192 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
Should this counsel, so daintily devised, be heeded by a tiller of 
the soil, he is warned by Dryden that — 
“ Much labor is required in trees, to tame 
Their wild disorder, and in ranks reclaim.” 
And again he learns from the same source, that to be successful, 
he must, 
“ With his pruning-hook disjoin 
XJnbearing branches from their head, 
And graft more happy in their stead.” 
One can gain from poetry alone, sufficient information to begin 
the process of gardening. We are told in rhythmical and compre¬ 
hensive lines — 
“ Let thy vines in intervals be set; 
Indulge their width, and add a roomy space. 
That their extremest lines may scarce embrace.” 
Another writer lends still further aid by saying — 
“When swelling buds their odorous foliage shed. 
And gently harden into fruit, the wise 
Spare not the little offsprings, if they grow 
Redundant.” 
All poets seem to deserve the title of botanists, even though 
claiming to possess no knowledge of natural history. A mist of 
technical words sometimes prevents an interpretation of Flora’s 
smiles, while her secrets are dearly revealed through the medium 
of a few simple lines, that yet make no pretense of affording in¬ 
struction. The exact order in which certain flowers appear is 
gracefully given by Bryant — 
“The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago. 
And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow, 
But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, 
And the yellow sun-flower by the brook, in Autumn beauty stood, 
Till fell the frost from the clear, cold heaven, as falls the plague on men. 
And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland, glade and glen.” 
The poet has invested all the departments of horticulture with 
wondrous attractions to the uninitiated, by shedding upon them, in 
