138 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



of the farm. The home snrromulings that arc bleak and unadorned will 

 either not sell, or must go at the lowest figures, consequently instead of not 

 affording to ornament his home with things that are agreeable to good taste, 

 the progressive farmer cannot afford to leave it undone, if he would escape 

 loss. All this offers a strong argument for home adorn fuent, both by reason 

 of the great public interests at stake, as well as by the evidence we have that 

 but little ]irogrcss can be made until we can secure the intelligent cooperation 

 of our farming communities. If we are backward in any branch of horticul- 

 ture, it is that of landscape gardening, which should never be divorced from 

 any system of education intended for civilized society. It is true that nature 

 has given us many scenes of great beauty, and this has to some extent relieved 

 us of the necessity of creating them by art, but it is equally true that we lack 

 purpose and design in our efforts in this direction, which at once impresses the 

 im})ortance of the diffusion of that knowledge, that shall lead to better results. 

 The garden is at once a source of profit, substantial comfort, and higli intel- 

 lectual enjoyment, because it contributes so largely to the wants, enjoyments, 

 and luxuries of life; that view it as we may, its practice affords such grand 

 objects for contemplation, that whether we look at it as a means of supplying 

 our wants, or gratifying the senses, or improving the mind, it must ever be 

 a subject worthy our earnest attention and consideration.. 



Scientific horticulture has for its primary object truth and an increased 

 knowledge of the science. It comprises collections of fruits, flowers and 

 plants generally, not so much for profit or ornamentation as for experiment 

 and the fostering of scientific taste. Comparatively little is known by people 

 in general as to what extent plants may be improved by a systematic and intel- 

 ligent course of breeding. Individual effort is commendable, but few people 

 have the time or money to carry it out for a sufiticient length of time in order 

 to reach satisfactory results. A kind providence has endowed plants and ani- 

 mals with a capacity for improvement, and to man he has given intelligence 

 for their development. Nearly all the natural productions of the earth are 

 capable of improvement by judicious selection and cultivation. It is true that 

 uature has been lavish with her favors; she has given us grains and vegetables 

 that are sustaining and agreeable; flowers and fruits that are attractive to the 

 eye and to the palate. These are but the beginnings from which a progressive 

 horticulture has sprung. We may be said to have commenced a new era in 

 horticulture with the knowledge of hybridization in the production of new and 

 improved varieties of plants, an era that exemplifies a most beautiful law of 

 nature by which improvement in its vegetable products may be carried to a 

 high degree of perfection. AVho would recognize in tlie Baldwin apple the 

 worthless crab, or in the delicious pear tlie austere wildlingof our hedge-rows? 

 Who has not pitied the ancient Bretons who subsisted upon the miserable cole- 

 worts from which the modern turnip, cabbage and cauliflower have sprung by 

 cultivation and selection? Wiio can estimate at their true value the observa- 

 tions and experiments of Darwin or tlie elaborate work of Lawes and Gilbert in 

 agricultural chemistry? To hybridization, selection, progressive evolution and 

 the practical application of this knowledge to the purposes of tlie cultivator is 

 husbandry and horticulture indebted for the improvement in those plants and 

 animals witli which they have to deal. Much has already been dune in this 

 direction, and we have the most cheering assurance that every section of the 

 country will have fruits ada[ited to its particular locality. The adaptation of 

 plants to diversity of climate, and tlieir distribution over the earth, — why 

 some are able to adapt themselves to almost any change of location, and oth- 



