XX PREFACE 



overcome, and that a new and valuable fruit, vegetable or grain can be so 

 brought before the American people that they will learn to use it, and give it a 

 permanent place in the plantation. The quick appreciation of such new fruits 

 as the grape-fruit, or pomelo, which has become popular since 188(.), the grow- 

 ing favor of the Japanese persimmon, and the established popularity of the 

 tomato, are proofs of this fact. One factor which is more important than any 

 other in this part of the work is the growing interest of the wealthy classes in 

 agricultural pursuits. It is well-nigh impossible to interest the general farm- 

 ers in the cultivation of a new fruit, vegetable or grain for their own con- 

 sumption; but the wealthy classes, accustomed to a wider range of foods, are, 

 as a rule, interested in the cultivation of new forms for their own table use. 

 It is they who set the fashion in all new foods, rather than the farming classes, 

 and it is to them that we must look for the most valuable assistance in bring- 

 ing into common use the hundreds of new plant foods which can be, and are, 

 rapidly being introduced and grown in this country. 



"Still another, and, perhaps, the most rapidly growing need for plant- 

 introduction work, has arisen from the demand, created by the increasing 

 numbers of plant- breeders of the country, for plants to' be used for crossing 

 purposes. Some of the most remarkable hybrids which have been produced 

 by Luther Burbank combine in their parentage plants gathered from as 

 widely separated regions as Siberia, France and California. The Office of Seed 

 and Plant Introduction, with its agricultural explorers in various foreign 

 countries, and its correspondents all over the world, is in a better position 

 than any other organization in the world to secure for plant- breeders seeds 

 which will assist them in their work of creating new and valuable plant forms. 



"The Office of Plant Introduction is located in Washington, D. C, and its 

 green -houses, trial grounds and seed building are under the general super- 

 vision of Mr. A. J. Pieters. It has a Plant Introduction Garden at Chico, 

 California, to which Oriental shipments are made, and at which plants are pro- 

 pagated for distribution; as also date gardens at Tempe, Arizona, and Mecca, 

 California, in cooperation with the Experiment Stations of these respective 

 states ; and it is carrying on very numerous cooperative experiments in the dif- 

 erent states of the Union." 



WHAT IS HORTICULTURE? 



Perhaps I cannot do better, in closing this preface, than to define and 

 explain the field that we in America consider to belong to the domain of horti- 

 culture. In doing this I shall use a paper that I read as the presidential 



