FAKMEKS' INSTITUTES. 139 



ers are confined to certain well defined limits, is a question so profound that 

 few have any definite knowledge of it. Mankind will often endure the most 

 violent changes of climate, but the changes that plants will endure is fixed by 

 a never changing law, — not but that plants will sometimes endure extremes of 

 heat and cold foreign to them in their native home, — still we must not suppose 

 that time will accomplish a constitutional change in them. It is enough for 

 us to know that we can obtain fruits from seed adapted to tlie region we 

 inhabit. But the non-adaptation of fruits to our several localities is not the 

 only difficulty we have to contend with. The alarming increase of noxious 

 insects inflicts a loss upon the country, according to Prof. Riley, of not less 

 than three hundred millions of dollars annually, a greater loss than Napoleon, 

 when in the zenith of his fame, ever inflicted upon an enemy. 



There are three classes of diseases common among plants: first, those due 

 to insects; second, those due to vegetable parasites, the most common of which 

 are the fungus growths; third, a class of diseases due to a variety of causes, 

 and which may be called real diseases. The numerous species which derive 

 their sustenance from the vegetable kingdom have long been the most dreaded 

 by the tiller of the soil. Although dealing in small things, yet entomology is 

 a vast science, for Prof. Riley computes the number of insects as exceeding by 

 ten fold that of all other animals combined. Of late years human skill has 

 done much to help mitigate those evils that escape our notice by their minute- 

 ness, elude our grasp by their agility, and defy our skill by their countless 

 numbers. Every cultivator of the soil should be familiar not only with the 

 botany of the useful plants, but of the weeds also, that he may the more 

 easily exterminate them. The cultivation of plants and flowers, to understand 

 how they are nourished and supported, and the soils best adapted to their 

 natures; to understand their several parts and their relationsiiip to each other; 

 how they may be perpetuated and hybridized. This is practical botany. AVe 

 look upon horticulture as botany applied in practice ; and just as the horti- 

 culturist departs from its teachings, so does he impair his own success. Tiie 

 horticulturist is indebted to the botanist for the analysis and determination of 

 newly discovered plants, for advice in relation to grafting, and hybridizing, 

 and to the physiologist for points in relation to pruning, forcing, and many 

 other things. On the other hand, who has such opportunities as the horti- 

 culturist for studying the habits of plants, their value for food, ornament, or 

 other economic purposes, or in supplying facts for the physiologist in relation 

 to hybridization? The practical horticulturist miglit confer a benefit on 

 science that is hardly estimable by a careful record of important facts, his 

 every-day work being largely a matter of personal experience and observation; 

 and this is, to some extent, a measurable quantity in every lifetime. It is 

 clear, then, that the closest union is desirable to both parties in order to render 

 the best service to a progressive horticulture. We do not say that science 

 alone will teach us horticulture, since it is an art of practical experiments and 

 actual experiences, not to be learned in the classroom only ; but I tell you 

 what it can do, it will enable those who have given it some attention to over- 

 come difficulties that may puzzle the man who has not this advantage. But 

 aside from its utility in the pr.ictice of horticulture, we do desire to see every 

 tiller of the soil give some attention to botany, an acquaintance with which 

 cannot fail in promoting his best interests. 



A knowledge of the soil and its combinations and capabilities lies at the base 

 of all true culture, and is a great aid to its successful practice. Since the 

 application of chemistry to agriculture many important facts have been deter- 



