GARDENING FOR AND BY AMATEURS. 17 



is practical from the beginning and leads to systematic work. 

 Records show a remarkable increase, and as the enrolment is on 

 the increase each year, it means eventually "A garden for every 

 home." A glance at the commercial side will clearly prove the 

 advancement made. Within a very few years four weekly publi- 

 cations have been established which are devoted to the florists' 

 and nurserymen's interest altogether, besides a market gardeners' 

 journal and one for parks and cemeteries. 



These facts illustrate what might be claimed a reasonable condi- 

 tion owing to the increase in population, yet it is a fact that today, 

 we are blessed with an array of horticultural enthusiasts who have 

 stimulated to a great degree the keen activity in floriculture, and 

 engendered a taste and live interest among those from whom no 

 response was expected. The school garden is directly the result 

 of amateur enthusiasts; it has a two-fold mission; first, to keep 

 children active during a period which would be devoted to idle- 

 ness; second, to inculcate a taste as well as knowledge of plants, 

 so that this knowledge would be put into practice in many homes 

 where these conditions were not known before, and ultimately 

 leading to better civic conditions in the home and the country 

 throughout. 



Many garden clubs have been formed by the best ladies of the 

 land who through personal application have gained a knowledge 

 of plants and put into practice their ideas which have given us 

 unlimited styles, from the quaint and old-fashioned formal garden- 

 ing, with its boxwood borders and clusters of perennials of species 

 long since obsolete, to the highest and newest order of rock, terrace, 

 roof, and aquatic gardening. 



Our strongest and most influential exponents of gardening and 

 the care of flowers are women who have been enthusiastic, and have 

 applied their skill with such profitable and gratifying response that 

 they have given their experience through the pen and have enthused 

 many anxious and willing students in the same direction; and 

 while it might appear to some to be only a sport in a certain fad, 

 the commercial horticulturist can testify that it has been an uplift 

 to his business and is constantly increasing. Those who are con- 

 nected with leading horticultural establishments have the oppor- 

 tunity to feel this upward tendency and experience a more direct 

 association with those we style the active amateur horticulturist. 



