The Complete Writings, vol 1 | Page 6

as
often as one really touches it with a hoe. Antaeus (this is a classical
article) was no doubt an agriculturist; and such a prize-fighter as
Hercules could n't do anything with him till he got him to lay down his
spade, and quit the soil. It is not simply beets and potatoes and corn and
string-beans that one raises in his well- hoed garden: it is the average of
human life. There is life in the ground; it goes into the seeds; and it also,
when it is stirred up, goes into the man who stirs it. The hot sun on his
back as he bends to his shovel and hoe, or contemplatively rakes the
warm and fragrant loam, is better than much medicine. The buds are
coming out on the bushes round about; the blossoms of the fruit trees
begin to show; the blood is running up the grapevines in streams; you
can smell the Wild flowers on the near bank; and the birds are flying
and glancing and singing everywhere. To the open kitchen door comes
the busy housewife to shake a white something, and stands a moment

to look, quite transfixed by the delightful sights and sounds. Hoeing in
the garden on a bright, soft May day, when you are not obliged to, is
nearly equal to the delight of going trouting.
Blessed be agriculture! if one does not have too much of it. All
literature is fragrant with it, in a gentlemanly way. At the foot of the
charming olive-covered hills of Tivoli, Horace (not he of Chappaqua)
had a sunny farm: it was in sight of Hadrian's villa, who did landscape
gardening on an extensive scale, and probably did not get half as much
comfort out of it as Horace did from his more simply tilled acres. We
trust that Horace did a little hoeing and farming himself, and that his
verse is not all fraudulent sentiment. In order to enjoy agriculture, you
do not want too much of it, and you want to be poor enough to have a
little inducement to work moderately yourself. Hoe while it is spring,
and enjoy the best anticipations. It is not much matter if things do not
turn out well.

FIRST WEEK
Under this modest title, I purpose to write a series of papers, some of
which will be like many papers of garden-seeds, with nothing vital in
them, on the subject of gardening; holding that no man has any right to
keep valuable knowledge to himself, and hoping that those who come
after me, except tax-gatherers and that sort of person, will find profit in
the perusal of my experience. As my knowledge is constantly
increasing, there is likely to be no end to these papers. They will pursue
no orderly system of agriculture or horticulture, but range from topic to
topic, according to the weather and the progress of the weeds, which
may drive me from one corner of the garden to the other.
The principal value of a private garden is not understood. It is not to
give the possessor vegetables or fruit (that can be better and cheaper
done by the market-gardeners), but to teach him patience and
philosophy and the higher virtues, -hope deferred and expectations
blighted, leading directly to resignation and sometimes to alienation.
The garden thus becomes a moral agent, a test of character, as it was in

the beginning. I shall keep this central truth in mind in these articles. I
mean to have a moral garden, if it is not a productive one,--one that
shall teach., O my brothers! O my sisters! the great lessons of life.
The first pleasant thing about a garden in this latitude is, that you never
know when to set it going. If you want anything to come to maturity
early, you must start it in a hot-house. If you put it out early, the
chances are all in favor of getting it nipped with frost; for the
thermometer will be 90 deg. one day, and go below 32 deg. the night of
the day following. And, if you do not set out plants or sow seeds early,
you fret continually; knowing that your vegetables will be late, and that,
while Jones has early peas, you will be watching your slow-forming
pods. This keeps you in a state of mind. When you have planted
anything early, you are doubtful whether to desire to see it above
ground, or not. If a hot day comes, you long to see the young plants;
but, when a cold north wind brings frost, you tremble lest the seeds
have burst their bands. Your spring is passed in anxious doubts and
fears, which are usually realized; and so a great moral discipline is
worked out for you.
Now,