Horticulture


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Plant Characteristics
Cultivation
Scientific Names



Read about Horticulture in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Horticulture(hortus a garden, originally an inclosure; colere, to care for or to cultivate). Horticulture is the growing of flowers, fruits and vegetables, and of plants for ornament and fancy. Incident to the growing of the plants are all the questions of plant-breeding, variation of plants under domestication, the bearings and applications of many biological and physical sciences, and the manufacture of many products. Primarily, horticulture is an art, but it is intimately connected with science at every point. From agriculture it has no definite boundary. It is, in fact, a department of agriculture, as forestry is; for agriculture, in its largest meaning, is the business of raising products from the land. It is customary, however, to limit the word agriculture to the growing of grains, forage, bread-stuffs, textiles, and the like, and to the raising of animals. In this restricted application it is practically coordinate, in a classificatory sense, with forestry and horticulture. The nursery business, as understood in North America, is considered to be within the field of horticulture.

Etymologically, agriculture is the tending or cultivation of the fields (ager, field). Horticulture apparently was concerned with the area within the inclosure. Equivalent to horticulture in etymology is gardening (Anglo-Saxon gyrdan, to inclose, to which the verb to gird is allied). By custom, however, garden and gardening denote more restricted areas and operations than are implied in the term horticulture. The word paradise is connected with the idea of an inclosure and a garden or park. Early gardening books of the cyclopedia type are sometimes known as paradisae. Parkinson's famous "Paradisus," or account of "a garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers," was published in England in 1629.

The only demarcation between horticulture and agriculture is the line of custom. Sweet potatoes are usually considered to be a horticultural crop in North America, particularly in the northern states, but round or Irish potatoes are usually classed as an agricultural crop. Nor is there a definite division between horticulture and botany. The science of plants is botany; yet some of the most significant problems relating to plants—their response to the needs of man—have been resigned by the botanist to the horticulturist. Horticulture is a composite of botanical and agricultural subjects.

But horticulture is more than all this. It is a means of expressing the art-sense. Plant-forms and plant-colors are as expressive as the canvas work of the painter. In some respects they are more expressive, since they are things themselves, with individuality and life, not the suggestions of things. The painter's work excels in its power to suggest, and in its condensed portrayal of expression. But the essentials of a good landscape painting often can be presented in an artificially-made landscape. This effort to plant what the artist paints is modern. It is strictly not horticulture, although horticulture is contributory to the results, as paint-making is contributory to painting. Landscape-making is fundamentally a fine art. In this work it is treated under Landscape Gardening. Horticulture divides itself into four somewhat coordinate branches, each branch comprising not only the raising of the crops but also such home or plantation manufacture as goes with the handling and the marketing of the materials (Annals Hort. 1891, 125-130):

Pomology, or fruit-growing; Olericulture, or vegetable-gardening; Floriculture, or the raising of ornamental plants for their individual uses or for their products;

Landscape horticulture, or the growing of plants for their use in the landscape (or in landscape gardening).

In the world at large, floriculture is the most important as measured by the number of persons interested, and by the number of species of plants that are grown (see Floriculture). In North America, pomology is the most important in commercial supremacy. North America is one of the great fruit-growing countries of the world (see Fruit-Growing). The growing of vegetables has been the last of these divisions to organize itself in the New World and to reach a commanding position (see Vegetable-Gardening). Landscape horticulture and landscape-gardening appeal to a constantly enlarging constituency with the growth of culture and of leisure and the deepening of the home life (see Landscape Gardening).

The occupation.

Strictly speaking, there are few horticulturists. The details are too many to allow any one person to cover the entire range. It is only those who look for principles who survey the whole field. Practitioners must confine themselves to rather close bounds. Consider that no less than 25,000 species of plants are in cultivation, each having its own requirements. Consider the great number of species which are actually on sale as registered in this Cyclopedia. The most important species vary immensely, the named and recorded forms often running into the thousands; and each of these forms has particular merits and often particular requirements. Consider that the requirements are likely to be different in any two places, and that the plants are profoundly modified by changes in conditions or in treatment. Consider the insect pests and fungous diseases and the many other kinds of hindrance that confront the cultivator. Consider, also, the vagaries of markets, which are ruled by questions of fancy more than by questions of necessity. There is probably no art in which the separate details are so many as in horticulture.

There is considerable diversity in the definition of the word "gardener." As understood by the gardening fraternity, it is described as follows by Patrick O'Mara: "In this country [North America] the man who grows vegetables for a livelihood is called a gardener, a market-gardener, and, in some sections, a trucker and a truck-farmer. We also have the florist, which embraces the man and woman who keep a flower-store, as well as those to whom the title properly belongs, viz., the persons who are cultivators of flowers. We have also the nurseryman, a calling separate and distinct from these, and yet the three must be combined in one individual to make a qualified gardener, or what is generally known as the 'private' gardener. Occasionally the so-called 'private' gardener is known as a 'manager' or 'superintendent,' but it may well be questioned if he gains honor thereby. When he leaves the place where the title was assumed or thrust upon him, it very frequently is left behind, but he still remains a gardener. It also tends to create an artificial distinction between many who are equals, and many in and out of the ranks believe it should be discouraged. Gardeners who have charge of public parks, cemeteries and botanic gardens, it has always been admitted, may with perfect propriety assume the name of superintendent, but the fact remains that no man who loves his craft need be ashamed to be known professionally by the 'grand old name of gardener.' . . .

"However, as there may be some danger of a man's true position in gardening not being defined in that word, I would suggest that the word professional be used to qualify it. In the eyes of some outside the ranks, it might have weight, and it would certainly be a proper distinction from the amateur gardener, the trucker, the nurseryman and the commercial florist. It would be well also to have all gardeners' societies known as an association of professional gardeners. It might operate to classify properly those who are entitled by education, experience and natural ability to bear the title from those who, lacking all these, are yet bold enough to call themselves gardeners and to become candidates for positions which they are unable to fill with credit to themselves, with justice to their prospective employers or with a proper regard for the responsibilities they are so willing to assume. That class would be bolder than I imagine them to be if they would, under such circumstances, assume the title of professional gardener, and the well-merited ridicule which would inevitably follow the discovery of their false pretenses would be a salutary check upon others. To have a claim upon the title, a man should be able to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables both outdoors and under glass, care for trees and shrubs, lawns and roads, in short attend to every detail connected with his calling. If in addition he knows how to attend to the details of gentlemen's farming, his services should be all the more valuable. He could then assume entire charge of a place where both farming and gardening are done, and we would, if more men were capable of this, be spared the pain of seeing one or both suffer either from incompetence or want of cooperation between the gardener and farmer."

Proceeding to a discussion of the gardener's work, O'Mara continues, in his address "The Professional Gardener's Mission in Horticulture" before the Lenox (Massachusetts) Horticultural Society in 1897, as follows: "It is to that class, then, that we must look for developments of an upward tendency and they will be held responsible for any retrogression in ornamental horticulture, for they are before all others the recognized exponents of the art. It is their mission to improve, and the general opinion is that there is room for improvement, more especially in indoor horticulture. The overwhelming tendency during the past ten to fifteen years has been to make the so-called 'private place' nothing more nor less than a cut-flower establishment and a hospital for the decorative plants which are used in the dwelling-house and for outside decoration in summer; so pronounced has this become that the only difference between the commercial establishment of today and the average private greenhouse is one of size and architecture. The latter instead of being maintained, as it should be, purely to gratify esthetic tastes, is devoted to an utilitarian purpose mainly. The product is counted and reckoned at so many dollars and cents. The most the average owner sees of them is the daily or semi-weekly cut which is sent to the house. This is not as it should be, and while it is not the gardener's fault, and may not be within his power to control, yet by well-timed suggestion and persistence, he should be able to effect a gradual and much-to-be-desired change.

"The greenhouses should be a place of recreation for the owners, who should be induced to visit them daily, to look forward with pleasure to that visit, and the best way to accomplish this is to induce them to get a good collection of plants. A house of roses, carnations, violets or chrysanthemums has not the attraction of a varied collection, a collection, too, that embraces in their season gloxinias, tuberous begonias, cinerarias, cyclamens, caladiums, ixias, sparaxis, primulas, and other seasonable pot-plants, both flowering and ornamental foliage. It is freely admitted that variety is the soul of gardening and not less so in small than in large places. The individual preferences of the proprietor or gardener should therefore in some measure be rendered subservient to the amount of pleasure which visitors are sure to obtain from a variety of plants. I am well aware that in many places the proprietor's residence is of short duration and very often during the summer months only, so that it is difficult, nay, well nigh impossible, for the gardener to influence him in the right direction; but if all earnestly try, some are sure to succeed, and the example once set. it will soon become general."

Of horticulture there are two general types,—that associated immediately with the home life, and that undertaken primarily for the gaining of a livelihood. The former is amateur horticulture. Those things are grown that appeal to the personal tastes: they are grown for oneself. The latter is commercial horticulture. Those things are grown that the market demands: they are grown for others. In all countries, commercial horticulture is a relatively late development. General agriculture is usually the primary means of earning a living from the soil. For the most part, horticulture comes only with the demand for the luxuries and refinements of life; it does not deal with what we call the staple food-stuffs.

It is not the purpose of this sketch to trace the general history of horticulture. If one desires such outlines, he should consult the Bohn edition of Pliny's "Natural History;" Loudon's "Encyclopaedia of Gardening;" G. W. Johnson's "History of English Gardening;" Amherst's "History of Gardening in England;" Sievek- ing's "Gardens, Ancient and Modern; Jager's "Gar- tenkunst und Garten, sonst und jetzt;" Hiittig's "Geschichte des Gartenbaues;" the historical chapters of Andre's "L'Art des Jardins." Mangin's "His- toire des Jardins Anciens et Modernes." For the histories of cultivated plants, see DeCandolle's "Origin of Cultivated Plants;" Hehn & Stallybrass' "Wanderings of Plants and Animals from their first Home;" Pickering's "Chronological History of Plants."

Early American history.

In North America there was little commercial horticulture before the opening of the nineteenth century. There were excellent home gardens more than a century ago, in which many exotic plants were growing; yet, in proportion to the whole population, these gardens were isolated. The status of any modern time is accurately reflected in its writings. It may be well, therefore, to bring in review the leading early horticultural writings of this country. Few studies have been made of our horticultural history. The best is the introductory sketch, by Robert Manning, in the "History of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society," 1880. For its field, Slade's "Evolution of Horticulture in New England," 1895, is interesting. In a still narrower field, Boardman'a "Agricultural Bibliography of Maine" is critical and invaluable. The chapter on "American Horticulture," by Alfred Henderson, in Depew's "One Hundred Years of American Commerce," 1895, presents the commercial side of the subject. Another fragment of the history is presented in the writer's "Sketch of the Evolution of our Native Fruits," 1898. Histories from several points of view are presented in the "Florists' Exchange" for March 30, 1895; and the writer has incorporated parts of his own contribution to that history in the sketch that follows. One may find valuable historical material in the reports of societies, devoted to horticulture and agriculture; and the files of the early journals must not be overlooked. Local histories arc important. All these sources have not yet been carefully explored.

The history of the subject needs to be written from the economic side, as one part in the industrial history of North America, but this has not yet been attempted. The best that may be done here is to trace some of the events from the side of the literature.

The earliest writings on American plants were by physicians and naturalists who desired to exploit the wonders of the newly discovered hemisphere. The earliest separate writing is probably that of Nicolo Monardes on the products of the New World, which was published in Seville in parts, from 1565 to 1571. The completed treatise was translated into Italian, Latin, English and French. An English edition of 1577 was entitled, "Joyfull Newes out of the newe founde worlde, wherein is declared the rare and singular vertues of diverse and sundrie Hearbes, Trees, Oyles, Plantes, and Stones. . . . Also the portrature of the saied hearbes. . . . Englished by J. Frampton." Monardes is now remembered to us in the genus Monarda, one of the mint tribes. He wrote of the medicinal and poisonous plants of the West Indies, and gave pictures, some of them fantastical. His picture of tobacco is not greatly inaccurate, however; and it has the distinction of being probably the first picture extant of the plant, if not of any American plant. This picture is here reproduced (Fig. 1850) exact size; to show the style of illustration of three and one-third centuries ago. Jacques Cornutus is generally supposed to have been the first writer on American plants. His work, "Canadensium Plantanun . . . Historia," appeared in 1635, and it also had pictures.

One of the earliest writers on the general products and conditions of the northern country was John Josselyn, who, in 1672, published a book entitled "New England's Rarities discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that Country," and in 1674 a second volume, "An Account of Two Voyages to New England, made during the years 1638, 1663." The "Rarities" gives specific accounts of many plants, together with pictures of a few of them, as for example, the pitcher plant. He mentions the plants which had become naturalized from Europe. There is also a list "Of such Garden Herbs (amongst us) as do thrive there, and of such as do not." This list, perhaps the earliest record of the kind, is here transcribed:

Cabbidge grows there exceeding well.

Lettice.

Sorrel.

Parsley.

Marygold.

French Mallowes.

Chervel.

Burnet.

Winter Savory.

Summer Savory.

Time.

Sage.

Carrats.

Parsnips of a prodigious size.

Red Beetes.

Radishes.

Turnips.

Purslain.

Wheat.

Rye.

Barley, which commonly degenerates into Oats.

Oats.

Pease of all sorts, and the best in the World; I never heard of, nor did see in eight Years time, one Worm eaten Pea.

Garden Beans.

Naked Oats, there called Silpee, an excellent grain used instecd of Oat Meal, they dry it in an Oven, or in a Pan upon the fire, then beat it small in a Morter.

Spear Mint.

Rew, will hardly grow.

Fetherfew prospereth exceedingly.

Southern Wooa, is no Plant for this Country. Nor

Rosemary. Nor

Bayes.

White Satten groweth pretty well, so doth

Lavender Cotton. But

Lavender is not for the climate.

Penny Royal.

Smalledge.

Ground Ivy, or Ale Hoof.

Gilly Flowers will continue two Years.

