somewhat of the goodness of nature. 



