Horticultural Society

“ It is greatly to be desired, that all our towns should be filled with elms, maples, ashes, locusts, etc. The cultivation of fruit may be much encouraged and promoted by a frequent republication of articles on that subject. The gardens and conservatories of a few very wealthy gentlemen do not constitute a horticultural community. They are of great use in the procuration and cultivation of new varieties of plants, and in testing important matters by expensive experiments. But affluent men and their pleasure grounds are to horticulture, what universities are to common schools ”

“ Arrangements have been made to figure and describe new and little-known plants (especially North American) of horticultural promise. A department will be devoted to the history and description of ornamental trees and shrubs. New florists’ flowers, fruits and vegetables will be made known, and experienced gardeners will describe practical methods of cultivation.
GARDEN AND FOREST will report the proceedings of the principal Horticultural Societies of the United States and the condition of the horticultural trade in the chief commercial centres of the country. ”

“ Incidentally, there is stated much that will be valuable and suggestive to the working horticulturist, as well as to the man or woman impelled by a love of nature to horticultural pursuits. It may well be called, indeed, a philosophy of horticulture, in which all interested may find inspiration and instruction. ”

“ Is it any wonder if horticulture in its best sense—that is, the culture of the garden as a whole—is not what it should be? No gardener can get prizes for well-kept beds, for effects of harmonious colouring, for arrangement of shrubberies, for the grouping of herbaceous plants. He is tempted for the sake of a single specimen to sacrifice the beauty of a whole plant, or the clusters of an entire fruit-tree. That it is most important for nurserymen to be able to compare new species, [74] or new varieties of old species, is of course undeniable. ”

“ Horticultural societies have been organized in all parts; while exhibitions, and National, State, and local Conventions of fruit-growers have been held to discuss the merits of fruits, and other kindred topics, until it has become the desire of almost every man, whether he live in town or country, to enjoy fine fruits, to provide them for his family, and, if possible, to cultivate the trees in his own garden with his own hands.
There are now single nurseries in this country where a million fruit-trees are advertised for sale. ”

“ The taste of the horticultural public being thus decidedly for the Rose, a demand will exist for all the information respecting soil, planting, cultivating, etc., and this information we shall endeavor to supply in a simple and concise manner, avoiding, as far as possible, all technicalities, and adapting it to the use of the cultivator of a single plant in the crowded border of a city garden, or to the more extended culture of a commercial establishment. ”

“ The people, especially the children, getting some information concerning the treatment of the crops from competent advisers in school and out in the arbor colonies, derive great good from their horticultural and floricultural work. Families who are aesthetically inclined devote their space to flowers and trailing vines exclusively; others, utilitarians from necessity, plant potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, beans, strawberries, and the like. ”

“ The increasing interest in fruit-growing all over the South makes it easy to interest the young women in horticulture. The school orchard of 5000 trees makes it possible to lay great stress on the practical side of fruit growing. ”

“ There is still much to be learned in the matter of [Pg 16] exotic grape-growing in this country, and, in fact, in the management of conservatories, orchard-houses, and all descriptions of horticultural buildings, and all classes of plants cultivated under glass. Whatever progress may have been made abroad, where experiments are carried on upon a large and costly scale, and often with eminent success, is of little or no value to the American horticulturist. Our climate is very different in its character and conditions from that of Europe, and especially that of humid England. ”

“ At the same time, and impelled by the same necessities, supported and aided by the same co-adjutors, horticulture also advances in a similar ratio, and, from its very nature, assumes the rank of a fine art, being less essential than pure agriculture, and in some of its branches being rather an ornamental than simply a useful art. ”

“ It is the only book accessible to American horticulture which gives the reasons, discouragements, possibilities and limitations of Cross-Breeding. Every man who owns a plant should have it, if for no other reason than to post himself upon one of the leading practices of the day. ”

“ The Agricultural Society ought to make arrangements to have and keep on hand the best varieties of all kinds of garden seeds, the best varieties of fruits, of grain, and every useful product of the soil, that all may be able to procure the purest and best seeds, scions, fruit and shade trees, shrubbery, &c. ”

“ Horticulture has long been pronounced by physiologists, salutary to health, and cheerfulness of spirits; and if he who devotes a portion of his leisure to the nurture of the lovely things of nature, benefits himself, he who beautifies a garden for the eye of the community, should surely be counted a public benefactor. ”

“ A region, subject to all the diseases and evils of vegetable plethora, has adopted the practice of regions subject to the opposite evils. While receiving with gratitude, at the hands of eminent foreign physiologists and cultivators, the principles, we must establish the ART of horticulture, by a practice conformable to our own circumstances. A treatment which in England would only produce healthful growth, in this country would pamper a tree to a luxurious fullness. ”

“ In the progress of civilization the beginnings are usually feeble, obscure, and limited. There are reasons why this should be the case with the first attempts at agriculture or horticulture. Between the custom of gathering wild fruits, grain, and roots, and that of the regular cultivation of the plants which produce them, there are several steps. A family may scatter seeds around its dwelling, and provide itself the next year with the same product in the forest. ”

“ In agricultural and horticultural communities, there is always a demand for roots and seeds. A large number of seeds are raised and put in papers for sale by the Shakers. In stores for the sale of roots and seeds, growing plants in jars might be offered for sale, and evergreens, with their roots in dirt, enveloped by linen or sacking. Orders might be given, and filled, for forest and fruit trees. ”