Fennel must be taken up, and kept in a warm Cellar all Winter.

Houseleek prospereth notably.

Holly hocks.

Enula Campana, in two Years time the Roots rot.

Comferie, with white Flowers.

Coriander, and

Dill, and

Annis thrive exceedingly, but Annis Seed, as also the Seed of Fennel, seldom comes to maturity; the Seed of Annis is commonly eaten with a fly.

Clary never lasts out one Summer, the Roots rot with the Frost.

Sparagus thrives exceedingly, so does

Garden Sorrel, and

Sweet Bryer. or Eglantine.

Bloodwort but sorrily, but

Patience, and

English Roses, very pleasantly.

Celandine, by the West Country men called Kenning Wort, grows but slowly.

Muschata, as well as in England.

Dittander, or Pepper Wort, flourisheth notably, and so doth

Tansie.

Musk Mellons are better than our English, and

Cucumbers.

Pompions, there be of several kinds, some proper to the Country, they are dryer then our English Pompions, and better tasted; you may eat them green.

Tuckerman, who edited an edition of Josselyn in 1865, comments as follows on the foregoing lists: "The earliest, almost the only account that we have of the gardens of our fathers, after they had settled themselves in their New England, and had tamed its rugged coasts to obedience to English husbandry. What with their garden beans, and Indian beans, and pease ('as good as ever I eat in England,' says Higginson in 1629); then- beets, parsnips, turnips, and carrots ('our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are both bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England,' says the same reverend writer); their cabbages and asparagus,—both thriving, we are told, exceedingly; their radishes and lettuce; their sorrel, parsley, chervil, and marigold, for pot-herbs; and their sage, thyme, savory of both kinds, clary, anise, fennel, coriander, spearmint, and pennyroyal, for sweet herbs,—not to mention the Indian pompions and melons and squanter-squashes, 'and other odde fruits of the country,—the first-named of which had got to be so well approved among the settlers when Josselyn wrote in 1672, that, what he calls 'the ancient New England standing dish' (we may call it so now!) was made of them; and, finally, their pleasant, familiar flowers, lavender-cotton and hollyhocks and satin ('we call this herbe, in Norfolke, sattin," says Gerard; 'and, among our women, it is called honestie') and gillyflowers, which meant pinks as well, and dear English roses, and eglantine,—yes, possibly, hedges of eglantine, —surely the gardens of New England fifty years after the settlement of the country, were as well stocked as they were a hundred and fifty years after. Nor were the first planters long behindhand in fruit. Even at his first visit, in 1639, our author was treated with 'half a score of very fair pippins,' from the Governor's Island in Boston Harbor; though there was then, he says, 'not one apple tree nor pear planted yet in no part of the country but upon that island. But he has a much better account to give in 1671: 'The quinces, cherries, damsons, set the dames a work. Marmalad and preserved damsons is to be met with in every house. Our fruit trees prosper abundantly,—apple trees, pear trees, quince trees, cherry trees, plum trees, barberry trees. I have observed, with admiration, that the kernels sown, or the succors planted, produce as fair and good fruit, without grafting, as the tree from whence they were taken. The country is replenished with fair and large orchards. It was affirmed by one Mr. Woolcut (a magistrate in Connecticut Colony), at the Captain's messe (of which I was), aboard the ship I came home in, that he made five hundred hogsheads of syder out of his own orchard in one year.'—Voyages, pp. 189, 190. Our barberry-bushes, now so familiar inhabitants of the hedge-rows of eastern New England, should seem from this to have come, with the eglan- tines, from the gardens of the first settlers. Barberries 'are planted in most of our English gardens,' says Gerard."

The foregoing lists and- comments show that the colonists early brought their familiar home plants to the new country; and there are many collateral evidences of the same character. There was long and arduous experimenting with plants and methods. Several things which were tried on a large scale failed so completely, either from uncongenial conditions or for economic reasons, that they are now unknown to us as commercial crops; amongst these are indigo, silk and the wine grape. The histories of these things can be traced only as a refrain in contemporary writing. Indian corn, tobacco and cotton early became the great staple crops.

The Indians cultivated corn, beans, pumpkins and other plants when America was discovered. They soon adopted some of the fruits which were introduced by the colonists. William Penn and others found peaches among the Indians. Orchards of peaches and apples were found in western New York by Sullivan's raid against the Six Nations in revolutionary times. Josselyn, Roger Williams. Wood and others speak of the corn and squashes of the Indians. The word squash is adopted from the Indian name, squontersguash, askutasquash, or isqoutersquash. C. C. Jones, in his "History of Georgia," in describing the explorations of De Soto, says that before reaching the Indian town of Canasagua (whose location was m Gordon County, Georgia), DeSoto "was met by twenty men from the village, each bearing a basket of mulberries. This fruit was here abundant and well flavored. Plum and walnut trees were growing luxuriantly throughout the country, attaining a size and beauty, without planting or pruning, which could not be surpassed in the irrigated and well- cultivated gardens of Spain." For critical notes on the plants cultivated by the American aborigines, see Gray and Trumbull, "American Journal of Science," Vol. XXV (April, May),Vol. XXVI (August). For an account of plant products used by the Indians, see G. K. Holmes, "Cyclopedia of American Agriculture," Vol. IV, p. 24.

"Fruit-growing among the Indians of Georgia and Alabama in the early history of these states," writes Berckmans, "is demonstrated by the large quantity of peaches which the Indian traders of the early colonial period found growing in the Creek, Cherokee and Choctaw villages. It is on record that Indians often made long trips to other tribes for exchanging various articles of their making, and thus the seed from those peach trees was undoubtedly procured from the Florida Indians, who, in turn, procured these from the trees planted by the Spanish explorers. The peculiar type of 'Indian peaches,' found throughout the South and recognized by the downy and striped fruit and purple bark on the young growth, was introduced from Spain and gradually disseminated by the Indians. Apple-growing was quite extensively carried on by the Cherokee Indians in the mountain regions of Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. The trees being all seedlings, as grafting was likely unknown to the Red Man, vestiges of old apple trees originally planted by these denizens of the South are still occasionally found in upper Georgia. Sixty years ago a large collection of apples was introduced Into cultivation, and today many of the best southern winter apples owe their origin to the Indians, who procured the first seeds from traders."

One of the earliest glimpses of plant-growing in the New World is an account in the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society," early in the eighteenth century, by Chief Justice Paul Dudley, of Roxbury, near Boston. In the "Abridgement of the Transactions" are the following notes, amongst others, under the date 1724: "The plants of England, as well as those of the fields and orchards as of the garden, that have been brought over into New England, suit very well with the

soil, and grow to perfection. The apples are as good as those of England, and look fairer, as well as the pears; but they have not all of the sorts. The peaches rather excel those of England, and there is no trouble or expence of walls for them; for the peach trees are all standards, and Mr. Dudley has had, in his own garden, 700 or 800 fine peaches of the rare-ripes, growing at a time on one tree. . . . The peach trees are large and fruitful, and commonly bear in three years from the stone. . . . The common cherries are not so good as the Kentish cherries of England; and they have no dukes, or heart-cherries, unless in two or three gardens." It was reported that people of "late years have run much upon orchards." The product of these orchards was chiefly cider. "Some of their apple trees will make six, some have made seven barrels of cider; but this is not common; and the apples will yield from seven to nine bushels for a barrel of cider: a good apple tree will measure from 6 to 10 feet in girt." Dudley mentions a bloomless apple, and "the tree was no graft." In common with other new countries, New England astonished persons with the luxuriant growth of the plants. "An onion, set out for seed, will rise to 4 feet 9 inches in height. A parsnip will reach to 8 feet; red orrice [orach will mount 9 feet; white orrice 8. In the pastures he measured seed mullen 9 feet 2 inches in height, and one of the common thistles above 8 feet." Record is made of a pumpkin vine which grew unattended in a pasture. It made a single stem which "ran along over several fences, and spread over a large piece of ground far and wide. "From this single vine were gathered 260 pumpkins; one with another as large as a half peck; enough in the whole, to fill a large tumbrel, besides a considerable number of small and unripe pumpkins." Indian corn was "the most prolific grain." The observations and experiences of John Lawson in North Carolina should not be overlooked. He was in the country 1700 to 1708, and wrote a history of the state, describing its natural productions. He found considerable success there in grape-growing.

The colonial ornamental gardens were probably unlike our own in the relative poverty of plants, absence of landscape arrangement, rarity of greenhouses, and lack of smooth-shaven lawns (for the lawn- mower was not invented till last century). These gardens were of two general types: the unconventional personal garden, without form but not void, in which things grew in delightful democracy; the conventional, box- bordered, geometrical garden, in which things grew in most respectful aristocracy. There were many interesting and elaborate private gardens in the colonial days. One of the earliest and best was that of Governor Peter Stuyvesant, of New Amsterdam (New York, near Third Avenue), known as the "Bouwerie," where forty or fifty negro slaves, and also white servants, were kept at work. "The road to the city has been put in good condition, and shade trees were planted on each side where it crossed the Governor's property." The Bowery of these degenerate days has lost the Eden- like features that distinguished its illustrious progenitor.

Excellent gardens were attached to the residences of wealthy persons by the middle of the eighteenth century, and probably earlier, and they were said to have been encouraged by the example and precept of Washington. There are records of many meritorious collections of plants a century and more ago. William Hamilton's collection at Philadelphia was one of the best, and it contained a large collection of exotics. It flourished toward the close of the eighteenth century, and was broken up in 1828. William Jackson began "a highly interesting collection of plants at his residence in Londongrove," Pennsylvania, in 1777. About 1800 Joshua and Samuel Pierce. East Marlborough, Pennsylvania," began to adorn their premises by tasteful culture and planting," and by the establishment of an arboretum of evergreens. The most famous botanic garden which North America has had was John Bartram's, established at Philadelphia in 1728 (p. 530). It contained a great collection of native plants, and some of the trees are now amongst the most valued landmarks of the city. Bartram was a skilful farmer and gardener, and his sons, John and William, inherited his tastes and continued the garden. The elder Bartram was probably the first American to perform successful experiments in hybridization. Bartram's house (Fig. 1851), built by himself, is still one of the sights of the environs of Philadelphia, and the site of the garden, with many of the old trees standing, is now happily a public park. Bartram's cousin, Humphry Marshall, established a botanic garden at West Bradford, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1773 (p. 348). John Bartram's name is preserved in the moss Bartramia, and Marshall's in the genus Mar- shallia, applied to small Composite of the eastern states. The Elgin botanic garden, near New York, was established in 1801 by David Hosack, a man of great learning and of the keenest sympathies with rural occupations. He is now remembered in the interesting genus Hosackia, one of the Leguminosse. A botanic garden was established at Charleston, South Carolina, about 1804, and one in Maryland about the same time. The Botanic Garden at Cambridge, Mass., was begun in 1805, an institution which, together with the Professorship of Natural History at Cambridge, was founded largely through the efforts of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture. The society subscribed $500 for the purpose, and raised more by subscription.

Development of horticulture in Canada in particular. (W. T. Macoun.)

Horticulture in Canada is about 300 years old. Its development began with the French who settled in Acadia (now the province of Nova Scotia), and along the banks of the St. Lawrence River, and planted seeds and trees brought with them from France. Owing to the small population and the difficulty in transportation, it was not until about sixty years ago that commercial horticulture may be said to have begun (say about 1850), but with the rapid increase of population and transportation facilities the development in recent years has been rapid. The growth of the fruit industry in the province of Ontario may be given as an example of how rapidly horticulture is developing in Canada. In 1859 the Ontario Fruit-Growers' Association was formed. In 1881 the first cooperative shipments of fruit were made, but cooperation was slow in developing for some years after. Spraying with paris green for the control of codlin-moth was practised in 1889 and shortly afterward spraying with bordeaux mixture for the control of apple-scab was begun. In 1805 the Department of Agriculture began to give demonstrations in spraying. Now spraying is very general throughout Canada. In 1894, fruit experiment stations, mainly for testing varieties of fruits, were established in different parts of Ontario by the provincial government. By 1904, the cooperative movement was developing rapidly, by 1908 there were thirty-five cooperative organizations in the province, and in 1914 there were fifty-seven. In 1904, the first provincial fruit and flower show was held in the city of Toronto and there has been one annually ever since, its importance increasing every year. The agricultural college at Guelph, through its horticultural courses, has been of great assistance in the development of this industry. The district representatives who carry demonstration work and diffuse information throughout the counties have been of great service in the different provinces. In other provinces, especially in the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia, there has also been great development in fruits-culture in recent years.

The Dominion government has done much to aid horticulture in Canada. The Experimental Farms were established in 1887, on an Act passed in 1886, and now there are eighteen scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific (page 1195). The Fruit Marks' Act (now the Inspection and Sales Act), passed in 1901, has materially helped the fruit industry in establishing definite grades of apples and requiring more careful packing than in former years. Other Acts passed by the Dominion government in recent years have been a great aid. In recent years, fruit crop-reports have been published monthly, part of the year, which have been of great assistance to the fruit-growers.

The canning of fruit is developing rapidly in .Canada and the outlook for still more extensive growth in this branch of the industry is very bright.

The census of Canada for 1911 gives the total number of fruit trees in Canada as 20,812,556; the area occupied by fruit trees as 376,322 acres and the estimated capital value of fruit trees as $127,000.000.

As Canadians have become better off, there has been a growing demand for flowers and vegetables out of season and there has been a fairly rapid increase in the area under glass. It is estimated that there are now over 6,000,000 square feet devoted to floriculture, with an estimated capital invested of $1,500,000, and an annual output of $1,800,000; but this will soon be much larger.

The growing of vegetables began with the first settlement of Canada, and as the villages, towns and cities multiplied, the vegetable-growers supplied then- needs. Now there are large areas devoted to the commercial culture of vegetables. In the province of Ontario many vegetables are canned and large quantities of corn and tomatoes particularly are grown for this purpose. In recent years the vegetable-growers have organized and in Ontario there is a provincial association.

For further information, see British North America, Vol. I, pp. 559-76.

