HORTICULTURE, 



INTRODUCTION. 



HORTICULTURE is that branch of rural economy which 

 consists in the formation and culture of Gardens. Its 

 results are culinary vegetables, fruits, and flowers. On 

 one side it is allied to Agriculture, from which, how 

 ever, it is distinguished by the nature of its products, 

 and by the smaller extent and greater complexity of 

 its operations ; on the other side, in its processes of 

 embellishment, it approaches the department of the 

 Landscape G-ardener and the Forester, from which, how 

 ever, it also retires in the comparative minuteness of its 

 details. 



Like other arts, Horticulture borrows its principles 

 from the general sciences. To Botany it is beholden 

 for the facts and theories of vegetable physiology ; to 

 Chemistry for assistance in reference to soils, manures, 

 and artificial heat ; and to Meteorology for a knowledge 

 of many circumstances which very materially affect the 

 labors of the gardener. With these subjects, the phi 

 losophical horticulturist will not fail to make himself 

 familiar. But it is very desirable that such information 

 should be extensively diffused among practical men ; as 



