10 ORKAMEKTAL GARUEXING. 



If our backwardness in the fine arts is thus accounted 

 for, the grounds upon which to base predictions of future 

 23rogress, are no less clearly defined ; while in the pioneer 

 century there was naturally a lack of means, to-da}", 

 Avealth, rapidly developing taste, and in fact, everything 

 needed for fostering the fine arts, abound with us. Noth- 

 ing shows our real progress more strikingly than our 

 decennial census returns. Ninety years ago there were 

 less than four millions of people in the entire United 

 States. Sixty years ago there were not yet ten millions ; 

 at thirty years ago we had reached nearly twenty-three, 

 and 1880 showed a population of about fifty millions. 

 Wonderful as are these figures, our general prosjjerity 

 has more than kept pace with them. To-day the large 

 percentage of people owning homes ; the thousands of 

 savings banks to care for the surplus money of the masses ; 

 the multitude of possessors of moderate and of great 

 wealth, all tell of a degree of prosperity unparalleled in any 

 other country. This state of things is destined to have a 

 marked effect upon the future of the fine arts in America. 

 Great Britain, France, and other European nations, 

 may surpass us in conservatories, gardens and parks to- 

 day, but the time will come when we must excel in all of 

 these, as we do in most of the useful arts and inventions. 



THE REQUIREMENTS OF AMERICAN ORNAMENTAL GAR- 

 DENING. 



AYhat is needed more than all else, is popular education 

 with respect to the beauty, adaptability, and arrange- 

 ments of the subjects of the vegetable kingdom for 

 creating delightful garden and providing fine landscape 

 effects. This is a matter in which the average American 

 is far behind the Englishman, or the people of some 

 other European countries. We are far from being a 

 nation of garden lovers, or of people who take great 