Early horticulture in California in particular. (Charles Howard Shinn.)

California horticulture is in the main patterned after the south-European types, and to this extent it originated from Spanish-Mexican sources. The horticulture of California's high mountain valleys approximates more closely to that of colder regions, while the horticulture of the Pacific slope, north of California, becomes more and more different from the south- European types, but still has many characteristics of its own separating it sharply from that of the Atlantic slope. The first horticultural experiments in California were at the Missions of the Peninsula (Bajo or Lower California), where twenty-two Missions were founded between 1697 and 1797 (Fig. 1852). Here the Mission Fathers introduced the date palm; also oranges, lemons, limes, pineapples, bananas, olives, figs, pomegranates, peaches, quinces, plums, apples, pears and grapes. They shipped to Monterey and the northern missions large quantities of dried figs, grapes, dates, and peaches. The Upper California missions received seeds, cions, and so on, from those of Lower California, as well as from Mexico. The first of these missions was established in 1769 at San Diego by the Franciscans,under the leadership of Father Junipero Serra, whose name visitors to the California State Building at the World's Fair will recall in connection with the great date palm from the Mission Valley of San Diego. This palm was raised from seed which Junipero Serra planted about 1770. Twenty-one missions were founded by the Franciscans, the last one in 1823, and at all but one or two of them there were important collections of the fruits of southern Europe—olives, figs, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, wine grapes, and also apples, pears and peaches. Early in this century the Mission of San Gabriel had over 2,000 fruit trees, and others had more than a thousand. Fig. 1852 shows the yard of San Juan Capistrano Mission, as it existed in 1889. There are also some traces in California of the fruits of the few early Russian settlements. With the American occupation and the immigration from the east, came the eastern American types of fruits, and the state is now the seat of a wonderfully varied fruit-culture, although the small-fruits have not yet attained that prominence which they enjoy in older countries.

The first official horticultural reports from California appeared in the second part of the United States Patent Office Report for 1851. In this report, A. Williams, of San Francisco, presented statistics from the Horner Ranch, near the Mission San Jose, Alameda County, where 800 acres were planted in vegetables and the crop of 1851 sold for upwards of $200,000. The crop of potatoes, onions, beets, turnips and tomatoes was 134,200 bushels. The same report noted an onion weighing twenty-one pounds, and at the Fair of 1853 the committee on vegetables reported a "white flat turnip" weighing thirty-three pounds, a squash that weighed one hundred and twenty-one pounds, and a tomato weighing five and one-half pounds. Thus early California began to boast of the mammoth productions of her soil. The first official report printed in California appeared in a document issued by the secretary of state- for 1852. The capital then employed in "fruits and orchards" was given at $366,910. The market-garden interests were surprisingly large; among single items were "460,000 pumpkins, worth $46,000;" upward of 5,000,000 pounds of onions, "worth $186,000;" 30,000 bushels of beans, "worth $72,000." Santa Barbara County reported "1,370 barrels of olives, worth $27,- 500." Horticultural statistics are continued in the reports of the state surveyor general. In December, 1853, the State Agricultural Society of California was organized, after a successful exhibition in San Francisco, where almonds, figs, olives, walnuts, and many other fruits, as well as vegetables and flowers, were shown.

Fairs were held in 1854 and 1855, but were not officially reported. The state began to publish the proceedings of the agricultural society in 1858, when its membership was 856, and annual reports have continued till the present time. The California Horticultural Society was organized April 5, 1881; in 1883, the State Board of Horticulture was established. Reports of these bodies and of the state fruit-growers' conventions have appeared annually or biennially since 1882. The State Viticultural Commission was organized in 1881, and its reports continued until 1894. Upward of one hundred octavo volumes represent the official output of California since 1858 in lines of horticulture, including, of course, the California Experiment Station reports.

Among the special California horticultural literature that appeared prior to 1900. are the following: "California Fruits," E. J. Wickson, first edition, 1889; second edition, 1891; third edition, 1900. So many changes and additions have occurred in this book that all three editions will be found very useful in libraries. "California Vegetables," E. J. Wickson, 1897. "Gardening in California," Wm. S. Lyon, Los Angeles, 1897. This is a small volume of 156 pages. "Olive Growing," Pohndorff, San Francisco, 1884. "Olive Culture," A. Flamant, San Francisco, 1887. "The Olive," Arthur T. Marvin, San Francisco, 1888. "The Raisin Industry," Gustav Eisen, San Francisco, 1890. "The Wine Press and Cellar," E. H. Rixford, San Francisco. 1883. "Grape Culture, a Handbook for California," T. Hart Hyatt, San Francisco, 1876. "Orange Culture in California," Thomas A. Garey, San Francisco, 1882. Contains appendix on grape-culture, by L. J. Rose. "Orange Culture," W. A. Spalding, Los Angeles. "The California Farmer," established in January, 1854, and maintaining a spasmodic existence for a number of years, printed the first pomological and horticultural reports of committees, and the like. "The Pacific Rural Press" was established in 1871, in San Francisco, and still continues. "The Rural Californian," of Los Angeles, still in existence, was estab lished in 1877. "The California Fruit-Grower," began in 1888, and survives as the "California Fruit News." "The California Cultivator," of Los Angeles, established in 1884, is still published. "The Pacific Tree and Vine," of San Jos6, established in 1884, is no longer published.

Sometimes we are inclined to think that the literature of the garden began on the Pacific coast in the age of steam presses, telegraphs and transcontinental railroads. It is not so; and we should go farther back than the excellent writings listed above. The "first fine rapture" of discovery and conquest gave birth to a splendid enthusiasm for the flowers and plants of the vast unfenced wilderness stretching from Texas to Oregon, and one finds its expression in hundreds of books of travel, in ponderous government reports, in forgotten periodicals and, to some extent in the whole outdoor literature of Europe and America during the exciting period of the gold rush to California.

We once had many and very quaint publications in California, all dead and forgotten now, but still worth studying in the libraries. There was the old "Alta California," the "California Farmer," the "Golden Era," the "Hesperian," the "Pioneer," "Hutching's Pioneer Magazine." They contained stilted essays, sketches and stories, often modeled after forgotten literary patterns of New York and Paris. But their descriptive writings first broke away from these hampering traditions, and shaped themselves anew under California skies. Ewer, "Shirley," Hutchings. Wadsworth, Dr. Kellogg and a few others wrote of things as they saw them, and in some degree caught the outdoor charm of the new land as it was slowly yielding to spade and plow.

But there had been a still earlier discovery of the floral wealth of the Pacific coast. Long before Marshall's mill-race gleamed with that fateful flake of gold, the botanists and collectors had sent forth a cry of delight that stirred the pulses of Europe. The letters, journals and various contributions to descriptive and scientific literature, made by the long line of botanical explorers who visited this coast between 1790 and 1848, should be a part of this record. Among these enthusiasts were men like Langsdorf, who accompanied that unfortunate Count Rozanoff of Bret Harte's beautiful poem, and Chamiso and Eschscholtz. The last two, friends close-linked in literature and science, gave our orange-hued poppy its consonantal name.

The starting-point, however, for most students of the floral resources of California is with the extensive work done by David Douglas (1825-1833), under the auspices of the Royal Horticultural Society of England. In the proceedings of that Society one finds some of his reports and the first colored plates ever issued of many California bulbs. The second volume of Hooker's "Companion to the Botanical Magazine" contains his fascinating letters. After Douglas came Coulter, Nut- tall, Hartweg and others, and then the famous groups of botanical explorers whose work appears in government publications, such as the Pacific Railroad and Boundary Survey reports. Men like Gray, Thurber, Newberry, Torrcy, Engelmann and Parry wrote much that was a real gift to the literature of the period, and in many cases they had for illustrations those wonderful pen-and-ink drawings made by T. C. Hilgard.

But, if one says that government reports are only the "raw material" of outdoor literature, then turn to Edinburgh, in 1859-1860, when Dr. Andrew Murray published his two parts of "Notes on California Trees," compiled chiefly from the letters of his brother Wm. Murray of San Francisco, and illustrated with superb lithographs of the sequoias. It was in 1860, also, that Thomas Starr King wrote a very charming account of a trip "Around the Bay in the season of flowers," when, as he expressed it, there were "flowers by the acre, flowers by the square mile."

Here we begin to reach the modern way of looking at things. All through the pages of the publications of the State Agricultural Society between 1856 and 1860, the early reports of the State Surveyor General, the "State Register" for 1857-60, the rambling surveys of Dr. Trask, the first state geologist, we have had somewhat obscure glimpses of aland overflowing with growth and blossom. We have seen the pioneer surveyors, Day and Goddard and the rest, camping in the lily-beds of the high Sierra valleys; we have watched pioneer committees going around, away back in the early fifties, to tell us, all too briefly, of the glories of Shell Mound Nurseries, the New England Gardens, Hook Farm, Fontainbleau, and other places now, alas! in ruins. We hear of Fox, Sontag, Prevost, Macondray, Lewelling. These reports, though hardly the literature of the garden, are very excellent materials out of which, some of these days, the right man or woman will reconstruct the whole story, and give us our long-needed book on "California Floriculture."

The "modern note" in our garden literature, aside from the glowing essays of Thomas King, was also manifest in some of the California writings of Dr. Bushnell. Then it found fuller expression in the pages of the "Overland Monthly," where Muir, the LeContes. A very, Williams, Miss Coolbirth, Bartlett and Sill, and a little later, some of Professor Sill's pupils, made for a few years a very striking presentation of the life, color, strength and beauty of outdoor California. Much of the best writing of this period between 1868 and 1875 appeared in the "Bulletin," "Argonaut," "California Horticulturist" and "Rural Press." It is notable historically, because it covers the whole field. Nothing that is now being written about gardens and flowers is in its way any better than some of the work, signed and unsigned, that appeared in the "Overland Monthly," and in other San Francisco publications in the days before the gaudy splendors of the sensational Sunday newspapers.

In the way of distinctive floral publications we have had two of importance: The first, the "California Horticulturist," founded by F. A. Miller in 1870, lasted ten years. One of its most interesting editors was the late E. J. Hooper, one of the owners of the "Western Farmer and Gardener," established by him in Cincinnati in 1839 and 1840. Plates of fruit and flowers, colored by his hands, appear in early volumes of the "California Horticulturist." The still earlier and yet more rare "California Culturist" of W. Wadsworth, which began with June, 1858( and continued two years, contained a good deal of floriculture.

In May, 1888, at Santa Barbara, appeared the "California Florist," an attractive publication which soon moved to San Francisco and there continued until May, 1889. Since that date, outside of trade publications, catalogues, and occasional pamphlets, the floral interests of California have been, most of the time, without a separate publication, but they have never lacked for space, whenever required, in other periodicals.

There have been few books in the past twenty-five years which deal other than casually with the floral field, but there have been many and excellent botanies, chiefly local, and more are being written, so that before long the whole field will be covered, and brought down to date with revised nomenclature and description. In these brief limits, one cannot expect even a partial bibliography, of either the popular or the technical writings of California botany or floriculture. Beginning with the writings of Kellogg, Bolander, Lemmon, Miller, Ludeman, Sievers.Wickson, Rixford, and others, the list ends with the many bright people who write for the press on these topics at the present time. The standard early work on California plants is Brewer and Watson's "Botany of California," comprising two volumes of the State Geological Survey, published 1876- 1880. Books like Bartlett's "Breeze from the Woods," and Mary Elizabeth Parson's "Wild Flowers of California," and such pamphlets as Lvon's "Gardening in California" and Krause's "Sweet tea Review" have a real historial value. Prominent among our notable books are Kellogg's "Forest Trees," his "West American Oaks," and Green's "Flora Franciscana." Later is Jepson's "Flora of Western Middle California," 1901, with a second edition in 1911. He is now preparing a "Flora of California," several parts of which have been issued.

Native species of fruits and vegetables.

Before passing to a discussion of the departments or subdivisions of the subject, we may pause to consider the general contribution that the North American continent has made to the species of food-plants of a horticultural character. The remarks are taken from Hedrick (presidential address, Society of Horticultural Science, 1913), who has presented an excellent running summary: "The continent is a natural orchard. More than 200 species of tree, bush, vine and small fruits were commonly used by the aborigines for food, not counting nuts, those occasionally used, and numerous rarities. In its plums, grapes, raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, cranberries and gooseberries North America has already given the world a great variety of new fruits. There are now under cultivation 11 American species of plums, of which there are 433 pure-bred and 155 hybrid varieties; 15 species of American (grapes with 404 pure and 790 hybrid varieties; 4 species of raspberries with 280 varieties; 6 species of blackberries with 86 varieties; 5 species of dewberries with 23 varieties; 2 species of cranberries with 60 varieties and 2 gooseberries with 35 varieties. Here are 45 species of American fruits with 2,226 varieties, domesticated within approximately a half-century.

"Few plants grow under such varied conditions as pur wild grapes. Not all have been brought under subjugation, though nearly all have horticultural possibilities. It is certain that some grape can be grown in every agricultural region of the United States. The blueberry and huckleberry, finest of fruits, and now the most valuable American wild fruits, the crops bringing several millions of dollars annually, are not yet domesticated. Coville has demonstrated that the blueberry can be cultivated. [See Blueberry, Vol. I; p. 515.] Some time we should have numerous varieties of the several blueberries and huckleberries to enrich pine plains, mountain tracts, swamps and waste lands that otherwise are all but worthless. A score or more native species of gooseberries and currants can be domesticated and should some time extend the culture of these fruits from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Circle. There are many forms of juneberries widely distributed in the United States and Canada, from which several varieties are now cultivated. The elderberry is represented by a dozen or more cultivated varieties, one of which, brought to my attention the past season, produced a half hundred enormous clusters, a single cluster being made up of 2,208 berries, each % inch in diameter.

"These are but a few of the fruits—others which can only be named are: the anonas and their kin from Florida; the native crab-apples and thorn-apples; the wine- berry, the buffalo-berry and several wild cherries; the cloud-berry, prized in Labrador; the crow-berry of cold and Arctic America; the high-bush cranberry; native mulberries; opuntias and other cacti for the deserts; the paw-paw, the persimmon, and the well-known and much-used salal and salmon berries of the West and North.

