robably return
similar favors; but to those who have no means of making any return. If
the rich, who acquire a love for the enjoyments of taste, and have the
means to gratify it, would aim to extend, among the poor, the cheap and
simple enjoyment of fruits and flowers, our Country would soon literally
"blossom as the rose."

If the ladies of a neighborhood would unite small contributions, and
send a list of flower-seeds and roots to some respectable and honest
florist, who would not be likely to turn them off with trash, they could
divide these among themselves, so as to secure an abundant variety, at a
very small expense. A bag of flower-seeds, which can be obtained, at
wholesale, for four cents, would abundantly supply a whole neighborhood;
and, by the gathering of seeds, in the Autumn, could be perpetuated.

Another very elevating and delightful recreation, for the young, is
found in _music_. Here, the writer would protest against the common
practice, in many families, of having the daughters learn to play on the
piano, whether they have a taste and an ear for music, or not. A young
lady, who cannot sing, and has no great fondness for music, does nothing
but waste time, money, and patience, in learning to play on the piano.
But all children can be taught to sing, in early childhood, if the
scientific mode of teaching music, in schools, could be introduced, as
it is in Prussia, Germany, and Switzerland. Then, young children could
read and sing music, as easily as they can read language; and might take
any tune, dividing themselves into bands, and sing off, at sight, the
endless variety of music which is prepared. And if parents of wealth
would take pains to have teachers qualified for the purpose, as they may
be at the Boston Academy, and other similar institutions, who should
teach all the young children in the community, much would be done for
the happiness and elevation of the rising generation. This is an
amusement, which children relish, in the highest degree; and which they
can enjoy, at home, in the fields, and in visits abroad.

Another domestic amusement, is, the collecting of shells, plants, and
specimens in geology and mineralogy, for the formation of cabinets. If
intelligent parents would procure the simpler works which have been
prepared for the young, and study them, with their children, a _taste_
for such recreations would soon be developed. The writer has seen young
boys, of eight and ten years of ag