214 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



leading topic of discussion, not only before such assemblages as this, but in 

 the home and the schools. It is a matter of congratulation that the youth of 

 our country are yearly becoming more interested in horticultural pursuits; 

 nor is this interest confined to any chosen or favored portion of our land. 

 It extends from Maine to California, and from. ocean to ocean. I confi- 

 dently believe that the time is not far distant when the rudimentary branches 

 of horticulture will be taught in all schools where circumstances and surround- 

 ings will admit of theories being reduced to practice ; for that theories, as 

 drawn from text-books and charts, must have practical illustration in the 

 field and garden, is incontrovertible. 



It has been a matter of much regret to me that our teachers of horticul- 

 ture in many of the schools have had charges made against the methods they 

 employed. That many of these charges are base canards, we all know, but 

 surely the instructors must have been seriously at fault in their duties to 

 have given cause for even the slightest complaint. 



That less time must, in the future, be spent in the class-room, and more- 

 in the field is a foregone conclusion, and, indeed, I am constrained to take 

 the final step forward and advocate the entire abandonment of books, charts 

 and class-room. In brief, teach grafting, budding, hybridizing and the vari- 

 ous parts of the work, where they should be taught, in the field among the 

 trees and plants. 



I grant that instructors may be learned, and their method of book-teach- 

 ing pleasing. Text-books may be accurate, but the average student cannot 

 be expected to become greatly interested in a subject of which he can under- 

 stand but little while denied the privilege of seeing and examining for him- 

 self. I am fully satisfied, gentlemen, that the use of text-books and charts 

 must be eventually abandoned before that measure of success for which we 

 hope and labor can be secured. I am led to this conclusion by the experi- 

 ences of myself and others with whom I have been associated from time 

 to time. As an illustration, in my earlier studies of horticulture I became 

 deeply interested in the art of budding, and eagerly read everything on the 

 subject which came into my hands. Innumerable peach-pits were planted 

 in the back yard, on which to practice what I had read; but alas! there were 

 as many frilures as there were stocks. The following budding season I visited 

 a large nursery in the vicinity, where the work of budding was going on. A 

 few words of instruction, practically illustrated, from the man in charge, 

 and three hours' close observation of the work going on before me accom- 

 plished more than years of text-book reading, and before the season was over 

 I had put in about 3,000 peach buds, with a loss of only about ten percent., 

 as I afterward learned. I may have been a trifle thick-headed in my book- 

 studies, but in the field I proved as bright as the majority of mortals. 



A young friend of mine was greatly interested in the study of strawberry 

 blossoms. He had had the difference in construction shown him by engrav- 

 ings, and had read up the subject thoroughly; yet when the opportunity 

 came for him to test his knowledge in the field, it was weeks before he could 

 accurately distinguish the pistillate blossom from the bi-sexual. Indeed, he 

 was forced to lay aside his book-knowledge and learn anew from the plants 

 before him. He had read that the variety Manchester was pistillate in blos- 

 som, but had not learned (because he could learn it nowhere but in the field), 

 that the blossoms of the variety named contain some stamens, nearly, if not 

 cpiite enough to supply the necessary pollen for its own fructification. As a 

 natural result, he termed the variety at sight bi-sexual in blossom. 



