Encyclopedia of Practical 

 Horticulture 



Adaptatioxs of Plants. See Plant 

 Physiology. 



Age of Apple Trees. See Oldest Orch- 

 ard in the Yakima Valley. 



Age of Trees. How Determined. See 

 Nursery under Apple. 



Agriculture 



Ageiculture is the cultivation of the 

 soil for food products, or for any other 

 useful or valuable growths of the field or 

 garden; tillage; husbandry; also by ex- 

 tending the meaning it has come to in- 

 clude any industry practiced by the cul- 

 tivator of the soil in connection with 

 such cultivation, as forestry, fruit-rais- 

 ing, breeding and rearing stock, dairying, 

 market gardening, etc. 



Farming refers to the cultivation of con- 

 siderable portions of land, and the raising 

 of the coarser crops. Gardening is the 

 close cultivation of a small area of small 

 fruits, flowers, vegetables, etc., for the 

 household, or market. Floriculture, the 

 culture of flowers; Hoeticl-lture, the cul- 

 tivation of fruits, flowers or vegetables. 



Husbandry is a general word for any 

 form of practical agriculture, but is now 

 chiefly poetical. 



Tillage refers to the work practically 

 applied on the land, such as plowing, har- 

 rowing, manuring, etc. 



Cui.TUEE is now applied to the careful 

 development of any product to a state of 

 perfection, especially by care through suc- 

 cessive generations; the choice varieties 

 of strawberry, for instance, have been 

 produced by wise and patient culture. 

 — Standabd Dictionary 



AiB Drainage. See Apple Orchard. .S't'- 

 lecting a Site For. 



Alabama 



Alabama has an area of 52,250 square 

 miles, and is bounded on the south by 

 Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, which 



latter fact tempers its heat in summer. 

 The Tennessee river, and its tributaries, is 

 a drainage system for the northern part 

 of the state, and the Valley of the Ten- 

 nessee is one of the most famous agricul- 

 tural sections of the lower Appalachian 

 system. It is a delightful country, gently 

 rolling, varying in elevation from 500 to 

 800 feet. 



The Mobile river system, which empties 

 into the Mobile bay, drains the principal 

 part of the state. Its largest tributaries 

 are the Tombigbee and the Alabama riv- 

 ers. The so-called mountain system of 

 Alabama hardly rises to the dignity of 

 mountains, for the highest points are only 

 about 1,800 feet above the sea. The sur- 

 face in the north and northeast, embrac- 

 ing about two-fifths of the state, is diver- 

 sified and picturesque. The remaining 

 portion is occupied by a slightly undulat- 

 ing plain, having its incline towards 

 Mississippi and the Gulf. Extending en- 

 tirely across the state for about 20 miles 

 south from its northern boundarj% and 

 in the middle stretching about 60 miles 

 farther south, is the Cumberland Plateau, 

 or Tennessee valley region, broken into 

 broad table lands and dissecting rivers. 

 In the northern part of this plateau, west 

 of Jackson county, there are about 1,000 

 square miles of level land from 700 to SOO 

 feet above the sea. 



The climate for the most part of the 

 state is semi-tropical and temperate. In 

 the hill regions, the air is pure and the 

 climate salubrious. The sea breezes tem- 

 per the heat along the Gulf, and the 

 ranges of hills break the winds in the 

 northern part. 



At Mobile the annual mean tempera- 

 ture is 67 degrees. The annual mean tem- 

 perature for summer is 81 degrees and in 

 winter it is 52 degrees. At Valley Head. 

 DeKalb county, the annual mean temper- 

 ature is 59 degrees, in summer 75 and in 

 winter 41 degrees. 