"The pecan, the chestnut and the hickory-nut are the only native nuts domesticated, but some time forest and waste places can be planted not only to the nuts named, but to improved varieties of acorns, beechnuts, butternuts, filberts, hazels, chinquapins and nut-pines, to utilize waste lands, to diversify diet and to furnish articles of food that can be shipped long distances and be kept from year to year. The fad of today which substitutes nuts for meat may become a necessity tomorrow. Meanwhile it is interesting to note that the pecan has become within a few decades so important a crop that optimistic growers predict in another half-century that pecan groves will be second only to the cotton-fields in the South. A recent bulletin from the United States Department of Agriculture describes sixty-seven varieties, of which more than 1,500,000 trees have been planted."

"There are a number of native vegetables worth cultivating. The native beans and teparies in the semi- arid and subtropical Southwest to which Freeman, of the Arizona station, has called attention? grown perhaps for thousands of years by the aborigines, seem likely to prove timely crops for the dry-farmers of the Southwest. Professor Freeman has isolated seventy distinct types of these beans and teparies, suggesting that many horticultural sorts may be developed from his foundation stock. The ground-nut, A pios tuberosa, furnished food for the French at Port Royal in 1613, and the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620, and as a crop for forests might again be used. There are a score or more species of Physalis, or ground-cherries, native to North America, several of which are promising vegetables and have been more or less used by pioneers. Solanum nigrum, the nightshade, a cosmopolite of America and Europe, recently much advertised under several misleading names, and its congener, Solanum tnflorum, both really wild tomatoes; are worthy of cultivation and in fact are readily yielding to improvement. Amaranthus retroflexus, one of the common pigweeds of gardens, according to Watson, is cultivated for its seeds by the Arizona Indians. In China and Japan the conns or tubers of a species of Sagittaria are commonly sold for food. There are several American species, one of which at least was used wherever found by the Indians, and under the name arrowhead, swan potato and swamp potato has given welcome sustenance to pioneers. Our native lotus, a species of Nelumbo. was much prized by the aborigines, seeds, roots and stalks being eaten. Sagittaria and Nelumbo furnish starting-points for valuable food-plants for countless numbers of acres of water-covered marshes when the need to utilize these now waste-places becomes pressing."

Early general writings.

The progress of horticulture may be traced in the books devoted to the subject. The earliest writings did not separate horticulture from agriculture.

It is difficult to determine the first North American book on agriculture. In 1710 "The Husbandman's Guide" was printed in Boston "by John Allen, for Eleazar Phillips." It is a small 12mo of 107 pages, in four parts. The first part contains "Many Excellent Rules for Setting and Planting of Orchards, Gardens and Woods, the times to Sow Corn, and all other sorts of Seeds." A second edition was "printed for & sold by Elea. Phillips Book-seller, in Boston, 1712." It is usual to begin the history of indigenous American book literature on agriculture with Jared Eliot, but the beginnings should have a special search. The preface to Eliot seems to indicate that he knew no writings applicable to North America. The "Essays upon Field- Husbandry," by Rev. Jared Eliot, of Killingworth, Connecticut, grandson of the famous apostle Eliot, were begun in 1748 and completed in 1759. (See "Cyclopedia of American Agriculture," Vol. IV, pp. 568,569.) "There are sundry books on husbandry wrote in England," said Eliot, in his preface. "Having read all on that subject I could obtain; yet such is the difference of climate and Method of Management between then and us, arising from Causes) that must make them always differ, Bo that those Books are not very Useful to us. Besides this, the Termti of Art made use of are so unknown to us, that a great deal they Write is quite unintelligible to the generality of New England Readers.

Just at the close of the Revolution, J. Hector St. John's "Letters from an American Farmer" appeared, although "the troubles that convulsed the American colonies had not broken out when . . . some of the . . . letters were written." For a period of twenty- five years following the close of the war the condition of our agriculture, and of all American institutions, was minutely unfolded to the world through the writings of many travelers, English and French, who made inquisitive journeys into the new country. Strickland, an English traveler, wrote in 1801 that "land in America affords little pleasure or profit, and appears in a progress of continually affording less. . . . Land in New York, formerly producing twenty bushels to the acre, now produces only ten. . . . Little profit can be found in the present mode of agriculture of this country, and I apprehend it to be a fact that it affords a bare subsistence. . . . Decline has pervaded all the states." There is abundant evidence, including a painstaking inquiry made by Washington, to show that agriculture was at a low stute at the close of the century. It was in striking contrast to its status a hundred years later, notwithstanding the pessimistic writings of the later time.

There was early development of the garden desire in the South as well as in the North. In South Carolina appeared the earliest American horticultural book of which we have any record. This book is no longer extant, and it is known to this generation chiefly or wholly from the following page in Ramsay's "History of South Carolina," 1809: "The planters of Carolina have derived so great profits from the cultivation of rice, indigo [see Indigo] and cotton that they have always too much neglected the culture of gardens. The high price of their staple commodities in every period has tempted them to sacrifice convenience to crops of a marketable quality. There are numbers whose neglected gardens neither afford flowers to regale the senses, nor the vegetables necessary to the comfort of their families, though they annually receive considerable sums in money for their crops sent to market. To this there have been some illustrious exceptions of persons who cultivated gardens on a large scale, both for use and pleasure. The first that can be recollected is Mrs. Lamboll, who, before the middle of the eighteenth century, improved the southwest extremity of King Street [Charleston], in a garden which was richly stored with flowers and other curiosities of nature, in addition to all the common vegetables for family use. She was followed by Mrs. Logan and Mrs. Hopton, who cultivated extensive gardens in Meeting, George and King Streets, on lands now covered with houses. The former reduced the knowledge she had acquired by long experience and observation to a regular system, which was published after her death, with the title of 'The Gardener's Kalendar;' and to this day regulates the practice of gardens in and near Charlestown." Ramsay records that Mrs. Martha Logan was the daughter of Robert Daniel, one of the last proprietary governors of South Carolina. "Mrs. Logan was a great florist, and uncommonly fond of a garden. She was seventy years old when she wrote her treatise on gardening, and died in 1779, aged seventy-seven years."

Mrs. Logan's book was perhaps only a pamphlet. The first regular American gardening book, if Mrs. Logan's is excluded, is apparently Robert Squibb's "Gardener's Kalender," published in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1787 (see pp. 1520-1).

The opening of the nineteenth century may be taken as a convenient starting-point for a narrative of the evolution of American horticulture. At that time horticulture began to attain some prominence as distinct from general agriculture, and the establishment of peace after the long and depleting war with England had turned the attention of the best citizens afresh to the occupation of the soil. The example of Washington, in returning to the farm after a long and honorable public career, no doubt exerted great influence. His agricultural correspondence was large, and much of it was published at the opening of the century. His correspondence with Arthur Young and Sir John Sinclair will be found in volumes published in London in 1800 and 1801, in Alexandria in 1803, and in Washington in 1847. Details respecting the management of his plantations comprise Vol. IV of the "Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society," 1889.

Apparently, it was not until 1790 that an indigenous and distinctly general agricultural treatise after Eliot's appeared in America. At that time, the Rev. Samuel Deane, vice-president of Bowdoin College, published his "New England Farmer, or Georgical Dictionary," a cyclopedic work of the state of American agriculture. This passed to a second edition in 1797, and to a third in 1822. As showing both the contents of this important book and the methods of reviewing of that day, the following comment is transcribed from the "Columbian Centinel," for 16th of June, 1790, printed in Boston. It is in the guise of a communication from a correspondent, as was then the custom. It must be one of the earliest reviews of an agricultural book to appear in this country:

"Nothing has been more wanting in this Country than a book of Practical Husbandry. The late Dr. Elliot of Connecticut wrote some short essays, which were well received, but it was reserved for Mr. Deane, of Portland, to give the publick a System ofHuybandy far New England. This valuable book is now published and on perusal exceeds the expectation which had been formed of it. It is founded on solid principles of natural philosophy and practical experiment. All that is valuable in European books of husbandry is selected and accommodated to the climate and seasons of this country. Many Dew and curious observations are introduced; and the whole is cast in such a form and expressed in such language as must render it useful to the plain husbandman, while the enlightened naturalist will find it an agreeable entertainment.

"It not only contains a general system of agriculture, but treats of everything which usually falls under the care of the husbandman and his family, such as cattle, horses, sheep, bees, timber— gives the best directions for the care of the garden, the dairy and the cellar—and much pf what is said may be extremely useful in all families where bees, cyder, fruit, milk and other necessary articles are preserved. In short it is a book which does honor to the ingenuity, and industry of its author, and deserves to be read by every person who wishes well to the best interest of tbis country.

In the Georgetown, South Carolina, "Gazette," March 13, 1799, is a half-column of proposals for publishing by subscription '"Notes on Agriculture adapted to the soil, climate, and markets of South Carolina," by Louis DuPre. To be put to press as soon as 200 copies are subscribed for. Price one dollar specie." (See page 1520.)

In 1799, J. B. Bordley published in Philadelphia "Essays and Notes on Husbandry." Other early works need not be mentioned here. As early as 1785, Varlo's "New System of Husbandry" was printed in Philadelphia. It is in many ways a remarkable book, and it was written by a man who had had remarkable experiences. He was not an American, and the work first appeared in the old country; but Varlo had lived in this country, and was in sympathy with the American people. The book contained a "Farmer's and Kitchen1 Garden Calendar." In 1792 there appeared anonymously, from Burlington, New Jersey, the third edition of Arthur Young's "Rural Economy." He argues strongly for experiments and for the establishing of agricultural journals. This book first appeared in London, in 1770.

At the opening of the century (1800), Sir Humphry Davy had not illumined the science of agricultural chemistry, and men were even disputing as to what the food of plants is. The "burn-baking" or "devonshiring" of the land—burning the sod and scattering the ashes over the field—was still recommended; and in 1799 James Anderson's "Essays on Quick-lime as a Cement and as a Manure," was given an American edition in Boston. It is easy to see from these facts that the fundamental conceptions of the science of agriculture were vague and crude a century ago. Near the close of the last century, Deane wrote that "the alarming effect of the present low state of husbandry is. that we are necessitated to import much of our food and clothing, while we are incapable of making proportionable remittances in the produce of the soil, or in anything else."

Greenes book on flowers, published in Boston in 1828, enables us to determine what were the leading ornamental plants in that early day. The full title of the book is A Treatise on the Cultivation of Ornamental Flowers; Comprising Remarks on the Requisite Soil, Sowing, Transplanting, and General Management; with Directions for the General Treatment of Bulbous Flower Roots, Greenhouse Plants, etc." It comprises only sixty pages. The introductory pages give general directions, then follow two annotated lists, one of annuals and biennials and the other of greenhouse plants. These lists are interesting, also, for what they do not contain. All the plants they mention are here set down, under the names and with the spelling there employed:

ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL FLOWERS.

Altheae frutex.

Almond, double-flowering.

Amaranthus superbus.

Amaranthus tricolor.

Animated oats.

Aster, China.

Auricula.

Azalea nudifiora.

Box.

Brier, Sweet.

Canterbury Bell.

Carnation.

Cassia murylandica.

Catalpa.

Cherry, doable-flowering.

Chrysanthemum indicum.

Clematis, Austrian (C. integrifolia). Clethra. Columbine. Convolvulus. Corchorus japonicus. Crocus. Cupid's Car, or Monk's Hood

(Aconitum). Dahlia. Daisy. Dwarf Basil. Egg Plant. Eupatorium, blue. Euphorbia Lathyris. Fading Beauty, or Morning

Bride (Scabiosa). Fir (Pinus balsamea). Foxglove. Fringe Tree.

Geranium (Pelargonium). Garden Angelica. Glycine, cluster-flowering. Golden Coreopsis. Golden Everlasting (Xeranthemum, lucidum). Hollyhock. Honeysuckle, Hyacinth. Hydrangea. Ice Plant.

Impatiens Balsamina.

Iria.

Lagerstroemia indica.

Laurel, broad-leaved (Kalmia latifolia). Laburnum. Larkspur. Lilac. Lily. Lime Plant (Podophyllum peltatum).

Lychnadia (Phlox). Mezereon (Daphne mezereum). Mountain Ash. Musk Geranium. Myrtle, evergreen (Vinca minor). Narcissus. Nasturtium. Passion Flower. Preony. Pea, sweet.

Peach, double-flowering. Pink.

Perennial Sunflower, double. Polyanthus.

Pyrethrum parthenium. Poppy.

Purple Hyacinth Bean. Roses.

Rose Acacia. Rose-colored Hibiscus. Rudbeckia. Scarlet Cacalia.

Scarlet Lynchis (L. chalcedonica). Siberian Crab. Snow-ball Tree. Snpwberry.

Spice-wood (Laurus Benzoin). Spjderwort (Tradescautia). Spinea.

Syringa, or Mock Orange. Strawberry Tree (Euonymus). Sweet Bay (Laurus ngbilis). Sweet William, or Poetic Pink. Tulip.

Venetian Sumac, or Fringe Tree, Violet, blue fragrant.

Green house plants.

Lilies of the valley.

Ranunculuses.

Anemones.

Single and Double Jonquils.

White Lilies.

Roses.

Tuberoses.

Persian Iris.

Sweet

Mignionette. Verbena trifoliata.

Vervain. Fuhsia coccinea. Cobtea scandens. Camellia japonica, or Japanese

Rose. Myrtles (Myrtus communis).

These lists are much less ample than those of M'Mahon, over twenty years earlier, but they may be sup

posed to include the popular and most easily grown things. They will be suggestive to those who wish to make "old-fashioned gardens." M'Mahon's list was evidently largely compiled from European sources. Green says that the first list (strangely called "annual and biennial flowers") contains "such plants, shrubs and trees as are of easy cultivation, generally hardy." The second list comprises "a few different sorts of green house plants" which are commonly grown in rooms."

