170 ANNUAL REPOET 



HORTICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS. 



By Prof. W. H. Bagan, G-reencastle, Ind. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



During the few hours that I have so pleasantly and profitably 

 spent with you, yesterday and today, I have heard from a number 

 of gentlemen and ladies upon their experience in the culture of 

 various crops, all of which has been interesting; but I now pro- 

 pose to give you, somewhat briefly, a little of my experience in 

 the culture of a crop of young horticulturists that for a time 

 were submitted to my care. This is really a most important 

 crop, and the most important, Mr, President, by all odds that 

 we can consistently embrace under the very general term of hor- 

 ticulture. 



Some years ago the leading literary university of our state, 

 prompted by a very liberal bequest it had just received, added sev- 

 eral new departments to its already numerous schools and colleges. 

 Among these was a school of horticulture. Your humble servant 

 was called to the head of this new department. With no expe- 

 rience as a class room instructor, and, indeed, without prelim- 

 inary education fitting me for such a position, and in a school 

 where no industrial arts had yet been taught, I frankly confess 

 that I was put to my wit's ends to devise " ways and means " for 

 overcoming the dilemma in which I was placed. I must proceed 

 without text books or curriculum, and by assuming that the stu- 

 dent was somewhat familiar with the related sciences — botany, 

 geology, chemistry, meteorology, zoology, etc. , or that he was to 

 receive such instruction from the proj)er teacher, I only proposed 

 to give him practical hints which might enable him to apply his 

 scientific knowledge to the every-day affairs of after life. 



I will give you a hasty outline of the numerous topics presented 

 in my lectures to the class, merely hinting at the various methods 

 resorted to in order to hold the attention of the. student and to 

 enable him to make the application of the lesson, in case he 

 should ever engage in horticulture either as an amateur or as a 

 professional. 



Horticulture is an art, not a science. It is a branch of agri- 

 culture and includes pomology, vegetable gardening, landscape 

 gardening, floriculture, the propagation of trees and plants, or 

 the nursery, forestry, etc. 



