IX. 



RECENT PROGRESS IN AMERICAN 

 HORTICULTURE.' 



You have asked me to say something about recent 

 progress in horticulture. I am at a loss to know how 

 you want the subject treated. The subject is a large 

 one, and can be approached in many ways. It is by 

 no means admitted that there is any recent progress. 

 There is a large class of our horticultural public which 

 disparages these modern times as in no way so good 

 as those of several or many years ago. These men 

 are mostly gardeners who were apprenticed in their 

 youth. There is another class which decries the intro- 

 duction of new varieties of i)lants, thinking these nov- 

 elties to be unreliable and deceitful. There are others 

 who are content with the older things, and who have 

 never had occasion to ask if there has been any pro- 

 gress in recent years. Others have looked for progress, 

 but have not found it. A professor of horticulture told 

 me a few days ago that nothing new or interesting 

 seems to be transpiring in the horticultural world. 

 Some people even deny outright that any progress is 

 making at the present time. On the other hand, there 

 are some, perhaps the minority, who contend that they 

 see great advancement. Perhaps these are mostly young 



'Read before the Aericultnral and Experimental Union of Ontario, at the 

 Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, Dec. 2;j, 1892. Printed in Science, xxi. 20 

 (Jan. 13, 1893) ; and in 18th Annual Report Ontario Agric. College, 1892, p. 300. 



(202) 



