MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 409 



tradition would lead us to believe, or as are the sensitive women of our 

 own country, for thus they advertise : " My gardener will send a superb 

 collection of twenty-five dozen perfectly hardy flowering plants for one 



guinea. Hon. ." This from a lady of the haughty English 



nobility ! Why should we hesitate in a choice between methods of ob- 

 taining a livelihood when in horticulture are independence and health, 

 in the shop sickness and starvation wages ? The American Garden be- 

 lieves in the women — may God bless them — and " one who has tried " 

 is now engaged in telling our readers how horticulture as a business 

 for women is already an accomplished fact, and how its doors are opened 

 to thousands more. This should be an inspiration to many. 



MAGNITUDE OF AGRICULTURE. 



As far back as 1880, the value of the farms of the United States 

 exceeded ten thousand million dollars. To the unremitting industry of 

 their owners these farms yielded an aggregate annual value of nearly 

 four thousand million dollars, in the production of which a vast popu- 

 lation of nearly eight million of toilers utilized nearly half a billion 

 worth of farm implements. The value of live-stock on farms, estimated 

 in the last census to be worth over one thousand five hundred million 

 of dollars, is shown by the reliable statistics collected by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to be worth to-day two thousand five hundred and 

 seven million dollars. A low estimate for the number of farmers and 

 farm laborers employed on our five million farms places it at nearly ten 

 million persons, representing thirty million people, or nearly one-half 

 of our present population. Secretary Rusk adds that "upon the pro- 

 ductiveness of our agriculture, and the prosperity of our farmers the 

 entire wealth and prosperity of the whole nation depend. The trade 

 and commerce of this vast country, of which we so proudly boast, the 

 great transportation facilities so greatly developed during the past 

 quarter of a century, are all possible only because the underlying in- 

 dustry of them all, agriculture has called them into being. Even the 

 product of our mines is only valuable because of the commerce and the 

 wealth created by our agriculture. These are strong assertions, but 

 they are assertions fully justified by the facts and recognized the world 

 over by the highest authorities in political economy." 