The early writings clearly portray the tendencies of the floricultural interests,—from the formal-flower ideals of the dahlia and camellia to the enormous development of the cut-flower interest, and the growth within the last few years of the greater love of plants themselves. Palms and decorative plants are now almost household necessities, whereas seventy-five years ago they would have been luxuries. "There has been a radical change in the character of the flowers used for cut- flower purposes," wrote Alfred Henderson in 1895. "Fifty years ago, camellia flowers retailed freely for a dollar each, and during the holidays Philadelphia used to send thousands to New York florists, getting $500 per 1,000; while roses went begging at one-tenth these figures. Now, the rose is queen, and the poor camellia finds none so poor to do her reverence I confidently believe that the time is not far distant when we shall compete seriously with the foreign grower in the production of new varieties of roses." William Scott, of Buffalo, in 1900 made the following comments on floriculture: "About the year 1880, tulips and narcissuses began to be forced, and during the next fifteen years immense quantities of these bulbs were imported annually from Holland. As the methods of forcing were perfected the market became overstocked, and, although large quantities are still forced for the whiter and spring months, they are not now in the same favor as formerly, and the rose, carnation, violet, lily-of-the-valley and mignonette are still the favorites. Orchids are not yet the flower for the million, but there is a yearly increasing demand for them, and at present the showy orchids, such as the Cattleyas and Laelias, are far short of the demand. As their cultivation is more generally understood, we look for a very steady increase in the number grown, and are confident that the supply will not soon exceed the demand. Within the past five or six years a marked increase is noticeable in the use of plants to adorn the home, and the demand is for an expensive class of plants,—palms, dracenas, araucarias and ferns being among those mostly used. Now few homes with any pretension to luxury or even comfort are without a few fine plants scattered through the rooms, and many of our modern houses are provided with either a bay window or small conservatory for the accommodation of plants." (See Cut-Flower Industry and Floriculture.)

America has not been favored with horticultural annuals to the extent equally with England and other countries. The first attempt of the kind seems to have been Woodward's "Record of Horticulture," edited by A. S. Fuller, which appeared in 1866 and 1867. The next venture was the "American Horticultural Annual," New York, for the years 1868,1869 and 1870, under the general editorial care of George Thurber. The attempt was not made again until the "Annals of Horticulture." was issued by Bailey, in 1889, and which was published for five years, the last volume containing an account of the horticulture of the Columbian Exposition.

Fruit-growing in particular.

Horticulture, in its commercial aspects, was nothing more than an incidental feature of farm management at the opening of the century- In fact, it is only in the past generation that the field cultivation of horticultural crops has come to assume any general importance in the rural economy of the nation. And even now, horticultural operations which are projected as a fundamental conception of land occupation are confined to relatively few parts of the country. It is only in certain regions or with certain persons that the farmer starts out with horticulture as a base, and with grain and stock and hay as accessories; and even in these places, many horticulturists are still drawing their practices and the reasons for them from the operations of general mixed agriculture. The history of fruit growing in most of the older parts of North America is the history of the apple, and the subject is developed under that heading; but before proceeding to the apple specially we may pause to consider some of the dates in the extension of fruit-growing westward.

"It may not occur to many of our people," writes Charles W. Garfield, "that the horticulture of Michigan may have had its beginning as early as that of Massachusetts, as the French Jesuit missionaries visited Detroit the same year that the Mayflower landed its pilgrims at Plymouth Rock." The influence of the French missionaries must be well considered when the history of American horticulture is written, particularly of those parts that lie along the great waterways. The old pear trees along the Detroit River and in eastern Michigan attest the early French dissemination. The first planting of orchards in Michigan, according to Garfield, "were made at Detroit from stock secured across the river, the stock having originally come from France to Montreal, and progressed westward with the settlements. The varieties were Fameuse, Pomme Grise, and Red and White Colville." The first large importation of orchard trees was made about 1825, the stock having come from Grant Thor- burn of New York. The spread of tree-planting to the westward followed regularly with the progress of settlement.

The above remarks about the Jesuits indicate that the early American fruit-growing was not all derived from British sources. Much of the influence was certainly French; on the Pacific coast and probably in §arts on the southern borders of the present United tates it was Spanish. It would be interesting to try to trace the influence of the Dutch and other colonizers.

The reader who desires to trace the beginnings of fruit-planting in some of the territory from Nebraska south and southwest should consult the "Proceedings of the American Pomological Society" for 1905 (pages 74-98). In Nebraska, apples were planted in 1853. It appears that in Kansas apple- tree planting has been recorded near Shawnee- town, Johnson County, as early as 1827 by" Rev. Thomas Johnson, the variety being the Newtown Pippin. In 1836. he planted pear trees. In Arkansas, J. B. Russell of Canehill had a small nursery of apple trees in 1835. A little after this date, Isaac Shannon originated the apple that bears his name. Before the close of the seventeenth century, the French at St. Genevieve, Missouri, had planted pears, grapes and a few apples. In New Mexico, the agricultural industry developed to some extent under Spanish rule, and continued under the Mexican rule from 1822 to 1845, but little reference is made to fruit. It is recorded that the Bishop of Santa Fe, early introduced apricots and apples from the States, and John Clark planted apple trees from Missouri in Rio Arriba County in 1859.

The development of fruit-growing in the Northwest is sketched for this occasion by C. I. Lewis. The first authentic introduction of fruit into the Pacific Northwest (of the United States) was in 1824, when seed was brought from England by members of the Hudson Bay Company. This seed was planted near what is now Vancouver, Washington, then a trading-post of .the Hudson Bay Company. Seeds of apples, grapes, pears, and peaches were planted. The apple trees which resulted from this seed are still standing on government lands occupied by the Vancouver barracks. There were other introductions by various persons, but they probably had no influence on the growth of the fruit industry in the Northwest. In 1847, Henderson Lewelling, of Iowa, brought several hundred yearling grafted sprouts of mixed fruits. The same year William Meek brought a sack of apple seed and a few grafted trees. These two men established the first nursery in the Pacific Northwest at Milwaukee, Oregon, and laid the foundation of our commercial fruit industry. In the following ten or fifteen years, many men brought trees and seed, and nurseries were started. From 1850 to 1870, fabulous prices were received for fruit, one box of apples selling for $75, while in 1855, 6,000 bushels of apples sold for prices ranging between $20 and $30 a bushel. The period between 1850 and 1870 also marked the introduction of plums and prunes into the Northwest country. The first Italian prune orchard was set in 1858 by Seth Lewelling. Between 1870 and 1890 was a period of decline. The former demand from California ceased and railroads were few, the freight rates being exorbitant. Beginning early in the 1890's the fruit industry of the Northwest began to revive. About 1900, the apple industry began to recover. In 1896, the Lambert cherry was introduced commercially, and has proved to be the greatest commercial cherry for shipping. J. R. Cardwell has been the principal historian of Northwest horticulture. He came out in the early days of the fruit industry and is still living. He has been very influential in building up the fruit industry in the Pacific Northwest.

The apple.

There was practically only one general horticultural commodity, at least in the northern states, a hundred years ago, and that was the apple. Pears, peaches, cherries, quinces and some other fruits were common, but there was little thought of marketing them. Even the apple was an incidental or even an accidental crop. Little care was given the trees, and the varieties were few, and they were rarely chosen with reference to particular uses, beyond their adaptability to cider and the home consumption. In parts of the East, very ancient apple-tree relics still stand, some of them perhaps existing from Colonial times (Fig. 1853).

Thacher, writing from Plymouth in 1821, says that "the most palpable neglect prevails in respect of proper pruning, cleaning, and manuring round the roots of trees, and of perpetuating choice fruits, by engrafting from it on other stocks. Old orchards are, in general, in a state of rapid decay; and it is not uncommon to see valuable and thrifty trees exposed to the depredations of cattle and sheep, and their foliage annoyed by caterpillars and other destructive insects. In fact, we know of no branch of agriculture so unaccountably and so culpably disregarded." Were it not for the date of Thacher's writing, we might mistake this picture for one drawn at the present day.

If one may judge from the frequent and particular references to cider in the old accounts, it does not seem too much to say that this sprightly commodity was held in greater estimation by our ancestors than by ourselves. In fact, the cider barrel seems to have been the chief and proper end of the apple. Of his thirty chapters on fruit-growing, Coxe (1817) devotes nine to cider, or forty-two pages out of 253. John Taylor's single epistle devoted to horticultural matters in the sixty and more letters of his "Arator" is upon "Orchards," but it is mostly a vehement plea for more cider. "Good cider," he says, "would be a national saving of wealth, by expelling foreign liquors; and of life, by expelling the use of ardent spirits. In Virginia, in Taylor's day, apples were "the only species of orchards, at a distance from cities, capable of producing sufficient profit and comfort to become a considerable object to a farmer. Distilling from fruit is precarious, troublesome, trifling and out of his province. But the apple will furnish some food for hogs, a luxury for his family in winter, and a healthy liquor for himself and his laborers all the year. Independent of any surplus of cider he may spare, it is an object of solid profit and easy acquisition. As early as 1647, twenty butts of cider were made in Virginia by one person, Richard Bennet. Paul Dudley writes of a small town near Boston, containing about

forty families, which made nearly 3,000 barrels of cider in the year 1721; and another New England town of 200 families, which supplied itself writh "near ten Thousand Barrels." Bartram's cider-mill, as it exists at the present day, is shown in Fig. 1854. An old mill in Pennsylvania is shown in Fig. 1855. It is a ponderous pine log, more than three feet through, raised and lowered by means of a great screw. "These presses" according to C. F. Shaw, "were 'neighborhood' affairs in cider-making time and the farmers would rise very early that they might reach the press before their neighbors, and so not have to wait long before their turn to have their cider made." It was not until well into the past century that people seem to have escaped the European notion that fruit is to be drunk. Jarvis writes (1910) of Connecticut conditions that in "the first half of the last century many commerical orchards of modest size were in existence, but they were composed mostly of seedling trees or 'native fruit,' the product of which was used largely in the manufacture of cider."

There have been several marked alternations of fervor and neglect in the planting of apples since the first settlement of the country. Early in the eighteenth century there appears to have been a great abundance of the fruit; but in 1821 Thacher declared that "it is a remarkable fact that the first planters bequeathed to their posterity a greater number of orchards, in proportion to their population, than are now to be found in the old colony," and he attributes the decline in orcharding largely to the encroachment of the "poisonous liquor of the later times. Under the inspiration of Thacher, Coxe, Kendrick, Prince, Manning, and the Downings, orchards were again planted, and later there was another period of decline in the East, following the aging of these plantations. Two reminders of the Downings are shown in Figs. 1856 and 1857, made from photographs taken by the writer some twenty or more years ago.

Apple trees were very early planted in the New World. On Governor's Island, in Boston harbor, a few apples were picked in 1639. Trees were carried far into the frontiers by the Indians and probably also by the French missionaries, and the "Indian apple orchards" are still known in many localities even east of the Mississippi (see, also, Appleseed, Johnny page, 1563). At the opening of the nineteenth century, the Early Harvest, Newtown Pippin, Swaar, Spitzenburg, Rhode Island Greening, Yellow Bellflower, Roxbury Russet, and other familiar apples of American origin were widely disseminated and much esteemed. Apples had begun to be planted by settlers in Ohio before 1800. In 1817, Coxe could recommend a list of "one hundred kinds of the most estimable apples cultivated in our coun try;" and in 1825 William Prince offered 116 varieties for sale—at 37 }^ cents a tree—of which seventeen were set aside—after the custom of the time—as particularly adapted to the making of cider. Of these 116 varieties, sixty-one were considered to be of American origin. In 1872. Downing's list of apples which had been fruited and described in America, had swollen to 1,856 varieties, of which 1,099 were of known American origin. Of this great inventory, probably not over one-third were actually in cultivation at any one time, and very many of them are now lost. In 1892, the trade- lists showed that 878 varieties were actually offered for sale by the nurserymen of North America.

The style of illustration in these old books is well displayed in Fig. 1858, from Coxe, original size.

There has been a noticeable tendency toward the origination of varieties of apples in this country, and the consequent exclusion of varieties of European origin. As early as 1760, cions of American varieties were sent to England. Before the Revolution, apples were exported. The origination of indigenous varieties was, of course, largely accidental, and was a necessary result of the method of growing apple trees directly from seeds, and top-grafting them in case they should turn out profitless. A critical study of American horticulture will show that all species of plants which have been widely cultivated in this country have gradually run into indigenous varieties, and the whole body of our domesticated flora has undergone a progressive evolution and adaptation without our knowing it. By far the greater number of the apples of the older apple-growing regions of the country are indigenous varieties, and the same process is now operating in the Northwest, where the American seedlings of the Russian stock are proving to be more valuable than the original importations.

Pears were amongst the earliest fruits introduced into the New World, and the French, particularly, disseminated them far and wide along the waterways, as witnessed by the patriarchal trees of the Detroit River and parts of the Mississippi system (p. 1512). Bar- tram s Petre pear (Fig. 1851) is one of the patriarchs of the last century, although the tree is not large. The first American book devoted exclusively to the pear was Field's, published in 1859. The Japanese type of pears had been brought into the country from two and perhaps three separate introductions, early in the fifties, but they had not gained sufficient prominence to attract Field's attention. From this oriental stock has

come a race of promising kinds represented chiefly by the Kieffer, LeConte and Garber.

Peaches were early introduced into the New World by various colonists, and they thrived so well that they soon became spontaneous. Nuttall found them naturalized in the forests of Arkansas in 1819, and the species now grows in waste and forest lands from Georgia and the Carolinas to the westward of the Mississippi. There is probably no country in which peaches grow and bear so freely over such a wide territory as in North America. The old Spanish or Melocoton type is now the most popular race of peaches, giving rise to the Craw- fords and their derivatives.

