We would suggest to the editors of newspapers the propriety of
establishing in their columns a permanent agricultural department. We
are much pleased to see that many excellent papers are doing it, and
that others insert occasional articles. Great advantage cannot fail to
accrue to our town and rural population by putting into their hands
every week, able articles from practical farmers and gardeners upon
the various topics of agriculture and horticulture. Let every paper
urge the setting out of shade-trees in our villages. It is greatly to
be desired, that all our towns should be filled with elms, maples,
ashes, locusts, etc. The cultivation of fruit may be much encouraged
and promoted by a frequent republication of articles on that subject.
The gardens and conservatories of a few very wealthy gentlemen do not
constitute a horticultural community. They are of great use in the
procuration and cultivation of new varieties of plants, and in testing
important matters by expensive experiments. But affluent men and their
pleasure grounds are to horticulture, what universities are to common
schools; that State is best educated whose _whole_ population are the
most thoroughly trained; and that is _the_ horticultural State, _all_
of whose villages, towns, farms, and gardens, are in the highest state
of cultivation.
Our desire is to diffuse a love for rural affairs, husbandry, and
horticulture among the whole mass of the community.
* * * * *
WEEDS IN ALLEYS.—It is said that weeds may be entirely destroyed for
years by copious watering with a solution of lime and sulphur in
boiling-hot water. This, if effectual, will be highly important to
such as have garden gravel walks, pavements, etc., through which grass
and weeds grow up.