162 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[June, 



quired the first year. Most plants root more 

 quickly by havini,^ a notch cut in the layered 

 shoot. Good, rich soil, put just about the layers 

 is very important. Good soil favors an abun- 

 dance of roots. One of the greatest mistakes in 

 gardening is the prevalent notion that plants in 

 a poor soil have a greater proportion of roots 

 than in a rich one. 



By the modern rage for bedding plants, the 

 old-fashioned hardy herbaceous plants have been 

 sent into back corners. At this season there 

 will be many gay flowers out, and those who 

 love these things, should note their names as 

 they see them in their neighbor's grounds, and 

 get them in season. Too often hardy plant bor- 

 ders look bad, because of a want of system in 

 selection. Those which bloom in May should 

 be put together, and those which flower in June, 

 and so on. An autumn group of Asters, Soli- 

 dagos, etc., is a beautiful sight. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



ESSAY ON HORTICULTURAL PROGRESS. 



BY PETER HENDERSON. 



Read before the New York Horticultural Society March 9, 1880. 



(Concluded from page 132.) 



It is estimated that there are 500 florist's es- 

 tablishments within a radius of ten miles of the 

 City Hall, New York, and that the capital in- 

 vested in land, structures, and stock is not less 

 than $8,000,000, the product of which is mainly 

 for New York City alone, and when we con- 

 sider that New York contains only about one- 

 fortieth part of the population of the United 

 States, and that horticultural taste is certainly 

 not higher here than the average of the country, 

 it will be seen that the business of floriculture 

 alone, without taking into consideration that of 

 fruit and vegetables is one of imposing dimen- 

 sions. There is but little doubt that in nearly 

 all the manual operations necessary in horti- 

 culture, we are in advance of Europe, and no 

 better evidence can be had in proof of this as- 

 sertion than the fact that the cultivator gets 

 one-third less for his products in the markets of 

 New York or Philadelphia, than the same pro- 

 ducts bring in London or Paris, though the 

 price paid for labor is one-third higher here 

 than there. Nor does it follow that the cultiva- 

 tor here works at less profit, for he does not; so 

 that the only solution of the anomaly is that 



our necessities have compelled us to make such 

 progress in our operations that our products are 

 produced with less labor. For instance, when 

 in London, in 1872, 1 saw twenty men in one 

 squad, digging the ground in one of their 

 market gardens with spades. For the past 

 thirty years there is not a market gardener on 

 Long Island or New Jersey who would allow 

 his ground to be dug with a spade, even if done 

 for nothing, for he knows that the plow and 

 harrow will pulverize the soil better; but John 

 Bull, in the neighborhood of London, at least, 

 had not found that out in 1872, and it is no 

 doubt the tenacious adherence to such primitive 

 methods that is making Europe in many of the 

 industries of the day, play second to the United 

 States. Yet it must be admitted that in some 

 phases of horticultural progress, we are yet far 

 behind Europe, particularly in the ornamenta- 

 tion of our public grounds. We have nothing to 

 compare with the Battersea Park, London ; the 

 Jardin des Plantes, of Paris ; or the Phoenix 

 Park, Dublin ; and when comparison is made of 

 the grounds surrounding the villas in the sub- 

 urbs of these European cities, with our suburbs 

 here, the comparison is, if possible, more 

 against us, for there it is rare to see a neat cot- 

 tage without a well kept lawn, and good taste 

 shown in the planting of its flower beds, its well 

 trimmed fruit trees and neat vegetable grounds. 

 Here as yet, we have hundreds of expensive 

 mansions, particularly in the suburbs of New 

 York, where the so-called garden surroundings 

 tell all too plainly of the mushroom wealth of 

 its shoddy owner. 



We can excuse the wife of a day laborer 

 planting her seeds of Morning Glorys or 

 Lady's Slipper in the potato or corn patch ; but 

 when the owner of a $10,000 cottage has the 

 vulgarity to invade his flower beds with beets or 

 tomatoes, he is carrying his utilitarian prin- 

 ciples beyond the bounds of ordinary good 

 taste. But against these instances of coarse 

 taste, happily getting less each year, we have 

 hundreds of cases where the decoration of pri- 

 vate grounds by flower beds, not only shows the 

 refinement of the owner, but at the same time 

 gives pleasure to thousands of the people, to 

 whom the adornments of the parlor are as a 

 sealed book. 



Within the past ten years the style of decora- 

 tion known as ribbon lines, ^or massing in 

 colors, has made great progress, and is well done 

 in the public parks of Boston, Philadelphia, 



