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PEEFACE. 



THE meaning of Horticulture as given by Noah Webster 

 is the " cultivation of a garden, or the art of cultivating 

 gardens." But modern advancement has given the word 

 a much broader signification. It now includes such impor- 

 tant divisions as pomology, or fruit-growing, ornamental 

 and shade trees and shrubs, flowers and their culture, modes 

 and methods of propagation, landscape gardening, spraying 

 for insects and fungi, garden and orchard irrigation, sys- 

 tematic pomology, or plant description and classification, 

 and still other divisions and subdivisions in varied climes 

 and on different soils. 



Quite as important is the modern change in the require- 

 ments of the student or beginner in horticulture. In the 

 days when gardening was a mere art the operator was told 

 what to do and how to do it. At this time the student is 

 required to know not only how to perform a given work, 

 but to give the reasons for doing it in a certain way in order 

 to reach given results. 



In agricultural college work, at institutes, and at hor- 

 ticultural meetings the discussion of practical details is now 

 associated with the underlying principles that often border 

 on science. 



Commercial horticulture in its many classes is also a 



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