AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
307 
GARDENS AND FLOWERS, 
[We cannoit devote a column or two of 
space to a better purpose than to the follow¬ 
ing beautiful thoughts and valuable sugges¬ 
tions from a recent number of the Indepen¬ 
dent. Those who have read the article be¬ 
fore will be profited by a iv perusal; and in 
lhis journal, adapted a - it is for binding and 
preservation, the article may be read over 
.each suacessivo spring.—Fin.] 
Horticulture,-which is'one of the several 
distinct departments of rural economy, con¬ 
sists in the culture of gardens; and to all 
persons who have a lot of ground upon which 
the sun shines, it is an art that especially 
commends itself at this opening season of 
the year. Whether it be pursued for the 
healthful pleasures which it affords, or more 
directly for profit to the pocket, it is an 
agreeable, elevating and refining occupation. 
The earth in the days of Paradise was a 
garden, and ever since then the highest con¬ 
ception of a region of beauty is invariably 
akin to this idea. The land of Beulah is 
described by Bunyan as a garden. It is also 
delineated by artists on the canvas as a gar¬ 
den. 
The institution of the garden was no less 
divinely created than the flowers and fruits 
that grow in it. It is a consecrated inclosure 
in which the children of the fields — arrayed 
as Solomon was not!—are gathered in or¬ 
derly ranks — as if they were a congregation 
of men—to worship the universal Creator. 
What a spectacle a garden might be made to 
be l It the full conception which the word 
inspires were made a reality, language could 
hardly describe the affluence of luxury and 
beauty which it would yield. What delight¬ 
ful regalements would be offered on every 
hand ! What clusters of fruit would bend 
down under their sweet burdens, longing to 
be plucked! What flowers would hold out 
their fascinations to captivate both sight and 
smell ! What arbors would be reared to 
blend the sunlight and the shade, and temper 
it to every whim of the eye ! What figs and 
almonds would grow! What peaches and 
nectarines ! What plums and grapes ! What 
nuts and berries ! What golden apples and 
melting pears! What brooks would mur¬ 
mur, what fountains would spout, what birds 
would sing ! 
But if these are necessary to make a gar¬ 
den, we are afraid that gardens will not 
abound. There is something in the limited 
ideal of carrots and cabbages that forbids the 
anticipation of such a pleasing result. Sa¬ 
voys, cauliflowers, and parsnips are excel¬ 
lent in their place,but they are not the things 
which would give the highest tone to a gar¬ 
den. Beets are good, and so are radishes 
and beans, but a garden should not be a uni¬ 
versal bed of such vegetables. Onions, gar¬ 
lic and rhubarb are essential to soup, and 
consequently to tbe garden, but they should 
not use up the whole cultivated space. 
The kitchen, not only,but the parlor, also, 
should take a deep root in the garden. A 
garden should be made to minister to more 
tastes than one. It should yield esculent 
products for the palate, beginning with the 
commonest and coarsest vegetables, but also 
embracing the most rare and delicate varie¬ 
ties. It should comprise a scale of fruits no 
less extensive, and should be decked and 
beautified in nook and corner with flowers 
of every, hue and odor. 
If the spot be small, and tho question of 
roses or radishes involve.; i.hc e?v' . b ■ of 
one or the other, it is hotter Ip lot the ro*ms 
stand, that you may call your ground ‘X,gar¬ 
den, But if you raise only radishes, it is 
nothing but a patch. 
A garden, in the broadest, embodiment of 
the word, if it could be made at all, could not 
be realized in one year— nor in ten. A rich 
garden is a collection. It must be formed by 
gradual accumulation — like a cabinet of 
minerals or of shells. It contains a great 
mass of diversified materials, brought toge¬ 
ther one by one from every quarter of the 
globe. It is a conservatory not only of com¬ 
monplaces, but of rarities ; and if the former 
may be as abundantly attainable as weeds, 
the latter are often as difficult of access as 
pearls. It is a place of spacious walks, with 
beautiful pavements and ornamental edgings. 
It is a work of art, as well as an exhibition 
of nature. It requires arches and pipes 
and furnaces underground, and must be fur¬ 
nished with apparatus to create, whenever 
needed, any of the varying temperatures of 
all the seasons as they are exhibited in all 
productive climates. 
