5^8 State Horticultural Society. 



a view to developing new and successful varieties, for profitable culti- 

 vation. 



The leading men of our government, supported by public opinion, 

 have not failed to catch the spirit of this intimate relation between the 

 pure science of biology and the practical science of horticulture, atid 

 related sciences, .and accordingly have wisely established the many de- 

 partments of special biological study and research in the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. The expert biologists who have taken 

 charge of these special researches have applied every resource of bio- 

 logical science, sustained by all necessary financial support, to the prac- 

 tical solution of the many perplexing problems which the busy horti- 

 culturist might never solve. 



Every up-to-date horticulturist who is in close touch with the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, has received volumes upon volumes 

 in which are published the biological researches upon the economic phases 

 of such organisms as the codling moth, the apple borers, the canker 

 worm, the San Jose scale, the bark louse, the army worm, the bean 

 weevil, the cabbage worm, the potato beetle, cut worms, leaf rollers, 

 apple aphis, and the hosts of the parasitic fungi without common names ; 

 and such plant diseases as fire-blight, powdery mildew, downy mildew, 

 black-knot, strawberry spot disease, apple scab, peach curl, peach yellows, 

 bitter rot, strawberry rust, etc., etc. ; and such subjects as "Spraying for 

 Codling Moth," "Black-rot of the Grape," "Black-rot of the Sweet Po- 

 tato," "The Forest in Relation to the Orchard," "The Theory of Fungi- 

 cides," "Experiments in Treatment of Diseases of Plants," "Fungicides 

 and their Application," "What to do with Peach Yellows," "Bacteria and 

 Plant Diseases," "Does it pay to Spray," and so on through the horti- 

 culturist's library. 



Not only has the general government recognized this important re- 

 lation of biology to horticulture, but the State experiment stations are 

 publishing w'hole libraries of biologico-horticultural literature, so much 

 indeed, that if the horticulturist would take time to read it all, his or- 

 chards and gardens would fast revert to primeval forest conditions for 

 want of pruning and cultivation. 



The pure culture value of an extended scientific study and knowl- 

 edge of animals and plants, is as great as that of a study of mathe- 

 matics, history or literature, and herein, in very truth, lies the most im- 

 portant relation of biology to horticulture. 



The horticulturist who does not see more beauty, and have a greater 

 source of happiness in a great thoui^ht, or a lofty conception of the In- 

 finite as manifested in the marvelous works of nature, than in the gold for 