Of late years there has been a contraction of some of the original peach areas, and many good people have thought that the climate is growing uncongenial, out it is only the natural result of the civilization of the country and the change in methods. Peaches had never been an industry, but the orchards were planted here and there as very minor appendages to the general farming. For generations insect pests were not common. There were no good markets, and the fruit sold as low as 25 cents a bushel from the wagon-box. In fact, the fruit was grown more for the home-supply than with an idea of shipping it to market. Under such conditions, it did not matter if half the crop was wormy, or if many trees failed and died each year. Such facts often passed almost unnoticed. The trees bore well, to be sure; but the crop was not measured in baskets and accounted for in dollars and cents, and under such conditions only the most productive trees left their impress on the memory. The soils had not undergone such a long system of robbery then as now. When the old orchards wore out, there was no special incentive to plant more, for there was little money in them. Often the young and energetic men had gone West, there to repeat the history perhaps, and the old people did not care to set orchards. And on this contracting area, all the borers and other pests which had been bred in the many old orchards now concentrated their energies, until they have left scarcely enough trees in some localities upon which to perpetuate their kind. A new country or a new industry is usually free of serious attacks of those insects that follow the crop in older communities. But the foes come in unnoticed, and for a time spread unmolested, when finally, perhaps almost suddenly, their number becomes so great that they threaten destruction, and the farmer looks on in amazement.

Oranges.—The orange is another tree that has thrived so well in the new country that the spontaneous thickets of Florida, known to be descendants of early Spanish introductions, are supposed by residents to be indigenous to the soil.

As to oranges and similar fruits on the Pacific coast, Coit writes in "Citrus Fruits" (1915) as follows: "Citrus seeds were first brought into California from the peninsula of Lower California, where peoples of Spanish descent have cultivated various kinds of European fruit trees and vines since the year 1701. In 1768 the Jesuit missionaries were supplanted by the Franciscans, some of whom under the leadership of Junipero Serra pushed northward into the territory which is now the state of California. These hardy pioneers founded the first Mission in Upper California at San Diego in 1769, and proceeding northward established a chain of Missions extending 400 miles along the coast, the last being established at Somoma in 1823."

Plums and cherries.—The progress of the plum in America nearly equals that of the grape in historic interest. The small spontaneous plums, known as

Damsons, the offspring of introductions from Europe, were early abundant in New England. Plum-culture has never thrived far south of Mason and Dixon's line or west of Lake Michigan, except, of course, on the Pacific slope and parts of the far south western country. There are climatic limitations which more or less restrict the area of plum-growing, and the leaf-blight fungus, black-knot, and fruit-rot have added to the perplexities. In these great interior and southern areas various native plums, offshoots of several indigenous species, have now spread themselves, and they have already laid the foundation of a new type of plum-culture. The first of these novel plums to receive a name was that which we now know as the Miner, and the seed from which it sprung was planted by William Dodd, an officer under General Jackson, in Knox County, Tennessee, in 1814. The second of these native plums to come into prominence, and the one which really marks the popularization of the fruit, is the Wild Goose. Some time before 1830, it is Mated, a man shot a wild goose near Columbia, Tennessee, and where the remains were thrown this plum sprang forth. It was introduced to the trade about 1850. by the late J. S. Downer, of Fairview, Kentucky. Over 200 named varieties of these native plums are now described, and some of them are widely disseminated and deservedly popular. In the South and on the plains, these natives are a prominent horticultural group. The complexity of the cultivated plum flora is now further increased by the introduction of the Japanese or Chinese type, which first came in by way of California in 1870. Finally, about 1880. the apricot

Elum, or Prunus Simonii, was introduced from China y way of France; and the American plum industry, with no less than ten specific types to draw upon and which represent the entire circuit of the northern hemisphere, is now fairly launched upon an experimental career which already has produced remarkable results.

The cherry was early introduced from Europe. In 1641 trees were planted in Virginia in the orchard of Governor Berkeley. As early as 1663 it was grown in Massachusetts. The commercial cherries of this country are derived from the same species as those of Europe, although the dwarf sand-cherry of the Plains has been improved or cultivated to some extent.

Grapes.—In America, no crop has been the subject of so much book-writing as the grape. Counting the various editions, no doubt a hundred books have appeared, being the work of at least fifty authors. Since the American grape is a product of our own woods within about a century, the progress in grape-growing has been ahead of the books. Most of the books are founded largely on European advice, and therefore are not applicable to American conditions. In general pomology, the books seem to have had much influence upon fruit-growing; but in the grape the books and actual commercial grape-growing seem to have had little relation one to the other. Some of the later books have more nearly caught the right point of view.

The grape of North America is of two unlike types,— the natives, which comprise all commercial outdoor varieties in the interior and eastern states; and the vinif- era or Old World kinds, which are grown under glass and in California. The native types were developed within the nineteenth century. The oldest commercial variety is the Catawba, which dates from 1802; the cosmopolitan variety the Concord, which first fruited in 1849 (see p. 1374). A full review of the history is made in "Evolution of Our Native Fruits." With the first settlement of the country, efforts were made to grow the European wine-grape. Thus in 1619 vine-dressers and vines were sent from France to Virginia; the subsequent history of the wine-grape in North America is a record of repeated attempts and continuous failures; and these failures, due largely to phylloxera and mildew, finally forced the cultivation of the native species of Vitis. In Mexico and on the Pacific slope, however, the wine-grape established itself readily about the missions, and it is now the foundation of the grape-culture of California. It is very likely that these introductions of the padres preceded those in the eastern American colonies.

A very interesting error appears to have crept into North American history in connection with the native grapes. The "wineberry" found by the Norsemen on the American coast in the eleventh century has prevailingly been identified as grapes, and this interpretation has made it apparent that the explorers came south as far as the present New England. Recently, however, M. L. Fernald has concluded (Rhodora, xii, 17-38, Feb., 1910), that the wineberries of the Norsemen were certainly not grapes, but most likely the mountain cranberry, Vaccinium Vitis-Idsea.

To show how far we have come in grape-culture, the examples in Fig. 1859 will be interesting. This cut is from S. W. Johnson's "Rural Economy," 1806, published in New Jersey. It shows the method with the European wine-grape. Just twenty years later appeared Dufour's book on the grape; he also represents a foreign method (Fig. 1860).

Strawberry.—There was no commercial strawberry- culture in America, worthy of the name, until the introduction of the Hovey (Fig. 1861) late in the thirties of last century. This and the Boston Pine were seedlings of C. M. Hovey's, Cambridge, Massachusetts. They first fruited in 1836 and 1837, and from them are supposed to have descended many of the garden strawberries of the present day. These were seedlings of the old Pine type of strawberry, which is apparently a descendant of the wild strawberry of Chile. The Wilson, or Wilson's Albany, which originated with John Wilson, of Albany, New York, began to attract attention about 1856 or 1857, and it marked the beginning of the modern epoch in American strawberry- growing. In the Middle West, strawberry-growing was given a great impulse by Longworth and Warder.

Bramble fruits.—Raspberries were grown in North America in the eighteenth century, but they were of the tender European species, of which the Antwerps were the common types. This type of raspberry is now almost wholly superseded by the offspring of the native red and black species, which first began to impress themselves upon cultivation about 1860.

The blackberry, an indigenous American fruit, first commended itself to cultivation with the introduction of the New Rochelle or Lawton, toward the close of the 1850's. The first named variety of native blackberry of which we have any record was the Dorchester, which was exhibited before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1841.

The dewberry, a peculiarly American fruit, first appeared in cultivation early in the 1870's in southern Illinois under the name of the Bartel, which is a large form of the common wild dewberry of that region. It was first brought to the attention of the public in 1875. The following year the Lucretia, the most popular of dewberries, was introduced into Ohio from West Virginia, where it had been found wild some years before by a Union soldier.

Gooseberries.—The history of the gooseberry in America recalls that of the grape. It is a characteristic fruit of England and the Low Countries, and it was early introduced into America. But, like the European grapes, the gooseberries were attacked by a fungous sickness which rendered the cultivation precarious. An improved form of the native species must be introduced, and this was accomplished by Abel Houghton, of Massachusetts, who, from the seed of the wild berry, produced the variety which now bears his name (Fig. 1862). This variety began to attract some attention a little previous to 1850, although it was not planted freely until several years later. From seed of the Houghton sprang the Downing, still the most popular gooseberry in America, although Houghton is still much grown from Philadelphia south; and our gooseberry-culture is, therefore, but two removes from nature. With the advent of the bordeaux mixture and its related specifics, however, the English gooseberries are again coming to the fore. Hybrids of the English and American types, as in the Triumph or Columbia and the Chautauqua, may be expected to become more popular for home use and special markets, but the Americans will probably remain in favor for general market purposes.

The cranberry, most singular of American horticultural products, was first cultivated, or rescued from mere wild bogs, about 1810. Its cultivation began to attract attention about 1840, although the difficulties connected with the growing of a new crop did not begin to clear away until about 1850. Cape Cod was the first cranberry-growing region, which was soon followed by New Jersey, and later by Wisconsin and other regions. The varieties now known are over a hundred, and the annual product from tame bogs in North America is now upward of 1,000,000 bushels.

The nursery and seed business.

It is impossible to fix a date for the beginning of the nursery business in North America. Trees were at first grown in small quantities as an adjunct to general farm operations. Gov. John Endicott, of the Massachusetts Colony, was one of the best fruit-growers of his time, and he grew many trees. In 1644, he wrote to John W7inthrop as follows: "My children burnt mee at least 500 trees this Spring by setting the ground on fire near them;" and in 1648 he traded 500 apple trees, three years old, for 250 acres of land. The first nursery in Maine is thought by Manning to have been that of Ephraim Goodale, at Orrington, established early in the present century. Other early nurserymen of Maine were the brothers Benjamin and Charles Vaughan, Englishmen, who settled at Hallowell in 1796. An early nursery in South Carolina was established by John Watson, formerly gardener to Henry Laurens, before the Revolution. In Massachusetts, there were several small nurserymen toward the close of the eighteenth century, amongst others, John Kenrick, of Newtown, whose son William wrote the "New American Orchardist," published in 18.33, and which passed through at least eight editions. The trees were usually top-grafted or budded, sometimes in the nursery and sometimes after removal to the orchard. Deane writes in 1797, that "the fruit trees should be allowed to grow to the height of 5 or 6 feet before they are budded or grafted." Stocks were sometimes grafted at the crown, and even root-grafting was known, although it is generally said that this operation originated with Thomas Andrew Knight, in 1811. It is probable however, that the root-grafting of the eighteenth century was only grafting at the surface of the ground, and that it had little similarity to the method now in vogue.

One of the new trees something over one hundred years ago was the Lombardy poplar. John Kenrick had two acres devoted to it in 1797; and Deane writes, in 1797. that "the Lombardy poplar begins to be planted in this country. To what size they will arrive, and how durable they will be in this country, time will discover." He does not mention it in the first edition, 1790. The tree is said to have been introduced into America by William Hamilton, of Philadelphia, in 1784, although Mr. Meehan wrote that he remembered trees over sixty years ago that seemed to be a century old.

Manning quotes a bill of sale of nursery stock in 1799, snowing that the price of fruit trees was 33H cents each. Deane speaks of raising apple trees as follows: "The way to propagate them is by sowing the pomace from cydermills, digging, or hoeing it into the earth in autumn. The young plants will be up in the following spring; and the next autumn, they should be transplanted from the seed-bed into the nursery, in rows from 2 to 3 feet apart and 1 foot in the rows, where the ground has been fitted to receive them." Nothing is said about grafting the trees in the nursery.

The first independent general nursery in the New World, in the sense in which we now understand the term, appears to have been that established by William Prince at Flushing, Long Island, and which was continued under four generations of the same family. The founder was William Prince. The second Prince was also William, the son, and author of the first regular American treatise on horticulture, 1828. The third generation was William Robert Prince. He was the author of "A Treatise on the Vine" (1830), "The Porno- logical Manual" (1831), and "Manual of Roses" (1846). In the first two he was aided by his father, the second William. This William Robert Prince is the one who first distinguished the types of the prairie strawberry into the two species, Fragaria illinoensis and F. iawensis. From a large catalogue of William Prince, second, published in 1825—and which contains, amongst other things, lists of 116 kinds of apples, 108 of pears, 54 of cherries, 50 of plums, 16 of apricots, 74 of peaches and 255 of geraniums—the following account is taken of the founding of this interesting establishment: "The Lin- naean Garden was commenced about the middle of the last century by William Prince, the father of the present proprietor, at a time when there were few or no establishments of the kind in this country. It originated from his rearing a few trees to ornament his own grounds; but finding, after the first efforts had been attended with success, that he could devote a portion of his lands more lucratively to their cultivation for sale than to other purposes, he commenced their culture more extensively, and shortly after published a catalogue, which, at that early period, contained several hundred species and varieties, and hence arose the first extensive fruit collection in America." The elder Prince died in 1802, "at an advanced age." In October, 1790, a broadside was issued in New York, printed by Hugh Gaine, giving a list of a large collection of fruit trees and shrubs for sale by William Prince at Flushing Landing, on Long Island. The twenty-second edition of this broadside appeared in 1823. In Thomas "History of Printing," second edition, reference is made to an edition printed in 1771.

Amongst the nurseries which were prominent from 1820 to 1830 were Bloodgood's, Floy's, Wilson's, Parmentier's, and Hogg's, near New York; Buel and Wilson's at Albany; Sinclair and Moore's, at Baltimore. David Thomas, a man of great character, and possessed of scientific attainments, was an early horticulturist of central or western New York. His collection of fruits at Aurora on Cayuga Lake, was begun about 1830. His son, John J. Thomas, nurseryman and author of the "American Fruit Culturist;" which first appeared in 1846, died at a ripe old age in 1895. The nursery of Thomas Hogg, referred to above, was an important establishment. In a "Catalogue of the ornamental trees and shrubs, herbaceous and greenhouse plants, cultivated and for sale by Thomas Hogg, nurseryman and florist," 1834, there are sixteen small pages, double columns, of mere lists of species and varieties, comprising no less than 1,200 entries of great variety. These were offered at "The New York Botanic Garden in Broadway, near the House of Refuge." The first Thomas Hogg, an Englishman, procured land in 1822 in upper Broadway (where Twenty-third Street now is), and began business as florist and nurseryman. In 1840 they were removed to Seventy-ninth Street and East River, and here the sons, Thomas and James, assisted the father, who died in 1855. Later, James had a garden at the foot of Eighty-fourth Street, and here he grew many plants sent from Japan, by his brother Thomas, who resided and traveled in that country (page 1580).

