198 TEANSACTIONS OF THE HORTIGULTUEAL 



vast stretches of tough sod. The railroads and the cast-steel plow 

 have changed all this; while the cultivators and harvesters, the corn- 

 planters and grain-threshers, have taken heavy loads from the merely 

 muscular man, and permitted him to think of something besides 

 hard physical labor in the essentials of life. 



Among the general reasons for the special activity of which we 

 speak, we must not proceed far before mentioning the increased in- 

 telligence of the common people. Never before did cultivators of 

 the soil think as they have lately done. Operations are performed 

 now for an assignable reason rather than because some one else had 

 done so before. We do not follow the paths beaten by our ances- 

 tors unless our educated senses and corrected observations confirm 

 the lessons handed down to us. Science has taken the place of 

 mythology in our schools, and children of our times are taught that 

 it is perfectly right and proper to gain knowledge at first hand, and 

 to question current opinions, even though expressed in printed books, 

 if they appear to conflict with direct observation and experiment, 

 Baconian philosophy and faith in the stability and reliability of the 

 laws of nature, have given an entirely new direction to effort, and 

 made cause and effect stand related as they never stood before. So 

 long as men and women depend upon joining hands in a circle about 

 an apple tree, and chanting some cabalistic utterances while they 

 danced, to make the tree fruitful; so long as planters really believe 

 that the enchanting influence of some mumbling old woman is the 

 only essential in the keeping of seeds; so long as the phases of the 

 moon are consulted, rather than the qualities and condition of soil, in 

 deciding the time to plant; so long as quackery and witchcraft are 

 allowed to lead, instead of sense and reason — just so long are the 

 arts of horticulture belittled and benumbed, and the science pulseless 

 and dead. No progress is possible without rational experiment and 

 well interpreted observation. Sir Joshua Reynolds, when asked with 

 what he mixed his paints, retorted, "With brains!" So the pro- 

 gressive horticulturist mixes his composts and tempers his processes 

 with brains. Say what we may of fruit growing and flower grow- 

 ing as the poetry of agriculture, as the divinely appointed recreation 

 of our first parents in Eden; say what we please of the delights of 

 rosy beds and fragrant bouquets, of peaceful pleasures among climb- 

 ing vines and fruit-laden trees, there is, after all, a foundation of 

 pure, cold, unemotional, law-governed and law-giving science in all 

 horticultural operations. 



There is always .a great demand for hard labor and watchful 

 care, in which it is hard to find much poetry. Sentiment does not 

 -hoe the garden nor tight codling moths. It does not even pack ripe 

 peaches in baskets, nor arrange roses and carnations in bouquets. 

 Labor, God-appointed, man-honored and man-honoring labor, is the 

 magic that transforms soil and sunshine into perfumed flowers and 

 luscious fruits. The horticulturist earns his bread by the sweat of 



