498 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



NOTES ON EUROPEAN HORTICULTURE. 



PROF. N. E. HANSEN, BROOKINGS, S. D. 



During- the summer of 1894, 1 visited a large number of the leading 

 schools of horticulture, nurseries, seed farms, parks and botanic 

 gardens in Germany, Russia, France, England, Denmark, Sweden, 

 Austria and Belgium. The object of my four months tour was to 

 make a comparative study of the horticulture in Europe and Am- 

 erica. It would be too long a story to give a detailed account of all 

 the points of interest noted, but brief notes on a few of them may be 

 of interest. Some are suggestive, rather than of immediate practi- 

 cal application. 



In a general way, horticulture in Europe is intensive, in America 

 extensive. This is a natural result of high priced land and cheap 

 labor in Europe, and cheap land and high priced labor in America. 

 This is why we find the labor-saving machinery so essential here. 

 In the largest nurseries in Europe, I found fruit trees planted so 

 close both ways; that cultivation by horse power was impossible. 

 Tree diggers are unknown. Everything, except plowing, is done by 

 hand: and on some plots even the horse is superseded by the spade. 

 Much of the lighter work of cultivation is done by women, and when 

 school duties permit by children. 



One of the leading points of difference is the greater attention 

 paid to the ornamental part of horticulture. Landscape gardening 

 is much more practiced than with us. It is one of the fine arts; 

 hence, comes naturally at a somewhat late stage in the develop- 

 ment of a country. The popular taste for flowers appears greater 

 than here. Perhaps, this is in part due to the numerous parks and 

 botanic gardens. 



Parks— 1 visited a large number of the principal parks in the 

 large cities, including London, Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Copenha- 

 gen, Warsaw, Moscow and Kiev. Many of these are in connection 

 with botanic gardens. I was greatly impressed with the taste and 

 skill displayed in the planting, care and management of the parks, 

 and the universal use made of them by the people. Many of the 

 parks have little playgrounds especially for the children, where 

 they can play games and dig in the sand to their heart's content. 

 Concerts are also given at frequent intervals in many of the parks. 

 It is a remarkable fact that many of the great parks of Europe were 

 formerly royal hunting grounds and deer parks, which, in later 

 times, have been turned over to the public and transformed into the 

 present grand pleasure grounds. Hence, we find here many magnif- 

 icent old trees, veritable giants of the forest, as a prominent feature. 



In order to make suitable provision for parks in the future that 

 will be worthy of us here in the great northwest, we should begin 

 now and set aside tracts of land before it becomes too valuable. No 

 city, small or large, should neglect this. It requires many years for 

 the trees to attain the size which gives the air of majesty and grand- 

 eur to the old parks of Europe, hence, a beginning should be made 

 as soon as possible, and the native trees already standing on the 

 grounds saved whenever possible. Park-making is a subject un- 

 derstood by few people, and only those skilled in the art of landscape 