The nursery firm of Parsons & Co., on Long Island, was founded in 1838. It was instrumental in distributing great quantities of fruit and ornamental stock at a formative time in American horticulture, and it was a pioneer in several commercial methods of propagation of the more difficult ornamental stock. It was a leading distributor of Japanese plants in the early days. Between 1840 and 1850 arose the beginnings of that marvelous network of nurseries, which, under the lead of Ellwanger & Barry, T. C. Maxwell & Brothers, W. & T. Smith, and others, has spread the name of western

New York throughout North America. In 1857, Prosper J. Berckmans, who had then been a resident of the United States seven years, removed to Georgia, and laid the foundation of the very important business now conducted by his sons.

The oldest American seed house, David Landreth's, in Philadelphia, was established in 1784. Another was John Mackejohn's, 1792; others, William Leeson, 1794, and Bernard M'Mahon, 1800, all of Philadelphia. In 1802, Grant Thorburn's was established in NewYork, the first catalogue of four pages being published then. The first and last of these businesses still exist under the family names. M'Mahon did a large business in exporting seeds of native plants, and it was through his work that many American plants came into cultivation in Europe. His catalogue of seeds of American plants in 1804, for the export trade, contained about 1,000 species of trees, herbs and shrubs. He also announced at that time that he had "also for sale an extensive variety of Asiatic, South Sea Islands, African and European seeds of the most curious and rare kinds." "The prices shall be moderate, and due allowance will be made to those who buy to sell again." M'Mahon, through business and writing, had great influence on American horticulture in its formative period. He distributed seeds of the very important Lewis and Clark expedition; but Landreth is said to have shared these seeds, and also those collected by Nuttall. Those were days of the enthusiastic exportation of the seeds of American plants.

The development of the seed trade is coincident with the development of the postal service. Burnet Landreth writes that "it was not until 1775 that the New York city post office was first established, the mail passing once every two weeks between New York and Boston. In 1775, a through mail was established by Postmaster Franklin between Boston and Savannah, the letters being carried by post riders, each man covering 25 miles. Previous to that date, sixty days would frequently pass without a mail from Virginia.

The number of seed firms in North America is now in the hundreds. With the development of the plant- breeding enterprises, local or regional firms and associations are springing up, to do commerce with particular strains or lines of breeding. The demand for good seeds, with recognized merit, is one of the most hopeful developments in American agriculture. It is of the same order of excellence as the demand for pedigreed and well-bred live-stock.

Greenhouses.

The first glasshouse in North America was probably erected early in the century before last, in Boston, by Andrew Faneuil, who died in 1737. This house passed to his nephew, Peter Faneuil, who built Faneuil Hall. The greenhouse which is commonly considered to be the first ouilt in the country was erected in 1764 in New York, for James Beekman. A picture of this, from Taft's "Greenhouse Construction," is shown in Fig. 1863. Glasshouses were fully described in 1804 by Gardiner and Hepburn, and in 1806 by M'Mahon, but these authors do not state to what extent such structures existed in America. In Doctor Hosack's botanic garden. 1801, extensive glasshouses were erected, Compare Figs. 1749 and 1750. Fig. 1864 shows one of the earliest American pictures of a greenhouse. It is copied, full size, from Squibb's Gardener's Calendar," Charleston, South Carolina, 1827. Fig.

1865 shows the first greenhouse in Chicago, as illustrated in "American Florist." Note the small panes, and the sash-construction. This was built in 1835 or 1836. With these pictures should be compared the modern greenhouses as shown in Fig. 1866; also in the pictures in the articles on Greenhouse.

These early houses were heated by flues or fermenting substances. The use of steam in closed circuits began in England about 1820. Hot water circulation seems to have been a later invention, although it drove out steam heating, until the latter began to regain its supremacy in this country thirty to forty years ago. The "New England Farmer" for June 1, 1831, contains a description of hot-water heating for hothouses, a matter then considered to be a great novelty.

Most of the early houses had very little, if any, glass in the roof, and the sides were high. It was once a practice to build living-rooms over the house, so that the roof would not freeze. In the "modern" construction of the greenhouse of M'Mahon's day, 1806, he advised that "one-third of the front side of the roof, for the whole length of the house, be formed of glass- work," and in order that the tall, perpendicular sides of the house should have as "much glass as possible," he said that "piers between the sashes are commonly made of good timber, from 6 to 8 or 10 inches thick, according to their height." "The width of the windows for the glass sashes may be 5 or 6 feet; . . . the bottom Bashes must reach within a foot or 18 inches of the floor of the house and their top reach within 8 or 10 inches of the ceiling." The panes in the roof should be 6 inches by 4, this size "being not only the strongest, but by much the cheapest, and they should lap over each other about Yi inch. But the sides or "front lights must be made with large panes of glass." Many or most of the early plant-houses had removable tops, made of sash. On the change from the old to the new ideas, Alfred Henderson writes as follows: "The first published advocacy of the fixed-roof system was made by Peter B. Mead, in the 'New York Horticulturist,' in 1857. Before that, all greenhouse structures for commercial purposes were formed of portable sashes, and nearly all were constructed as 'lean-tos,' with high back walls, and none were connected. All were separate and detached, being placed at all angles, without plan or system. Then, too, the heating was nearly all done by horizontal smoke-flues, or manure fermenting, although there was a crude attempt at heating by hot water by some private individuals as early as 1833. The first use of heating by hot water on anything like a large scale, however, was in 1839, when Hitchings & Co., of this city, heated a large conservatory for Mr. William Niblo, of New York; and yet for nearly twenty years after this time heating by hot water was almost exclusively confined to greenhouses and graperies on private places, as few professional florists in those days could afford to indulge in such luxuries. All this is changed now. The use of steam, hot water under pressure, and the gravity system of hot-water heating are almost universally in operation, the hot-air flue having been relegated to the past. The best evidence of progress is in the fact that the florist has not waited for the tradesman, but has brought about these improvements himself."

Much attention was early given to the slope of the roof, in order that the greatest amount of sunlight may be secured. Early in the past century the curvilinear roof came into use, as the various angles which it presents to the sun were supposed to catch the maximum number of the incident rays. The sides of the house remained high, for the most part, until near the middle of the century. All this shows that the early glasshouse was modeled after the dwelling or other buildings, and that it had not developed into a structure in which plants were grown for commercial purposes.

The modern commercial forcing-house, with direct roof, low sides, and heated by steam or hot water in closed circuits, is mostly a development of the last forty years. Its forerunner was the propagating-pit of the nurseryman. If anything is lost in sunlight by adopting a simple roof, the loss is more than compensated by the lighter framework and larger glass. In the forcing- house, all architectural ambition is sacrificed to the one desire to create a commercial garden in the frosty months.

Lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, carnations, violets, and various other plants are now grown as crops under glass roofs, whereas a generation ago they were usually not forced at all for market or were grown mostly under frames. With the simplifying and cheapening of the glasshouse, amateur flower- and vegetable-growing has acquired a new impetus, and the business of the retail florist has grown amazingly.

Some idea of the increase of the demand for plants may be obtained from the sale of flower-pots. A. H. Hews, of Cambridge, Mass., whose ancestors began the manufacture of pots before 1765, once reported that for a period of twenty-two years, from 1788 to 1810 the accounts of the sales of pots "cover about as many pages as we now often use in one day; and the amount in dollars and cents does not compare with single sales of the year 1894." He also compared the sales for 1869 and 1894 and "found the increase as ten to one; or, in round numbers, 700,000 flower-pote in the former year and 7,000,000 in the latter; and if the same factory can in 1920, twenty-five years later, produce and sell 70,000-, 000, we shall verily be living in a land of flowers."

One of the earliest greenhouse builders was Frederic A. Lord, who built his first houses, according to Taft, in Buffalo in 1855, and who, in 1872, entered into partnership with W. A. Burnham, at Irvington, on the Hudson. Several firms now make greenhouse building and heating a specialty. In very recent years a new impetus has been given to glasshouse building and work by the establishment of the agricultural experiment stations and the extension of horticultural teaching in the colleges.

The growing literature.

An important feature of American horticulture is its living literature. Persons may care nothing for books; yet the literature of any subject is the measure of its ideals. Persons may say that the books are theoretical and beyond them; yet good books are always beyond, else they are not good. There is no reason for literature if it does not inspire and point to better things. We measure the aspirations of any time by its writings. Whether the fact be recognized or not, the literature of our horticulture is an underlying force which slowly dominates the thoughts and ideals of men. A book is a powerful teacher. It states its propositions, and is silent; and in the silence its lessons sink into the mind.

Very many books have enriched American horticulture. Many of them have been poor, but even these may have challenged controversy and have done good. The early books were largely empirical and dogmatic. Downing, for example, in 1845, says that tillage makes better orchards, and he cites cases; but he does not give reasons. He does not mention nitrogen, potash, soil moisture, chemical activities. He does not even mention plant-food in connection with tillage. The horizon has widened since then. Men do not take up things actively until they know the reasons. The poor farmer, not knowing reasons for anything, has no inspiration and goes fishing. Forty years ago, Colonel Waring was the apostle of deep-plowing; yet one should plow neither deep nor shallow until he knows why. Our literature has been singularly devoid of principles and analysis. The great writer is he who catches the significant movements and ideas of his time and portrays them to inspire his reader. Henderson first caught the rising commercial spirit of our vegetable-gardening; his "Gardening for Profit" was the greatest American vegetable-gardening book, even if now out of date as a book of practice. American pomology has several strong names amongst its writers. Most of these writers have sacrificed fundamental considerations to varieties. The first sustained effort to write on fruit-growing from the point of view of underlying principles was by Charles R. Baker, who in 1866 published his "Practical and Scientific Fruit Culture." But the time was apparently not yet ready for a solid book of this kind, and much of

the discussion lacked vital connection with the orchard. The book was suggestive of the study and the compiler. Coxe, Kenrick, Manning, Downing, Thomas, Warder, Barry, Fuller, are significant names in American pomological literature. In floriculture there have been many excellent treatises, but there is not yet a single great or comprehensive book. In recent years, the making of technical horticultural literature is passing more and more from the working horticulturist to the specially trained student and writer, particularly to those who are connected with colleges of agriculture and experiment stations. At the same time, the amateur and strictly popular writings are increasing rapidly, and the modern publisher has made many of the books very attractive in their mechanical execution.

The periodical literature is not to be overlooked, although we do not now have in America horticultural magazines and journals comparable with those of Europe. These serial writings, however, are voluminous and important, and must be taken into account when any complete estimate is made of American horticultural literature. On the writing of "gardening literature," Henry Ward Beecher wrote nearly fifty years ago: "We, in America especially, need men to write who devote time, thought and knowledge to this elegant department of knowledge as they do to the sciences of law, of medicine, or theology; and, although we are glad of transient and cursory writing, rather than none, I feel the want, in American horticultural magazines, of writing that is the result of long and close observation, and of ripe reflection." L.H.B.

Horticulture, Literature of. The written record of American horticulture has not yet been carefully studied, although the collecting of books has lately assumed much interest and importance. There are no full lists of these writings; and it is to make a preliminary contribution to such lists that the present compilation is presented. The written word persists long after the word of mouth has been lost; and it admits of no doubt as to dates and statements of fact. It is essential that any people arrive at an appreciation of its records in a given subject, that it may have perspective and develop sound judgments.

In the preceding pages something has been said about the development of writing on horticulture in North America. The early general writings are discussed beginning on page 1509. The fruit-growing literature is reviewed from page 1513. The periodical literature occupies considerable space, beginning page 1559. The reports of horticultural societies are recorded from page 1553. In the present discussion, the regularly printed horticultural books are listed in detail, from the first book on horticulture in North America, so far as it may be known, to the current date. In the preceding accounts, some of the early writings on general agriculture are discussed, as bearing on the history; many other early writers might have been mentioned, if the subject had taken a wider field, as Binns (Frederick, Maryland, 1803), Spurrier (Worcester, 1792), Parkinson (Philadelphia, 1799), George Logan (Philadelphia, 1797), Du Pre ("Culture of Cotton,>T 1799, perhaps the book mentioned on page 1510), and others.

North American horticultural books.

In the introduction to the "History of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society" (1880) it is said that Mrs. Martha Logan, in South Carolina, "when seventy years old, wrote a treatise on gardening called the 'Gardener's Kalendar,' which was published after her death in 1779, and as late as 1808 regulated the practice of gardening in and near Charleston. She was a great florist, and uncommonly fond of a garden" (page 1510). In the Charleston library there is no separate book of this kind, but the "Gardener's Calendar by Mrs. Logan" appears in succeeding issues of the "Carolina and Georgia Almanac," comprising six pages. The earliest date there available is in the Almanac for

1798. It has been spoken of as a pamphlet, and it may have been reprinted separately. The first almanac printed in South Carolina was Tobler's for 1752. This almanac contains a "Gardner's Kalender, done by a Lady of this Province and esteemed a very good one." Perhaps this work was by Mrs. Logan. There does not appear to be any book by Mrs. Logan in the antiquarian libraries or lists, although, following Allibone, Evans apparently erroneously included it in Vol. IV of his "American Biblography" as of the date of 1772. Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel, in "Charleston, the Place and the People" (1906), writes that "Mrs. Logan was the daughter of the gallant Colonel Daniel. Her 'Gardeners' Chronicle,' written when over seventy, was in great demand formerly, but seems to have utterly perished, the most careful search failing to produce a copy."

