112 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



ments within a radius of 10 miles frum the City Hall, 

 New York, and that the capital invested in land, struc- 

 tures and stock, is not less than $8,000,000, the jiroduct 

 of which is mainly for New York City alone ; and when 

 we consider that New York contains only about one- 

 fiftieth 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 fruits or vegetables, is one 

 of imposing dimensions. 



There is but little doubt that in nearly all the man- 

 ual operations necessary in horticulture we are in ad- 

 vance of Europe ; and no better evidence can be had in 

 proof of this assertion than the fact that the cultivator 

 gets one-third less for his products in the markets of 

 New York or Philadelphia than these same products 

 bring in London or Paris, thoitgh the price paid for 

 labor is one-third higher here than there ; nor does it 

 follow that the cultivator here works at less profit — 

 for he does not ; so that the only solution of the anom- 

 aly is. that our necessities have compelled us to make 

 such progress in our operations that our crops are 

 produced with less labor. For instance, when in Lon- 

 don in 1872, I saw twenty men in one sc|uad digging 

 the ground in one of their market gardens with spades. 

 For the past thirty years there was not a market gar- 

 dener on Long Island or in New Jersey who would 

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

 for nothing, for he know-s that the plow and harrow 

 will pulverize the soil better; but J(jhn lUill, in the 

 neighborhood of London, at least, had not found that 

 out in 1872. It is, no doubt, the tenacious adherence 

 to such primitive methods that is making Europe in 

 many of the indtistries of the day play second to the 

 Lhiited States. 



Yet it must be admitted that in some phases of hor- 

 ticultural progress we are yet far behind Europe, par- 

 ticularly in the ornamentation of ottr public grounds. 

 We have nothing to compare with the Battersea Park, 

 London, the Garden of Palms of Paris, or the Phoenix 

 Park, Dublin ; and when comparison is made of the 

 grounds surrounding the villas in the suburbs 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 cottage without a well-kept lawn and good 

 taste shown in the planting of its flower beds, its well- 

 trimmed fruit trees and neat vegetable grotmds. Here, 

 as yet, we have hundreds of expensive mansions, par- 

 ticularly in the suburbs of New York where the so- 

 called gardens surrounding tell all to plainly the ne- 

 cessity for a better school of horticulture. We can 

 excuse the wife of a day laborer planting her seeds 

 of morning glory or lady slippers in the potato or corn 

 patch ; but wdien the owner of a $10,000 cottage has 

 the vulgarity to invade his flower beds with beets and 

 tomatoes, he is carrying his utilitarian principles be- 

 yond 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 deco- 

 ration of private 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 adornment of the parlor is as a sealed book. 



Within the past ten years the style of decoration 

 known as "ribbon lines" or "massing in colors," has 

 made great progress, and is well done in the public 

 parks of Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore 

 and Albany, and is a never-failing attraction to stran- 

 gers on a visit to these cities ; and to none more than 

 those from New York, for the feeble attempts at 



flower decoration made by our Central Park, or the 

 Prospect Park, Brooklyn, has hardly been such as to 

 make them aware that the thing has ever been at- 

 temj)ted. Ijut if our commissioners are so far behind 

 those of our sister cities in making our public parks at- 

 tractive, private enterprise, we are happy to say, is not. 



Llewellyn Park, Orange, N. J., owned by private 

 gentlemen, has scores of villas unecjualed in decorative 

 planting, and the extensive grounds of Mr. Hoey, of 

 Long Branch, N. J., Mr. Sargent, of Fishkill, and Mr. 

 Dinsmore, of Stattsburg, N. Y., and many others less 

 publicly known, are models of gorgeous beauty during 

 our summer months, and offsets, to some extent, the 

 inefficiency of those in charge of our public parks, who 

 so poorly appreciate the public wants. 



Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Al- 

 bany have not only left us behind in the decoration of 

 our public parks, laut the three former have advanced 

 far ahead of New York in matters connected with so- 

 cieties for the advancement of horticulture ; although, 

 as I have before stated, our first New York Horticul- 

 tural Society was started in 1818, it can hardly be 

 said to have been a long-coiitinued success. For many 

 )'ears it passed out of existence, till resuscitated as our 

 present society in 1870. 



The Boston Horticultural Societ}' was started in 

 1829. Its hall, costing about $250,000, was built in 

 1865. The society has had almost unvarying success 

 from the start, and particularly since the erection of 

 the hall in 1865. 



The Horticultural Society of Philadelphia was be- 

 gun in 1828. Its first president was the well-known 

 Horace Binney, and, among the members of the acting 

 committee in 1829, we find the names of Nicholas 

 Biddle, Robert Patterson, Caleb Cope, and David S. 

 Brown, who were at that time the leading citizens of 

 Philadelphia. The building of the Horticultural Hall 

 was completed in 1866. It covers a plot 75 x 200 feet, 

 and cost $221,000. As in Boston, the erection of a 

 building for the special use of the Horticultural So- 

 ciety- gave a great impulse to the work in Philadelphia. 



The Department of Horticulture in the Cincinnati 

 Industrial Exposition last year gave $5,700 in prizes; 

 and on the days on which there was special floral dis- 

 plays the receipts at the gates averaged $3,000 more 

 than on other days. 



There is no Cjuestion that the successful condition, 

 so long continued, of the Horticultural Societies of 

 Philadelphia and Boston, has had much to do in ac- 

 counting for the more general taste displayed both in 

 the public parks and ]>rivate grounds in and about 

 Boston and Philadelphia than at New York. Without 

 some centering point where new or rare products can 

 be exhibited for comparison or competition, no indi- 

 vidual effort, by advertising or otherwise, can bring 

 them before the public ; thus the finest or rarest speci- 

 mens of fruits or flowers may be hid for years, or even 

 completely lost to the world ; or, on the other hand> 

 articles without merit may be offered for sale, either 

 through the ignorance or dishonesty of the vendor. 

 But this, in places where there is a live horticultural 

 society, can never be done to any great extent ; for 

 without the society's stamp of merit, the sale must 

 ever be limited. 



Our New York society is now in a fair way to emu- 

 late Boston and Philadelphia, and before long it is to 

 be hoped, we will be in a condition where our influence 

 will be so felt that we will no longer be ashamed of 

 comparison with those or with any other cities of the 

 Union. 



