1502 



HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



America, particularly in the northern states, but round 

 or Irish potatoes are usually classed as an agricultural 

 crop. Nor is there a definite division between horti- 

 culture and botany. The science of plants is botany; 

 yet some of the most significant problems relating to 

 plants their response to the needs of man have been 

 resigned by the botanist to the horticulturist. Horti- 

 culture is a composite of botanical and agricultural 

 subjects. 



But horticulture is more than all this. It is a means 

 of expressing the art-sense. Plant-forms and plant- 

 colors are as expressive as the canvas work of the 

 painter. In some respects they are more expressive, 

 since they are things themselves, with individuality 

 and life, not the suggestions of things. The painter's 

 work excels in its power to suggest, and in its con- 

 densed portrayal of expression. But the essentials of a 

 good landscape painting often can be presented in an 

 artificially-made landscape. This effort to plant what 

 the artist paints is modern. It is strictly not horticul- 

 ture, although horticulture is contributory to the 

 results, as paint-making is contributory to painting. 

 Landscape-making is fundamentally a fine art. In this 

 work it is treated under Landscape Gardening. 



Horticulture divides itself into four somewhat coordi- 

 nate branches, each branch comprising not only the 

 raising of the crops but also such home or plantation 

 manufacture as goes with the handling and the market- 

 ing of the materials (Annals Hort. 1891, 125-130) : 



Pomology, or fruit-growing; 



Olericulture, or vegetable-gardening; 



Floriculture, or the raising of ornamental plants for 

 their individual uses or for their products; 



Landscape horticulture, or the growing of plants for 

 their use in the landscape (or in landscape garden- 

 ing). 



In the world at large, floriculture is the most impor- 

 tant as measured by the number of persons interested, 

 and by the number of species of plants that are grown 

 (see Floriculture). In North America, pomology is the 

 most important in commercial supremacy. North 

 America is one of the great fruit-growing countries of 

 the world (see Fruit-Growing). The growing of vege- 

 tables has been the last of these divisions to organize 

 itself in the New World and to reach a commanding 

 position (see Vegetable-Gardening). Landscape horti- 

 culture and landscape-gardening appeal to a constantly 

 enlarging constituency with the growth of culture and 

 of leisure and the deepening of the home life (see Land- 

 scape Gardening). 



The occupation. 



Strictly speaking, there are few horticulturists. The 

 details are too many to allow any one person to cover 

 the entire range. It is only those who look for princi- 

 ples who survey the whole field. Practitioners must 

 confine themselves to rather close bounds. Consider 

 that no less than 25,000 species of plants are in cultiva- 

 tion, each having its own requirements. Consider the 

 great number of species which are actually on sale 

 as registered in this Cyclopedia. The most important 

 species vary immensely, the named and recorded forms 

 often running into the thousands; and each of these 

 forms has particular merits and often particular 

 requirements. Consider that the requirements are 

 likely to be different in any two places, and that the 

 plants are profoundly modified by changes in conditions 

 or in treatment. Consider the insect pests and fungous 

 diseases and the many other kinds of hindrance that 

 confront the cultivator. Consider, also, the vagaries of 

 markets, which are ruled by questions of fancy more 

 than by questions of necessity. There is probably no 

 art in which the separate details are so many as in 

 horticulture. 



There is considerable diversity in the definition of 

 the word "gardener." As understood by the gardening 



fraternity, it is described as follows by Patrick O'Mara: 

 "In this country [North America] the man who grows 

 vegetables for a livelihood is called a gardener, a mar- 

 ket-gardener, and, in some sections, a trucker and a 

 truck-farmer. We also have the florist, which embraces 

 the man and woman who keep a flower-store, as well 

 as those to whom the title properly belongs, viz., the 

 persons who are cultivators of flowers. We have also 

 the nurseryman, a calling separate and distinct from 

 these, and yet the three must be combined in one 

 individual to make a qualified gardener, or what is 

 generally known as the 'private' gardener. Occasion- 

 ally the so-called 'private' gardener is known as a 

 'manager' or 'superintendent,' but it may well be ques- 

 tioned if he gains honor thereby. When he leaves 

 the place where the title was assumed or thrust upon 

 him, it very frequently is left behind, but he still 

 remains a gardener. It also tends to create an artificial 

 distinction between many who are equals, and many 

 in and out of the ranks believe it should be discouraged. 

 Gardeners who have charge of public parks, cemeteries 

 and botanic gardens, it has always been admitted, 

 may with perfect propriety assume the name of super- 

 intendent, but the fact remains that no man who loves 

 his craft need be ashamed to be known professionally 

 by the 'grand old name of gardener.' . . . 



"However, as there may be some danger of a man's 

 true position in gardening not being defined in that 

 word, I would suggest that the word professional be 

 used to qualify it. In the eyes of some outside the 

 ranks, it might have weight, and it would certainly be a 

 proper distinction from the amateur gardener, the 

 trucker, the nurseryman and the commercial florist. 

 It would be well also to have all gardeners' societies 

 known as an association of professional gardeners. It 

 might operate to classify properly those who are 

 entitled by education, experience and natural ability 

 to bear the title from those who, lacking all these, are 

 yet bold enough to call themselves gardeners and to 

 become candidates for positions which they are unable 

 to fill with credit to themselves, with justice to their 

 prospective employers or with a proper regard for the 

 responsibilities they are so willing to assume. That 

 class would be bolder than I imagine them to be if they 

 would, under such circumstances, assume the title of 

 professional gardener, and the well-merited ridicule 

 which would inevitably follow the discovery of their 

 false pretenses would be a salutary check upon others. 

 To have a claim upon the title, a man should be able 

 to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables both outdoors and 

 under glass, care for trees and shrubs, lawns and roads, 

 in short attend to every detail connected with his 

 calling. If in addition he knows how to attend to the 

 details of gentlemen's farming, his services should be all 

 the more valuable. He could then assume entire charge 

 of a place where both farming and gardening are done, 

 and we would, if more men were capable of this, be 

 spared the pain of seeing one or both suffer either from 

 incompetence or want of cooperatoin between the 

 gardener and farmer." 



Proceeding to a discussion of the gardener's work, 

 O'Mara continues, in his address "The Professional 

 Gardener's Mission in Horticulture" before the Lenox 

 (Massachusetts) Horticultural Society in 1897, as 

 follows: "It is to that class, then, that we must look 

 for developments of an upward tendency and they will 

 be held responsible for any retrogression in ornamental 

 horticulture, for they are before all others the recog- 

 nized exponents of the art. It is their mission to 

 improve, and the general opinion is that there is room 

 for improvement, more especially in indoor horticul- 

 ture. The overwhelming tendency during the past 

 ten to fifteen years has been to make the so-called 

 'private place' nothing more nor less than a cut-flower 

 establishment and a hospital for the decorative plants 

 which are used in the dwelling-house and for outside 



