Combined Agriculture and Horticulture. 135 



It is a fact which we need not argue that only in certain localities will 

 horticulture cdone be profitable. Where the soil is suitable, there must still 

 be other conditions to render success probable, or even possible. There 

 must be either a home market, as in location near a considerable city, or 

 there must be cheap and speedy transportation. The products of horticul- 

 tural labor are, for the most part, perishable, and must either go at once to 

 the consumer or be put through a more or less expensive " process" for their 

 safe preservation. 



The nursery business is, to a certain extent, independent of these restric- 

 tions, and may very properly engross the entire time of the nurseryman. It 

 should be borne in mind, however, that the supplj'^ must never exceed the 

 demand if profit is the desideratum — and here hangs the kej' to the tomb of 

 hundreds of dead nurseries. A good talker may often create a sort of un- 

 healthy demand, but when the country has been flooded with nursery stock 

 in this way for a year or two, no amount of talking can prevent the down- 

 fall of the nursery which caused the deluge. To be secure, a nursery must 

 undertake only what its territory demands, and, further, it must not seek to 

 extend that territory beyond the natural climatic and humidic limits of its 

 own locality. Although, perhaps, foreign to the subject, it may not be out 

 of place in this paper to decry the evil practice of selling nursery stock from 

 one country in another of radically different temperature, soil and moisture. 

 Such practices as this do much toward preventing, among farmers, a popu- 

 lar appreciation of the home orchard, and tends to foster feelings of distrust 

 and resentment toward the entire nursery fraternity. 



But while we may justly blame such horticultural knavery, we must 

 also mention the lack of requisite knowledge to successfully plant and culti- 

 vate a fruit garden. Farmers, as a rule, have too little knowledge of the 

 principles which underlie plain and practical farming, and when we add to 

 this the care of orchard or vineyard, the majority are found sadly de- 

 ficient. To remedy this defect is much easier than to control dishonest 

 practice among vendors of trees; the latter we can only reach by proper 

 legislation, the former we must seek to govern through educational chan- 

 nels. Oar agricultural colleges are deing a grand work in this direction, 

 and students who leave their halls are well-fitted to spread the knowledge 

 which they have acquired among those who are not so fortunate. Nor is 

 this all ; there are men to be found who, at their own private expense, are 

 doing much to instruct the unskilled in the growing of fruit and garden 

 products. Horticultural meetings in all parts of the country are, in them- 

 selves, important factors in this horticultural education. The public press, 

 by its faithful record of events and its tireless search after new facts and 

 theories, has already done wonders. With future issues multiplied and scat- 

 tered broadcast, so that even " he who runs may read," there is every reason 

 to hope for rapid progress in this really important work. 



In the cotton states there is an especial need for more admixture of 

 horticulture and agriculture in farming operations. The cotton crop is 



