IX.] EDUCATION OF THE HORTICULTURIST. 217 



States and Canada was 2,799,453 twenty -four -can 

 cases, and the tomato pack was 3,405,365 cases. Over 

 twenty thousand canning factories give employment, 

 it is said, to about one million persons during the 

 canning season. The rise of the evaporated fruit 

 industry is not less remarkable in its way than that 

 of the canning industry. 



There are other marvels of progress in methods of 

 caring for horticultural products, but these examples 

 sufficiently illustrate my position, I am aware that all 

 these things are features of commerce and manufacture 

 rather than of horticulture, but they are responsible for 

 much of the phenomenal extension of horticultural 

 interests in recent years. They have also exerted a 

 powerful influence upon the plants which we cultivate, 

 and varieties have appeared which are particularly 

 adapted to long carriage and to canning and evaporat- 

 ing. The vegetable kingdom is everywhere responsive 

 to the needs of man. 



5. There is a corresponding evolution in the horticul- 

 turist. The rapidity with which education and general 

 intelligence have spread in recent years is patent to 

 every one. The rural classes have risen with the rest, 

 but among the agricultural pursuits horticulture has 

 probably shown the greatest advance in this respect. 

 The horticulturist grows a great variety of products, 

 many of which are perishable, and all of which demand 

 expedition, neatness, and care in marketing. These 

 many and various crops bring in a multitude of perplex - 

 ities which not only demand a ready knowledge for their 

 control, but which are important educators in them- 

 selves. The horticulturist lives nearer the markets and 

 the villages than the general farmer does, as a rule, and 



