PREFACE xi 



a bureau of publicity in the interest of true and useful horticultural informa- 

 tion. Aside from the immediate work that this Council hopes to accomplish, 

 the organization is of unusual significance because it is really an effort to unify 

 and harmonize the various societies that lately have come into existence and 

 thus to represent horticulture as a single and somewhat homogeneous subject. 

 It is an experiment to be watched with the keenest interest. 



In educational, scientific and literary lines, horticultural progress is now 

 being made in North America chiefly by the horticultmnsts connected with the 

 agricultural colleges, experiment stations, and United States Department of 

 Agriculture. How large their contributions are may be judged by the fact 

 that my index (no doubt incomplete) shows 576 bulletins issued by them 

 from 1900 to 1904 inclusive, classified roughly as follows: 



Fruit subjects 263 bulletins 



Pests aud diseases 125 bulletins 



Vegetable gardening 89 bulletins 



Gi'eenhouse subjects 20 bulletins 



Ornameutal gardening 19 bulletins 



Miscellaneous 60 bulletins 



In technical horticultural practice, the most definite progress seems to be 

 making in the general subject of plant-breeding. Many persons, particularly 

 in the agricultural colleges, experiment stations and national Department of 

 Agriculture, are devoting a good part of their energies to this work. The sub- 

 ject is passing out of the stage of mere amateurism into serious quest for large 

 economic results ; the important large-area crops are being experimented with ; 

 we are hoping to pass from fruitless empiricism into the discovery and application 

 of laws that govern more or less definitely the making of new kinds of plants. 



In distinctly commercial directions, there has been a remarkable era of 

 development of horticultural regions. This is particularly true of what we are 

 in the habit of calling "the South," comprising the great area from the Atlantic 

 coast to eastern and southern Texas. Peach-tree planting has proceeded on a 

 scale of unprecedented magnitude. The strawberry is also partaking in this 

 extension, particularly in those regions that hope to supjily the great eastern 

 markets before the New York and New England fruit is ripe. Strawberry 

 planting is developing with great i-apidity in Texas, Arkansas and Missouri, 

 notwithstanding the risks attendant on efficient refrigerator car and transpor- 

 tation service. The interest in pecan culture is extending very rapidly in the 

 Gulf states. Trucking is extending farther and farther southward, with 

 the construction of better transportation service. This is well illustrated in 



