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CONTENTS.
_______
Title
Page
NOTE
PRELIMINARIES
6 SECTIONS [1]
[2] [3]
[4] [5]
[6]
THE
EVOLUTION OF HORTICULTURE
IN NEW ENGLAND:
I.–
THE
EARLIEST COLONIES IN
NEW ENGLAND
II.–
THE COLONIES OF
MASSACHUSETTS BAY
through page 105 of 180
I have posted what I have finished typing on this
book but I am going to delay indefinitely the rest of the book because most of
the rest of the book is unopened (the pages have not been split apart) and I
would prefer not to open the pages as this is a good example of how books used
to be made. If I get enough requests to finish the book, I will try to find an
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PRELIMINARIES. [2]
As Sir William Temple says: “The use of gardens
seems to have been the most ancient and most general of any sorts of possession
among mankind and so have preceded, those of corn or cattle as yielding the
easier, the pleasanter, and most natural food. If we believe the Scriptures we
must allow that God Almighty esteemed the life of a man in a garden the happiest
He could give him, or else He would not have placed Adam in that of Eden; and
that the life of husbandry and cities came after the Fall, with guilt and with
labor.”
The Egyptians, Medes, Chaldeans, Persians,
Greeks, and Romans were essentially part and parcel of the Oriental stock. Of
some of these, as regards their practices in the cultivation of the soil, we
have but meager information. It is reasonable to suppose that most, if not all,
pursued the same course, modified by changes dependent upon their habits and
surroundings. The evolution of horticulture, however, undoubtedly made gradual
and steady improvement, as is evident from the reliable writings of the poets,
historians, and statesmen among the Greeks and Romans.
Two centuries after Solomon, Homer describes
the gardens of the Grecians, in which they cultivated fruits, herbs, vegetables,
and flowers. In their mythology, of which there is much that is poetical and
interesting, not only flowers but trees and ornamental shrubs were sacred to
their deities. “Most of the flowers cultivated, moreover, suggested poetical or
mythological associations: for the religion of Greece combined itself with
nearly every object in nature, more particularly with the beautiful, so that the
greek, as he strolled through his garden, had perpetually before his fancy a
succession of fables connected with nymphs and goddesses and the old hereditary
traditions of his country. Thus the laurel recalled the tale and transformation
of Daphne, the object of Apollo’s love – the cypresses or graces of the
vegetable kingdom were the everlasting representatives of
Eteocles’ daughters, visited by death
because they dared to rival the goddesses in dancing – the myrtle was a most
beautiful maiden of Attica, fairer than all her countrywomen, swifter and more
patient of toil than the youth, who therefore slew her through envy – the pine
was the tall and graceful mistress of Pan and
Boreas – the mint that of Pluto – while the rose-campion
sprung from the bath of Aphrodite, and the humble cabbage from the tears of
Lycurgus, the enemy of
Dionysos.”1
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