626 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE 



It is grateful to know that 

 ■"■"^ the florists of the countrv are 



GREATEST ART. to raise a fund for a monu- 



ment in memory of tlie late 

 Wilham Robertson Smith, who for upward of half a 

 century was the superintendent of the Government's 

 botanical gardens in Washington. The only regrettable 

 thing is that this fine old gardener and botanist did not 

 leave a suggestion as to the form a memorial for lifm 

 should take. In his modesty it is probable that he never 

 thought that those who lived after him might wish to do 

 his life and his work honor. 



There never was a gardener, if Adam be excepted, 

 who was not a gentleman. Fine instincts flourish with 

 the flowers. William Robertson Smith once told the 

 Congress of the United States that a tree was a finer 

 monument to any man. no matter what his achievement, 

 than anything wiiich could be built of bronze or stone 

 He made a loyal, consistent fight for the principle in 

 which he believed and, an underling of the Government, 

 he was unafraid in the face of power. 



At the east end of the botanical garden in Washington 

 there is a partly com])lelcd monument to General Ulvsses 

 S. Grant. The work upon it has been going along slowlv 

 and no one knows when it will be finished. The site for 

 the memorial was chosen by Congress against the earnest 

 protest of William Robertson Smith, who succeeded in 

 winning many of the members to his view of the case. 

 He lost his cause eventually, but his protest has had its 

 eiifect in Washington, and when the Fine Arts Com- 

 mission authorizes the erection of other monuments it 

 will take due care that no natural beauty is sacrificed. 



There were two great elm trees of a century's growth 

 standing where the half-completed Grant monument 

 stands today. The botanical garden's site was chosen for 

 the memorial to the great soldier, and its erection there 

 necessitated the sacrifice of the beautiful comman(fing 

 trees. The gardener fought to save the trees, saving that 

 they were finer than anything which man could construct. 

 He was overruled and the trees were destroyed, but the 

 lesson of his struggle lasts. — Chicago Post. 



PLANT AND 

 ANIMAL 



With all the advancement 

 in the arts and sciences : with 

 T^^;r■r.T-,/-^■<TT-,,^x-»,-T, "i" the improvements in ma- 



IMPROVEMENT. ehinery; with all the achieve- 



menls of railroadmg. transportation by land and water: 

 with all the perfection that has been attained in the tele- 

 grapli, telephone and wireless communication, and with 

 all the progress and general betterment of all things, we 

 do not notice tlie extraordinary bounds in breeding that 

 we should expect to see in a world so prolific in useful 

 changes from the old to the new, from the obsolete to the 

 useful, or rather perhaps, the adoption of means suitable 

 to the rer|uircmcnts of the hour. The breeding of live 

 stock, of course, has improved, and improved wonder- 

 fully, but the rate of improvement has not been so notice- 

 able as that seen in the mechanical world. Floriculture 

 has advanced (|uicker than improvements in the cerials. 

 legumes and grasses. Look for a moment at the roses 

 of yesterday and to(la>-. the carnations and chrysanthe- 

 mums of a few years ago and those of the present time, 

 and compare them with the improvements in the short- 

 horn breed of cattle, for instance, of thirtv vears ago and 

 those at the date of w liidi wc write. — Tlie Field. 



( irass is the forgiveness of 

 NATURE S Xature — her constant benedic- 



BENEDICTION. lion. b^'ields trampled with 



battle, saturated with blood, 

 torn with the ruts of cannon, grow green again with 

 grass, and carnage is forgotten. Streets abandoned by 

 traffic become grass-grown, like rural lanes, and are ob- 

 literated. Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, 

 init grass is immortal. Beleaguered by the sullen hosts 

 (if winter it withdraws into the impregnable fortress of 

 its subterranean vitality and emerges upon the solicitation 

 of spring. Sown by the winds, by wandering birds, 

 propagated by the subtle horticulture of the elements 

 which are its ministers and servants, it softens the rude 

 outlines of the world. It invades the solitude of deserts, 

 climbs the inaccessible slopes and pinnacles of mountains, 

 and modifies the history, character and destiny of nations. 

 L'nobtrusive and patient, it has immortal vigor and ag- 

 gression. Banished from the thoroughfares and fields, 

 it bides its time to return, and when vigilance is relaxed 

 or the dynasty has perished, it silently resumes the throne 

 from which it has been expelled but which it never abdi- 

 cates. It bears no blazonry of bloom to charm the senses 

 with fragrance or splendor, but its homely hue is more 

 enchanting than the lily or the rose. It vields no fruit 

 in earth or air, yet should its harvest fail for a single year 

 famine would depopulate the worlfl. — John James Ingalls. 



Twentv vears ago the by- 

 RELIGION word at' every horticultural 



AND SPRAYING. meeting was "Let us spray." 

 It was half joke and half 

 serious coiife.-~;~i(in of faith. The slender pun would 

 not have kept the phrase in circulation for so long 

 had there not been some sense in it. Evidently 

 the fruit men felt it was for them a solemn call to duty. 

 In those days, it may be remembered, the question whether 

 to spray or not to spray was somewhat of an issue. The 

 ])ractice was new and imperfect. There were questions 

 connected with it that nobody could answer. But the 

 I^rogressives put s])raying into their platform and stuck to 

 it. Eventually it was adopted ; and while today there are 

 hundreds of orchards still strangers to the spray wagon, 

 the practice is fully adopted as pruning and plowing. 



.S]jraying is yet a solemn anfl a disagreeable duty. It 

 has never become a genuine pastime among farm boys, 

 and there are no brilliant social festivals connected with 

 it. But then, when one comes to the analysis it is plain 

 that a good deal of the best farm work is done .in this 

 same spirit of discharging a high dtity. The husbandman 

 owes something t<i his farm, something to his calling, 

 much to his family and a little to his neighborhood. Per- 

 haps he feels that he owes a debt also to the Creator of the 

 earth, the rain and the growing plants with which his 

 labor and his destiny are so closely associated. It is 

 known to all who care to learn that such men, even when 

 they are not conspicuously religious, preserve a strong 

 sense of personal responsibility to the s])iritual powers. 

 There is quite certain to be something more than flippant 

 nonsense in it when they say, "Let us spray." — Country 

 Gentlemen. 



If you will acquire the habit of all good gardeners you 

 will read the Ciiroxicle regularlv. 