“ The variety is early, and, though classed by seedsmen as a garden turnip, is well adapted for field culture; as it not only yields abundantly, but succeeds well when sown late in the season on land from which early crops have been harvested. ”

“ When, however, we consider how many plants are now common of which the same opinion was formerly entertained, and moreover how much beyond the skill of the last race of gardeners is that of the present day, I think it would be discreditable to the art, and a libel upon the science of horticulture, to say that in the cultivation of these plants there are any difficulties which patience and skill ought not to overcome. ”

“ Culture. Weeding and occasionally stirring the soil, and sticking such as require support, is all the cultivation necessary for annuals. If it be desired to save seed, some of the earliest and most perfect blossoms should be preserved for this purpose, so as to secure the best possible seed for the ensuing year, not leaving it to chance to gather seed from such plants as may remain after the flowers have been taken, as is generally the case with native gardeners, if left to themselves. ”

“ In no other department of horticulture is there more room for common-sense, accurate knowledge, skill, and good management, than in the use of all kinds of fertilizers, and, in my judgment, close and continued observation is worth volumes of theory. The proper enrichment of the soil is the very cornerstone of success, and more fail at this point than at any other. ”

“ A history of horticulture in the Centennial State has not yet been written, and it is impossible to say when and where the first domestic fruit was grown, or to whom is due the honor of having taken the initial step in the industry that from its rapid development and the enthusiasm already enlisted bids fair to outstrip all other pursuits in the State. ”

“ In horticultural nurseries, for instance, progress is not sluggish. Scientific discovery and methods of practice are applied and promptly produce definite results. The composite plants are distinguished from simple plants, and while all are secured in necessary conditions of healthy life—good soil, air, light, etc.—those receive from the gardener a special fostering care. ”

“ They are the only records of the progress in horticulture. Exhaustive lists of all the plants introduced in 1892, with descriptions, directories, full accounts of all new discoveries, new tools, and a wealth of practical matter for Gardeners, Fruit-Growers, Florists, Vegetable-Gardeners and Landscape-Gardeners, comprise its contents. ”

“ The growing of early vegetables under glass is also a business of considerable importance in the vicinity of cities. Horticulture gradually merges into several of the various phases of agriculture.
Floriculture is the third main branch of horticulture. This includes landscape-gardening, which is the art of so growing and disposing of flowers and plants as to create a beautiful landscape effect. Examples of the product of the art are to be seen in our well-kept city parks and in the private grounds of some persons of means throughout the country. ”

“ Moreover, it would be utterly impossible to fix this line permanently. In the case of our market garden the introduction of intensive horticulture might mean that maximum production per head required the work of forty men. ”

“ The great wars were over and in the peaceful years men were free to turn their energy to constructive purposes. Horticulture—ever a British art—became unreservedly popular. Explorers and collectors, encouraged and assisted by Banks and others, sent home rich supplies of new or rare plants and thus provided British systematists with a vast array of material for their work of reconstructing the flora of the world. Such brilliant use was made of opportunity that our country took the lead in systematic botany. ”

“ Those who are experienced in horticulture will smile at my simplicity and ignorance, and wonder how so many difficulties beset me. But even they must have had some sort of probation, which they overlook when reading this history of mine. We are all, at some period, mere beginners in everything. There were hundreds of visitors to our neighbor's garden who had never seen a strawberry-plant until then. ”

“ We are so blessed, in most parts of this country, with soil and climate that are well adapted to the production [150] of fruit in the open field, upon sturdy orchard trees, that there is less necessity for introducing these elegant methods of pursuing the fine art of horticulture; and yet there are reasons in the uncertain climate of our winters, why these plans of training and dwarfing should be pursued by those who have the talent and the means for doing it. ”

“ The first work the society undertook was to determine the varieties of the different classes of fruits suitable for planting in different sections of the country. Patrick Barry of Rochester, one of the pioneers of American horticulture, was for years the chairman of the committee on varietal adaptation and did an immense amount of work on that line. ”

“ Not that it can be disputed that the light toil requisite to cultivate a moderately sized garden imparts such zest to kitchen vegetables as is never found in those of the market-gardener. Childless men, if they would know something of the bliss of paternity, should plant a seed,-- be it squash, bean, Indian corn, or perhaps a mere flower or worthless weed,--should plant it with their own hands, and nurse it from infancy to maturity altogether by their own care. ”

“ In our Southern states, the rich assign one of their slaves to the garden.
16. In the United States, almost every family in the country, and in the villages, has its garden for the production of vegetables, in which are also usually reared, a few flowers, ornamental shrubs, and fruit-trees: but horticulture, as a science, is studied and practised here by very few, especially that branch of it called picturesque, or landscape. To produce a pleasing effect, in a garden of this kind, from twenty to one hundred acres are necessary, according to the manner in which the ground may be situated. ”

“ The result is that unless we disturb the balance too much by cultivating great orchards of a thing that has been grown as scattered individuals, or overforcing it or selecting and breeding towards larger fruit without any regard to foliage and other characters we can go ahead with our breeding and selection and cultivation and trust nature to keep the balance to some extent. We have this natural balance in our favor in dealing with the problem of cultivating native plants. As an example take the pear and apple blight. ”

“ European horticulturists desired finer and larger fruit. American orchards show how well [222] they have succeeded. For over a century American horticulture has made marked progress. Many valuable kinds of fruit have originated in this country. Our own wild apples are now studied with the aim of bringing them into cultivation, just as the Asiatic species were improved centuries ago. ”