The almanacs were important mediums of information in the early days, and it is probable that some of the first instruction in horticulture was given in them. In "Poor Will's Almanack" for 1787, printed in Philadelphia in 1786, there is a "Gardener's Kalender; or useful memorandums of work necessary to be done, monthly, in the gardens and orchards of the Middle States," according to Evans. The "Southern States Ephemeris" for 1788, printed in Charleston in 1787, contains "a new and copious gardener's calendar" for the southern states. In Isaac Brigg's "Georgia and South Carolina Almanac" for 1800, printed in Augusta in

1799, there is a calendar, according to Evans, by Robert Squibb. The agricultural matter in the New England almanacs is well known.

In 1796, there was printed at Newburyport, Massachusetts, by Blunt and March, for John Dabney, Salem, ' 'An Address to Farmers on a number of interesting subjects. It contains a part or chapter on the character of a complete farmer; one on the profits of a nursery; another on the advantages of an orchard. There are references in the appendix to apples, barley, cabbages, carrots, clover, and other subjects. The parts were "extracted principally from a variety of authors."

Apparently the earliest separate book on a horticultural subject published in North America (if the Logan is not counted), was Robert Squibb's "The Gardener's Kalender for South Carolina and North Carp- Una," published in Charleston in 1787, and again in 1809, 1827, and 1842 (Fig. 1864). The second work appears to be an American edition of Marshall's "Introduction to the Knowledge and Practice of Gardening," Boston, 1799. The second indigenous horticultural book, apparently, appeared in 1804, "The American Gardener," by John Gardiner and David Hepburn (Fig. 1867). It was published at Washington. This book had an extensive sale. It was revised by "a citizen of Virginia," and republished in Georgetown, D.C., in 1818 (see Hepburn, p. 1579). Athird edition appeared in 1826.

This book was followed in 1806 by Bernard M'Mahon's excellent and voluminous "American Gardener's Calendar," in Philadelphia. This work enjoyed much popularity, and the eleventh edition appeared as late as 1857. For fifty years it remained the best American work on general gardening. M'Mahon, remembered in the Mahonia barberries, was an important personage. He was largely responsible for the introduction into cultivation of the plants collected by Lewis and Clark. These early books were calendars, giving advice for the successive months. They were made on the plan then popular in England, a plan which has such noteworthy precedent as the excellent "Kalendarium Hortense" of John Evelyn, which first appeared in 1664, and went to nine regular editions. Other early books of this type were "An old gardener's 'Practical American Gardener,'" Baltimore, 1819 and 1822; Thorburn's "Gentleman's and Gardener's Kalendar," New York, the third edition of which appeared in 1821.

As throwing some light on the processes of book- making in those days, the following announcement by Squibb in the "Charleston Evening Gazette," July 4, 1786, will be interesting:

To The Public.

From the frequent solicitations of a number of Gentlemen of this and adjoining states, the subscriber has been induced to undertake a work, entitled, "The South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina Gardeners Calendar," which, from its general utility, he flatters himself, will meet the approbation of the Public at large. The English publications hitherto made use of to point out and direct the best methods of Gardening by no means answer the purpose, as they tend to mislead instead of instruct, and suit only the European parts for which they were designed.—-This work is deduced from practice and experience in this climate, wherein the most certain and simple methods are clearly pointed out, so as to render the art of Gardening easy and familiar to every capacity.

The work will be comprised in an octavo volume of about 200 pages, which will contain ample directions for whatever is necessary to Do done in the Kitchen and Fruit Garden for every month in the_year.

Terms of subscribing One Dollar; half on subscribing, the remainder on the delivery of the book, which will be printed with all possible dispatch. Robert Squibb Nursery and Seedsman.

Subscriptions will be received at the subscriber's Garden, the upper end of Tradd street, at the Printers of this Paper, at Bower &. Markland's Printing-office, Church street, and at the principal Taverns.

The first indigenous book written on the topical plan, treating subject by subject, is apparently Coxe's fruit book, 1817; the second appears to have been Cobbett's "American Gardener," published at New York in 1819,

The American Gardener, Containing ample directions for workin A Kitchen Garden, Every month in the year; And copious instructions for the cultivation of Flower gardens, vineyards, nurse, Ries, hop-yards, green houses, And hot houses.


By John Gardiner & David Hepburn, Late Gardener to Gov. Mercer & Gen. Mafon.

City of Washington

Printed By Samuel H. Smith, For the Authors.


in London in 1821, and which passed through subsequent editions. This William Cobbett is the one who edited the federalist paper in Philadelphia known as "Peter Porcupine's Gazette," and whose attack upon Dr. Rush's treatment of yellow fever brought against him a judgment for damages, and which decided him to return to England in 1800, whence he had come, by way of France, in 1792. In London he again took up political writing, and in 1817 he retreated to America to escape political penalties, and resided upon a farm on Long Island until 1819. He kept a seed store in New York in 1818, and we find Grant Thorburn disputing with him in the "Evening Post" as to which sold the better rutabaga seed at one dollar a pound. Cobbett, it seems, claimed to have been the introducer of this vegetable, also known as the Russian turnip, into this country; but Thorburn retorts that "in the year 1796 a large field of these turnips was raised by Wm. Prout on that piece of ground now occupied by the navy yard, at the city of Washington." He completed his life in England, becoming a voluminous author upon political and economical subjects. It is interesting to note, in connection with this dispute about the turnips, that the kohlrabi was introduced about the same time, and Deane says of it in 1797, that "whether this plant, which has but newly found its way into our country, is hardy enough to bear the frost of our winters, I suppose is yet to be proved." It was recommended to be grown as a biennial, which accounts for Deane's fear that it might not pass the winters.

Fessenden's "New American Gardener," made upon the topical plan, appeared in Boston in 1828, and went to various editions; and from this time on, gardening books were frequent. Some of the leading early authors are Thomas Bridgeman, of New York; Robert Buist, of Philadelphia, and Joseph Breck, of Boston.

The first American book devoted wholly to flowers was probably Roland Green's "Treatise on the Cultivation of Flowers," Boston, 1828 (p. 1511). Edward Savers published the "American Flower Garden Companion, ' in Boston, in 1838. From 1830 to I860 there appeared many of those superficial and fashionable books which deal with the language of flowers, and which assume that the proper way to popularize botany is by means of manufactured sentiment.

The first book devoted to a special flower was probably Sayers' treatise on the dahlia, Boston, 1839, which appeared only a year later than Paxton's well-known book in England. Savers' book also included the cactus. The next special flower-book seems to have been Buist's "Rose Manual," Philadelphia, 1844, although a sentimental book on the "Queen of Flowers" had appeared in the same city in 1841. Buist's book went to at least four editions. It was followed by Prince's in 1846, and by S. B. Parson's "The Rose: Its History, Poetry, Culture and Classification," 1846. Parson's book went to a revised edition. Of later-date flower-books there are several of importance, but it is not the purpose of this paragraph to trace more than the beginnings of American floricultural writings.

In 1838 appeared a book in French in New Orleans. This was Lelievre's "Nouveau Jardinier de la Louis- iane." It was a small book of 200 pages, with a calendar and brief directions for the growing of vegetables, fruits and flowers. Singularly enough, a French book also appeared at the other extreme of the country. This was Provancher's "Le Verger-Canadien," published in Quebec in 1872.

It is in the pomological writings that North America has made the greatest contributions to horticultural literature. William Forsyth's excellent "Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees'" appeared in Ixmdon in 1802, and it was widely read, "an impression of 1,500 copies (of the first edition) in 4to having been sold in a little more than eight months." An American edition, by William Cobbett, appeared in

New York and Philadelphia in 1802, and in Albany in 1803, and an epitome of it by "an American fanner," was published in Philadelphia in 1803. The first American pomological book was William Coxe's "View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees," published in Philadelphia in 1817, a work known to students of horticultural literature for the uniform completeness and accuracy of its descriptions. A feature of this excellent work are the many woodcuts of varieties of fruits. Although not answering the requirements of the present day. they were considered to be very good for the time and for a new country. One of them is reproduced in Fig. 1858 to show the style of workmanship. Coxe had 100 woodcuts of apples, 63 of pears, 15 of peaches, 17 of plums, 3 of apricots, 2 of nectarines. This makes 200 engravings, which would be considered liberal illustration even at the present day.

James Thacher's "American Orchardist" appeared in Boston in 1822, and the second edition at Plymouth hi 1825. The first edition was also bound with William Cobbett's "Cottage Economy," and the double volume was issued in New York in 1824 as "American Orchardist and Cottage Economy." "The Pomological Manual," New York, 1831 (second edition 1832), is a compilation of descriptions of varieties, by William Robert Prince and William Prince, son and father respectively. William Kendrick's "New American Orchardist" was published in Boston in 1833. The eighth edition appeared in 1848. Like all early works, it devotes most of its space to varieties. Robert Manning published his admirable "Book of Fruits," at Salem, in 1838, being aided by John M. Ives. Upon the death of Manning, Ives published a second edition in 1844 under the title of "The New England Fruit Book," and a third in 1847 as "The New England Book of Fruits." Downing's "Fruits and Fruit Trees of America" appeared in 1845 in two forms, duodecimo and octavo, although both issues were printed from the same type. One issue of the octavo form contained colored plates. Thomas' "Fruit Culturist," which is known in subsequent editions as "The American Fruit Culturist," appeared in 1846. Other pomological writings which appeared before 1850 are Sayers' "American Fruit Garden Companion," Boston, 1839; Hoffy's "Orchardist's Companion," Philadelphia, 1841; Bridgeman's "Fruit Cultivator's Manual," New York, 1845; Floy's American edition of George Lindley's "Guide to the Orchard and Fruit Garden," New York, 1846; Jaque's "Practical Treatise on the Management of Fruit Trees," Worcester, 1849; Good- rich's "Northern Fruit Culturist," Burlington, Vt., 1849; Cole's "American Fruit Book," and others. Barry's "Fruit Garden" appeared in 1851.

Of these pomological books, the first place should be given to those of Coxe, Kendrick, Manning, Downing, Thomas and Barry. The influence of Downing's "Fruits and Fruit Trees of America" probably has been greater than that of all others in extending a love of fruits and a critical attitude toward varieties. Begun by Andrew Jackson Downing—perhaps the fairest name in American horticultural literature—it was continued and revised by the elder brother, Charles, after the untimely death of the former. Most of these works were largely compilations. A notable exception was Manning's "Book of Fruits." In the introductory remarks to this volume is the following statement: "There is one circumstance to which we venture to call the attention of our readers—that while some recent works on pomology are compiled from earlier authors, or from information derived at second-hand, the writers themselves seldom haying the means of observation in their power, we have in these pages described no specimen which we have not actually identified beyond a reasonable doubt of its genuineness." It was Manning who chiefly made known to Americans the pears of the Belgian, Van Mons. He was one of the most careful observers amongst American pomologists.


The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.



Horticulture (Latin: hortus (garden plant) + cultura (culture)) is classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulturists work in plant propagation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, plant physiology, and the storage, processing, and transportation of fruits, berries, nuts, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs, and turf. They improve crop yield, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to insects, diseases, and environmental stresses. Genetics is also used as a valuable tool in the development of plants that can synthesize chemicals for fighting disease (including cancers).

The study of horticulture

Horticulture involves five areas of study. These areas are floriculture (includes production and marketing of floral crops), landscape horticulture (includes production, marketing and maintenance of landscape plants), olericulture (includes production and marketing of vegetables), pomology (includes production and marketing of fruits), and postharvest physiology (involves maintaining quality and preventing spoilage of horticultural crops).

Horticulturists can work in industry, government, or educational institutions. They can be cropping systems engineers, wholesale or retail business managers, propagators and tissue culture specialists (fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, and turf), crop inspectors, crop production advisors, extension specialists, plant breeders, research scientists, and of course, teachers.

College courses that complement Horticulture are biology, botany, entomology, chemistry, mathematics, genetics, physiology, statistics, computer science, and communications, garden design, planting design. Plant science and horticulture courses include: plant materials, plant propagation, tissue culture, crop production, post-harvest handling, plant breeding, pollination management, crop nutrition, entomology, plant pathology, economics, and business. Some careers in horticultural science require a masters (MS) or doctoral (PhD) degree.

Horticulture takes place in many gardens and plant growth centres. Plants are often grown as seedlings within plant nurseries. Activities in nurseries range from preparing seeds and cuttings to growing fully mature plants. These are often sold or transferred to ornamental gardens or market gardens.

 
Cool climate greenhouse, a great deal of horticultural practices are carried out by home gardeners
 
Community Gardens are a common place to find horticultural practices in place

Horticulture and anthropology

The origins of horticulture lie in the transition of human communities from nomadic hunter gatherers to sedentary or semi-sedentary horticultural communities, cultivating a variety of crops on a small scale around their dwellings or in specialized plots at some remove (such as the "milpa" or maize field of mesoamerican cultures[1]). In forest areas such horticulture is often carried out in swiddens ("slash and burn" areas)[2]. A characteristic of horticultural communities is that useful trees are often to be found planted around communities or specially retained from the natural ecosytem.

Horticultural communities may be distinguished from agricultural ones by (1) the small scale of the cultivation, using small plots of mixed crops rather than large field of single crops (2) the use of a variety of crops, often including fruit trees (3) the encouragement of useful native plants alongside direct cultivation (4) continued use of other forms of livelihood. In pre-contact North America the semi-sedentary horticultural communities of the eastern woodlands (growing maize, squash and sunflower) contrasted markedly with the mobile hunter gatherer communities of the Plains people. In central America, Mayan horticulture involved augmentation of the forest with useful trees such as papaya, avocado, cacao, ceiba and sapodilla. In the cornfields, multiple crops were grown such as beans (using cornstalks as supports), squash, pumpkins and chili peppers, in some cultures tended mainly or exclusively by women[3].

References

  1. Hagen, V.W. von (1957) The Ancient Sun Kingdoms Of The Americas. Ohio: The World Publishing Company
  2. McGee, J.R. and Kruse, M. (1986) Swidden horticulture among the Lacandon Maya [videorecording (29 mins.)] . University of California, Berkeley: Extension Media Center
  3. Thompson, S.I. (1977) Women, Horticulture, and Society in Tropical America. American Anthropologist, N.S., 79: 908-910

See also

External links