life MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



RELATION OF HORTICULTURE TO AGRICULTURE. 



BY PROF. AV. M. HAYS, ST. ANTHONY PARK, MINN. 



In our agricultural schools and newspapers we make a clearer distinc- 

 tion between the terms agriculture and horticulture than could be found 

 in dictionaries. In its broader sense the term agriculture covers the en 

 tire range of farm business. In a narrower sense it covers all that per- 

 tains to live stock husbandry, in all its manifold divisions, including the 

 production of feeding stuffs, the raising of field crops, and the art of cul- 

 tivation in so far as it applies to these larger field crops: Horticulture, 

 on the other hand, is sometimes used to designate all the art of cultiva- 

 tion outdoors and in, but in its ordinary use it applies principally to the 

 orchard, the garden, the greenhouse, the forests, and to beautifying the 

 landscape. When thus viewed separately we have two wonderful lines of 

 industry associated most intimately, though each branches out into its 

 own special lines, and in their extremes they seem very far apart. Grow- 

 ing roses under glass, for example, is far removed from wheat raising or 

 the production of ranch cattle. The agriculturist and the horticulturist, 

 be he practical only or professional, needs a knowledge of chemistry, 

 physics, botany, entomology and many of the other sciences, if he would 

 best be able to solve the innumerable problems constantly confronting 

 the observant mind. Both alike need to know the science and art of 

 keeping up the fertility of the land, of cultivation, of drainage, etc. 



In our great state agriculture, as above defined, is the source of the 

 greater production of food. Its principles apply to far more of the indus- 

 try of the state. Through it we get the bread and meat and the larger 

 part of the dollars wherewith to procure raiment, to build houses and 

 provide other necessaries and comforts. Horticulture gives us the sauce 

 to go with our hog and hominy rations; and it gives a most respectably 

 increasing part of our food and ready cash as well. As an art and sci- 

 ence, if you please, it is filled with detail more than agriculture. While its 

 principles may not cover as wide a range of operation, it includes a greater 

 variety of materials and processes. Horticulture follows with its nicer 

 cultivation after the frontier agriculturist has tried to spread himself over 

 the earth trying to farm "all outdoors." In a new country horticulture 

 is a weakling which merely stands while the wheat craze is on top, and 

 thrives when poor crops and poor prices force the farmer to raise his veg- 

 etables, berries and larger fruits. It thrives to protect by means of groves 

 the stock that necessity compels the farmer to raise in a more diversified 

 system of husbandry. 



Horticulturists in a new country are truly missionaries. They best 

 master the underlying principles of farming and illustrate to their neigh- 

 bor agriculturists how to better concentrate, how to prepare and use 

 fertilizers— how to look out for the details of agriculture. 



Time permits only reference to the intellectual, moral, as well as sub- 

 stantial benefits arising to our farmers from their cultivation of flowers, 

 gardens and trees. The stimulus to general intelligence among our farm- 

 ers which is exerted by getting them interested in studying the laws of 

 plant growth and allied subjects related to the real things they have in 

 hand is very great. The more horticulture we have the more will our 

 farmers be drawn in contact with each other, to be profited by association 



