HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 299 



Great improvements have been made in roses, especially in 

 the development of hybrid, tea and perpetual classes. 



Great improvements have been made in pausies, chrysanthe- 

 mums^ carnations, asters, etc. 



In vegetables a great advance has been made in twenty years, 

 in improved varieties of onions, celery, beets, cauliflower, cab- 

 bage, etc., while our fruit lists have been wonderfully improved 

 in the same period. 



In all departments of horticulture there have been great im- 

 provements made; so that the gardener of fifty years ago could 

 not make a living and use the same methods and varieties that he 

 did then. "We have given up large kinds of celery and planting 

 it in trenches; we no longer consider it necessary to trench land 

 to grow onions; we cultivate our strawberries with a horse in- 

 stead of by hand. Our florists conduct their business on busi- 

 ness principles, and grow their crops in a wholesale way. 

 Flowers and dealers in flowers are common. I think it would 

 surprise a florist of twenty years ago to hear of a rose grower 

 who had a selling agent in each of three cities, Boston, IS'ew 

 York and Philadelphia, whose sole business it was to sell roses 

 at wholesale, or to hear of flowers being shipped from Boston to 

 Chicago, to be there distributed. 



These instances which I have stated, may serve to give those 

 not acquainted with the work, some little idea of the advance 

 made in horticultural i)ursuits within the memory of the mid- 

 dle aged man. And does anyone doubt that the advances and 

 changes of the future will not be as great as those of the past? 

 When scarcely a day goes by without some new discovery, and 

 when we have many experiment stations, whose sole duty is to 

 investigate agricultural and horticultural matters in the light of 

 science. Who knows in how many ways we may call electricity to 

 our aid in raising plants, and in utilizing the nitrogen of the air as 

 a fertilizer! While the introduction of new varieties of fruits, 

 vegetables and forest trees is tremendous with its possibilities. 



Can any man of good judgment, in the light of these facts, com- 

 bat the idea of a horticultural education ? I think not. The 

 only question on which horticulturists differ, is the kind of edu- 

 cation one should receive, in order to best fit him for his avoca- 

 tion. 



ISTow, of what should this education consist ? I would have 

 our future horticulturist brought up in the wholesome atmos- 

 phere of a christian home, and taught that success in life was 



