These would
need to be provided with a light hoe and rake, a dibble or garden
trowel, a watering-pot, and means and opportunities for securing seeds,
roots, bulbs, buds, and grafts, all which might be done at a trifling
expense. Then, with proper encouragement and by the aid of a few
intelligible and practical directions, every man who has even half an
acre could secure a small Eden around his premises.
In pursuing this amusement children can also be led to acquire many
useful habits. Early rising would, in many cases, be thus secured; and
if they were required to keep their walks and borders free from weeds
and rubbish, habits of order and neatness would be induced. Benevolent
and social feelings could also be cultivated, by influencing children
to share their fruits and flowers with friends and neighbors, as well
as to distribute roots and seeds to those who have not the means of
procuring them. A woman or a child, by giving seeds or slips or roots
to a washerwoman, or a farmer's boy, thus inciting them to love and
cultivate fruits and flowers, awakens a new and refining source of
enjoyment in minds which have few resources more elevated than mere
physical enjoyments.
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