1878.] 



AND HOR TICUL TURJS T. 



125 



drawn in black and white by some of the best 

 artists in London and Paris. These illustrations 

 will show some of the results already obtained, 

 and sugoe.sts what is possible with many types 

 of vecetation. This book is written in the inter- 

 est of the most charming phase of picturesque 

 gardening, and we should be greatly obliged to 

 any persons interested in such for permission to 

 see any photogra])hs or sketches showing beauti- 

 ful flower life in a wild or semi-wild state. 

 What is wanted are not portraits of individual 

 flowers, but wreaths, fringes, or colonies of them 

 as they arrange themselves in a wild state, or are 

 permitted to do so in the garden. American 

 readers would also greatly oblige by letting us 

 know if any photographs are obtainable showing 

 flower life in the Northern, Eastern, Western, or 

 Pacitic States." 



HoRTicrLTUKAL CATALOGUES. — We have 

 several hundreds of catalogues before us, a 



large proportion asking " please notice." We 

 would gladly do this if we had four or five pages 

 to spare ; for, indeed, the greater part of theni! 

 are extremely creditable and deserving of all' 

 praise. 



The RukalNew Yorker. — We do not know 

 that any one should care to have more than his 

 money's worth in a good paper when he sub- 

 grribes therefor the full subscription price, but 

 if it is to be, the Rural New Yorker^ s ofter of a 

 "combined clock and watch," seems about as 

 good as any. We cannot, however, recommend 

 a subscription on this account, for the paper is 

 all any reasonable person ought to expect with- 

 out it. 



That Bogus Agent. — He has been caught at 

 last, and as we are writing this is in prison, in 

 Philadelphia, awaiting trial, for though he is 

 " such a nice young man," he could get no one 

 to go bail for his appearance. 



Horticultural Societies. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



ADDRESS OF :MARSHALL P. WILDER. j 



Concluded. j 



Pomological Literature. — Among the most 

 important agencies which have contributed 

 largely to the advancement of the pomology of 

 our country, we desire to speak especially of its 

 literature. One hundred years ago this had not 

 begun to exist in our country. Then there was 

 not an agricultural, horticultural or pomological 

 society, not a periodical or paper devoted to the 

 cause of terraculture. When the Philadelphia 

 and the Massachusetts Societies for Promoting 

 Agriculture were formed, our only pomological 

 literature was limited to a small number of 

 European works. These were, as far as possible, 

 collected in the libraries of these societies, and 

 we early trace the beginnings of an American 

 pomological literature in papers contributed to 

 the publications of these same societies. The 

 first of these communications appeared in the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Repository in 179f), 

 on the natural history of the canker worm. In 

 this paper Prof. Peck gave a very full account 

 of th's insect, still so injurious to our apple trees. 

 This attention on the part of agricultural socie- 

 ties to fruit culture has continued and increased 

 to the present day, and I am of the opinion that 

 however much we may be indebted to the State 

 societies and other prominent organizations, we 

 owe much to the unpretending reports of local 

 societies for the interest which now pervades the 

 masses and i)opularizes pomological knowledge. 

 All of these may be counted in the history and 

 literature of American pomology. Many of 

 these are not only examples of real practical 

 knowledge, but are highly creditable for their 

 literary and scientific character. From these, 

 our own publications have derived much of the 

 information which gives them their excellence, 



all combining to make up the literature of Amer- 

 ican pomology. Only fifty years ago the difficulty 

 of obtaining correct" information from our own 

 countrymen in regard to fruit trees and the cul- 

 ture of them, wa^ almost insuperable, and we 

 were compelled to resort to such European, 

 authors as we could obtain. But those of the- 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as 

 Merlet, Quintinye, Duhamel, and the like, were 

 in foreign languages, and not generally available 

 for our uses if we except the "iPomologia" of the- 

 Dutch gardener, Herman Knoop, wiiich had 

 been translated. It was not, however, until 

 about the beginning of the present century, even 

 in these countries,' that the new enterprise in 

 fruit culture, which characterizes the present age, 

 had sprung up. The publications of Van Mons 

 in Belgium, Forsyth and Knight in England, 

 and Poiteau and Noisette, in France, awakened 

 a new interest in their own and other lands, but 

 it was reserved for a later day, when their suc- 

 cessors, George Lindle^v , Thompson, Rivers and 

 Hogg of Engtand ; Esperen, Bivort and Berck- 

 mans, of Belgium ; Decaisne, Leroy and ^Mas, of 

 France, and others of our own land, should 

 infuse into che minds of cultivators that new 

 zeal hi fruit culture which has now spread 

 throughout our own continent. But it was not 

 until the estal)lisliinent of horticultural societies 

 in the I'nited States, such as New York, in 181S, 

 the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, in 1828 

 and 182".», and the publication of their proceed- 

 ings, that the glorious era in which we live com- 

 menced the development of our wonderful fruit 

 resources. The first strictly' pomological work 

 pul)lished in America was Coxe's "View of the 

 ('ultivation of Fruit Trees," which appeared in 

 1817. 



Through foreign correspondence and commer- 

 cial intercourse, "the zeal which had been awa- 

 kened in Europe soon extended itself to our 

 shores; trees, scions and pomological books of 

 foreign origin, were freely added to our own 



