Horticultural Experimentation for Colorado. 195 



So that, upon individual eflbrt and upon that of local horticultural socie- 

 ties, must devolve very largely the development of the horticultural resources 

 of their several localities. Individual efibrt, then, mvist not lag. The horti- 

 culture of no people or country is settled. Many things that are vahiable in 

 our fields and gardens is the result of the thoughtful care of some lover of 

 horticulture. In imitation of the mechanic the horticulturist must exercise 

 close and constant observation, and bring to his own observations in the gar- 

 den the advantages to be derived from the successful experiments of others. 

 There are people vi^ho would separate thinking from working horticulturists, 

 and which is both niischievous and untenable. The most practical men are 

 the best thinkers, and the true theorist verifies all science by his own prac- 

 tice, or that of others. Too often, I think, do horticulturists ignore, from 

 preconceived prejudices, the useful, practical lessons of successful thinkers. 

 But this is an everj'day experience, and it has ever been so. 



Almost every great invention that has lifted humanity to a higher plane of 

 comfort and usefulness has at the outset been assailed by calumny. What 

 was but an enthusiastic dream in the days of Elizabeth is to-day driving 

 vast cargoes of the products of this continent across land and sea; but the 

 intelligent horticulturist is held by no such bonds ; he knows that he is a mon- 

 arch among the achievements of nature. The average individual, however, 

 has not the time, means, skill, nor training for scientific worjc. He knows, 

 if he be an intelligent man, that this kind of work belongs to the trained man 

 of science. But he can carry out many practical experiments, if he be a 

 thinking man, and while they may lack the accuracy of the trained and ed- 

 ucated thinker, may nevertheless contribute much to his material prosperity. 



A German writer says experiments are not easy, but are within the power 

 of every thinking husbandman. Individual effort, then, we think an impor- 

 tant step toward horticultural progress, and closely allied with this lies asso- 

 ciated effort, as in horticultural societies. The work of the college, and of 

 the individual, will concentrate here and crystallize into a power for good. 

 A live, flourishing society will ever give an impetus to vinited effort among 

 its members. The numerous public and private gardens in the Eastern 

 States are no doubt largely due to the influence exercised by the horticul- 

 tural societies of Philadelphia, New York, Massachusetts, Cincinnati, and 

 Dayton. These societies are a rendezvous where new and rare garden pro- 

 ducts are exhibited for comparison and competition, and if worthy, receive 

 the indorsement of the Society, but if unworthy, can never fail of its con- 

 demnation. Carlyle, perhaps, justly remarked, " There is no nation in the 

 world where there is so little happiness and so little misery as in America. 

 In the pursuit of wealth and practical science we have lost sight of wants 

 that calm and restore. How many costly buildings are there not, near all 

 our large towns and cities, rendered conspicuous by the absence of a refined 

 taste, and where vulgarity is ever thrust forward in the shape of culinary 

 vegetables, invading what ought to be lawn and flower garden, all this telling 

 too plainly the mushroom origin of their shoddy owners, and illustrating 



