eptember 7, 1907 



HORTICULTURE 



313 



Horticulture's Advancement 



The study of liortic-ulture in the public schools is 

 ■aught with the most salutary consequences to the 

 sing generations. The promotors and abettors of 

 le science of horticulture are public benefactors, if 

 ily for this consideration, but their action is of a 

 ill wider scope in its effects upon society. 



By improved methods of culture the earth is made 

 ucli more productive, and by well directed scientific 

 fort new and improved varieties are produced, thus 

 ndering the life of animals more salutary and pleas- 

 it. Again, a proper knowledge of this profession 

 akes it full of interest to those Avho make their living 

 • it and assures success in the results of various oper- 

 ions which, practiced without knowledge of and at- 

 Qtion to details, would prove failures. 

 The scathing article in the issue of Horticulture of 

 ig. 17, in07, page 201, was well deserved. "Job" 

 ust indeed have needed some education if he failed to 

 preciate the herculean work of the great Swede who 

 ide popular the science of botany and placed horticul- 

 re upon a footing it scarcely ever could have occupied 

 thout a system of plant classification founded upon 

 i genital parts as a platform. That Linnajus did 

 ot make the world more pleasant to live in," is a 

 ^position almost too absurd to notice. He not only 

 ide it more pleasant but lie did more to add to the 

 :ellectual, moral and material welfare of his fellow- 

 ■n for all time than the hero who sought "the bauble 

 )utation e'en in the cannon's mouth." 

 He won a peaceful victory by bringing order out of 

 los, and systematizing what must have been utter 

 ifusion and making popular a study which by its 

 cinating problems was well calculated to aj^peal to 

 ' intelligence of its votaries and improve their con- 

 ion mentall}', socially, morally and financially, thus 

 king them better men and women and therefore liap- 

 r. The leaven soon worked. When Ijinnseus died in 

 rS the species of plants actually described were about 



000 and now they number at least 100,000. 



\s the study of botany became more general the 

 lire to possess living specimens on the part of the 

 ilthy became also more pronounced. Enterprising 

 ifessional horticulturists sent collectors into various 

 •ts of the world in search of novelties, and many of 

 tropical plants remarkable for their beauty or some 

 uliarity of growth graced the hot houses of rich 

 husiasts. New tropical fruits and exotic vegetables 

 :e also added to the luxuries of the table and many 

 :e brought into cultivation, while others, by means 

 :he now rapid means of communication and transpor- 

 on, are imported in enormous quantities, 

 rhe Eoyal Botanic Gardens at Kew were the first 

 arrange their specimens under the Linnsean system 



1 give the Linnsean specific names. Sir Joseph Banks 

 tributed large donations of exotics and Mr. W. T. 

 on, gardener to His Majesty George III, edited a 



work in 1814, "Epitome of Hortus Kewensis" which 

 is a catalog of the collection under the classes and or- 

 ders of the Linntean system with the common name, 

 native country, when first cultivated, time of blooming, 

 whether annual, biennial or perennial, shrub or tree, 

 if hardy or lialf hardy, greenhouse or stove, if found 

 growing in ordinary soil, bog or water. This collec- 

 tion, started in the latter part of the eighteenth century 

 has been kept up and greatly increased until the present 

 time and is one of the greatest botanical institutions of 

 the world. , 



The taste for horticulture having been encouraged 

 since the beginning of the last century has progressed 

 by leaps and bounds until it has reached what we may 

 call gigantic proportions and given pleasant and 

 profitable employment to. thousands of deserving fam- 

 ilies. Perhaps there is no better proof of the important 

 stand the science has taken in the community than that 

 it has made the profitable publication weekly of Horti- 

 culture a possibility and the enthusiasm and enter- 

 prise with which it is conducted a public benefaction of 

 no slight importance to society. Its advertising col- 

 umns are a continuous record of the great value the 

 culture and dissemination of flowers has assumed in the 

 commercial world. 



The great convention of American florists just held 

 at the city of Philadelphia under the presidency of the 

 editor of this periodical is another proof of the ascen- 

 dancy of floriculture. The addresses delivered on that 

 occasion were well calculated to fill the public mind 

 with a due appreciation of the stand the florists have 

 taken as a body as philanthropists, working not only 

 for their own aggrandizement but for the good of the 

 country. 



All sensible citizens will see the advantage of 

 strengthening the hands of the executive in this matter 

 of teaching horticulture in the public schools. The 

 legislators of Massachusetts are to be congratulated for 

 the steps they have taken this summer in providing so 

 liberally to teach the teachers how to teach agriculture, 

 at Amherst, and it is gratifying to note that the move- 

 ment was so popular vi'itli the teachers that more than 

 four times as many attended as was expected. There 

 is evidently a great revival in the love of scientific 

 farming and gardening. Let us keep it up. 



.^^ 



Our Frontispiece 



We present as a frontispiece this week a view in the 

 garden of Mr. H. Heaton. an enthusiastic amateur of 

 Amherst, Mass. It well illustrates the value of an open 

 stretch of lawn and is an example of good arrange- 

 ment which might serve as an object lesson to many 

 planters who fail to keep this essential point in mind. 

 Tlie tree on the right is a red oak. Others will be rec- 

 ognized as weeping beech and Colorado blue spruce. 



