Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1852-07-17
OF THE COMMITTEE ON HORTI-
CULTURE.
BY A. B. BATES, ESQ.

BY a. b. BATES,
To the Members Of the r. FL. A. Society.
Why your humble servant should be
charged with the duty of furnishing Re-
port as chairman Of the committee on Hor-
ticulture, Il am at loss to understand, unless
upon the assumption that my continued ne
glect of the application of the principles of
the science, is regarded as an evidence they
are so familiar to me, as TO render their use
drudgery. But be that as it may, having
as yet since my residence upon these islands,
neither supplied my table with ordinary Gu
inary vegetables, or any Of my friends with
boquet of annual or perennial flowers from
my own garden, my experience, whatever
may be my taste or skill, must necessarily
be very limited and not enable me to profit
you by any practical remarks upon the sub
ject of gardening.
Ornamental and useful Horticulture are
themes of wide range, which merit de-
csription from an ADLER pen than mine, to
present to you the various reasons that should
commend them to your favorable regard.
But, as duty is to be performed, | shall
discharge it as have ability, asking in ad-
vance, your kind consideration Of my mex
perience and limited knowledge.
&c Home, Sweet Home" are familiar
words, but have they ever been uttered
without causing pleasurable emotion and
exciting agreeable recollections Of the scenes
Of our childhood
Our fathers and our mothers, our brothers
and our sisters, (have we ever sustained these
relations, are called to mind by those Oft
repeated words, but they alone do not occu-
pv entirely our memories when the scene of
home is presented to US. How often have
we all thought of the rose bush growing by
our mothers bedroom window, from which
we have plucked boquet for those we have
loved in our youth Of the crotched apple
tree in the orchard from which we have
gathered sweeting or pippin 10 crafty our
uncorrupted tastes when a boy; of the melon
patch back of the barn from which we have
tasted the nutmeg and cantelope with rel
ish not familiar to us now and are not these
recollectioDs of the limited horticulture of
our parents essential elements in the pleas
urable emotions called into action by the
recollections Of our homes If so, is it not
among our first duties TO our children that
they shall not lack the pleasures we enjoy,
when in alter years they listen to the ever
endearing words e Home, Sweet Home"
w Heu the WOfh VI StSdtiou was SobP'St
ed. 60 And the LORD Cop formed man of the
dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and man became
a living soul The LORD GoD planted al
garden eastward of Eden, and therein he put
the man he had formed"
Perchance, then, that all of US cannot re-
alze that additional pleasures have been Sc
cured to US, by our immediate ancestors in
the cultivation of fruit-bearing trees aud
vines, and Aower-bearing shrubs and bushes.
We all are participators in the kindly feel
ings producedby the reflection that the an
cient homestead of our common ancestor
was a garden, and that " Out of the ground
made the LORD GoD togrow every tree that
islpleasam to the sight. and good for food,
and who among us would forego the delight
produced by the recollection that the orgl-
nal homestead of our race was the garden OF
Edeni
1t would seem therefore that it was the de-
sign of our Creator that taste for Hortlcul-j
ture should originate with the creation OF our
being and that it should accompany the de-
velopment of man down to the present Pc
riod Let us, therefore, encourage and fos-
ter it as an art sanctioned by Holy Writ, in
that, sThe LORD COP planted a garden
eastward of Eden," before general agricul-j
lure was known.
But aside from. the example of our Gre