xxiv PREFACE 



to the broadening sensitiveness of our lives. The number of fruit and forest 

 trees grown in nurseries in 1900 was neai'ly twice as great as in 1890. In 1900 

 there were more than sixty- eight millions of square feet of glass in florists' 

 establishments in the United States. The increase of the staple food-stuffs 

 must bear a fairly definite ratio to the increase of population, but the increase 

 in nearly all of the horticultural products is conditioned on our attainment of 

 relative ease and the growth of ideals. 



Horticulture also represents intensive tillage and high- class effort at farm- 

 ing. In 1900 the earning power of laud devoted to vegetables and small fruits 

 in the United States was four times as great as the average earuiug power of 

 all other crops. The perfection of tillage is the pot-growiug of the florist, 

 who produces as great results from a handful of soil as the general farmer pro- 

 duces from a bushel. It is no mere accident that one of the staple phrases of 

 our language is, "As rich as a garden." 



How the subject of horticulture shall be divided and classified is of far 

 less importance than what the subject shall include. Neither is it important 

 what a man is called who does a certain piece of work. What is to be done 

 in that field now indefinitely covered by the American term horticulture, in 

 that domain of plant knowledge as related to the lives of men 1 



Everything is to be done, for everything is yet unfinished. There is not 

 one subject that we can say is even fairly completed. We need to know the 

 bases of every existing condition in which plants grow. The conditions under 

 which plants grow will be new and perhaps revolutionary in time to come, for 

 wholly new plant industries are no doubt to develop. Our veiy civilization 

 depends on man's relation to plants, and a good part of this relationship falls 

 in the domain of the horticulturist. 



The opportunities of the horticulturist are just beginning to be recognized. 

 Some years ago a person who had been made horticulturist in one of our insti- 

 tutions wrote me asking whether I knew of any subjects that could be investi- 

 gated and what he would better do. I told him that he would better quit. It 

 is needless to say to this company that we have not yet lived up to our oppor- 

 tunities. Most of our work has been of a temporary and superficial character. 

 Real horticultural reseai'ch is ouly begun. The field is concreting itself and 

 trained men are coming to the work. 



On the biological side, the concern of the horticulturist is twofold: to 

 make two blades of grass grow whei'e only one grew before; to make each 

 blade better than its parents were. Our definite and methodical work has been 

 directed chiefly toward the former end. We have tried to increase production 