But such an ideal of a garden should deter 
no humble beginner from gardening. If a 
large space cannot be obtained, a small in- 
closcre will answer a good purpose. A large 
ground with small means—while it may 
make a good field —will never make a gar¬ 
den. A single flower growing in a pot, in a 
house where none has been before, is a joy 
to ail who watch and water it ; yet a garden 
that every one will call small, may number 
a thousand flowers. And it is well to have 
flowers in pots, where one can do no better: 
but flowers grow with more thrift when their 
roots grow down into the bosom of the earth 
itself. A garden, containing many such, 
might be had on a small spot, and with liut 
little trouble. 
No man can understand nature who never 
cultivates flowers, and no one can pluck the 
greatest pleasure and profit from their culti¬ 
vation, except the garden has its full share 
of specimens and varieties. Many of nature’s 
works are so complete and beautiful, as to 
inspire the idea that they are animated with 
intelligence, but the highest in the whole 
range is the flower. Fruits are second, but 
the first are flowers. How many of them 
seem to be possessed of consciousness! If 
they cannot speak they can listen—but they 
can almost speak ! It is a pleasurable pur¬ 
suit to gather shells and minerals, but these 
have no life. Ore, though it be full of gold, 
is dead and dull. A shell is more suggestive 
than a stone or metal, for it was once the ha¬ 
bitation of a living creature. But a flower 
is all life. It is not merely a shelly husk. 
No part of it is formed from inorganic depo¬ 
sits. Its roots and stems have no less vital¬ 
ity than its buds and blossoms. 
Flowers are by far the greatest essentials 
to a garden, and they are so plentiful that 
every one may have them. Men should be 
thankful that they grow on the surface of 
the earth in such profusion ! Their varieties 
are almost innumerable. There is hardly 
a climate or a soil in which they do not ap 
pear. Travelers have found them in jour¬ 
neying, among the sands of the Great De¬ 
sert, and, in ascending to the summits of the 
Alps. Dr. Kano found shrubs and flowers 
of the most delicate tissues within the limits 
of the Arctic circle. They grow even in 
damp dark yards and under stoops in cities. 
No one can be excused who lias not a 
flower somewhere near him , trained and 
tended by his own hand, either outside his 
dwelling or within it. And many might have 
a hundred, where they now have five. Many 
might have a garden, who have only a single 
pot. Pictures and works of art are costly 
decorations for the household —but flowers 
are cheap. Few can ever possess the one, 
while all may have the other ; and the ques¬ 
tion of preference—who cannot decide ? If 
flowers were as rare as painted Madonnas, 
a rose would be a thousand times more pre¬ 
cious than the choicest canvas Mom the easel 
of Correggio! Flowers are not prized be¬ 
cause they are plentiful. If diamonds were 
scattered over the ground like pebbles, how 
many ladies would wear diamond rings 1 
Yet the lustre of a single gem would bo no 
less, though ten thousand others sparkled 
in the grass. It is because flowers are so 
abundant in the aggregate, that so few peo¬ 
ple take pains to gather them into thoir 
houses and gardens. 
But bowers are ivealth, and should be 
husbanded and multiplied; and now is the 
time to put them out at interest—seed and 
plant—that they may “yield their own with 
usury. And unlike the man in the parable 
who “ went and digged in the earth and hid 
his Lord’s money,” it will be found in the 
case of flowers that those persons will best 
succeed who go and dig in the earth. The 
April rains are already moistening the soil, 
and what is planted will soon be quickened, 
and will in due time break through the sur¬ 
face and grow. The beginning of the work 
of gardening can hardly be made too early ; 
and as he who plants for flowers will not 
have to wait until autumn before he shall 
reap his rewards, there are many induce¬ 
ments to take spade, hoe and rake, and go 
out immediately to prepare the beds for the 
seeds or slips. 
We hope that the bearing of these random 
observations may not be lost upon our read¬ 
ers, who will be every day invited by the 
further opening of Spring to put them into 
practical effect. 
A Song for Spring. —There is no prettier 
song of Spring than that of Solomon, which 
is worth publishing as often as Winter de¬ 
parts and Spring, with her sunshine smiles, 
and drapery of green appears : 
“ Lo, the winter is past, the rain is ovei 
and gone : the flowers appear on the earth ; 
the time of the singing birds is come, and 
the voice of the turtle is heard in the land ; 
the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and 
the vines of the lender'grape given good 
smell.” 
