fertilizers; — agricultural, intellectual, etc. 167 



also was an early riser, came over one daj', looked on awhile, 

 and left without saying anj-thing. A da}^ or two afterward he 

 came again, bid me good morning, leaned a few minutes on his 

 hoe, started off for his cornfield, returned, and abruptly said, 

 " Mr. Knapp may I ask you a question?" "Yes." " What are 

 those things you are setting out?" " Honeysuckles and sweet- 

 briers." " Two or three thousand of them arn't there? " " Yes, 

 more." " Expect to sell them? " " No." " What then? " " Going 

 to give them away after they get grown, to anybody 'round town 

 that will take care of them, — ■ especially on Arbor Day. I presume 

 your wife will accept some of them, and have you set them out." 

 My neighbor walked off a little distance, with a toss of his head ; 

 returned, put his chin on his hoe handle, and said slowly, "I 

 don't want to hurt any one's feelings, but I do want amazingly to 

 speak what's on mj' mind ! Shall I tell you what I should want 

 you to say to me if the time ever comes in the Lord's world when 

 you see me, before daylight, down on my hands and knees with 

 specs on, setting out such little, miserable, mean things as those, 

 and not a dollar of profit from them?" " Yes," I said. " Well, I 

 should want you to call me something near a fool ! " 



And as to the using of fertilizers themselves, I have tested, I 

 think, the value, by careful experiments, of almost every commer- 

 cial fertilizer on the list ; comparing their effects one with 

 another in acre lots side by side, and in garden patches. I have 

 also brought from New Jersey and used on my land, a schooner 

 cargo of their famous " marl," to see how it would work on our 

 Plymouth soil, and wished that I had left it in its native bed, 

 where it was deposited ages ago. 



With this personal introduction on horticultural grounds, let 

 me ask to be kindly received for the time being into partial 

 fellowship, while I turn to our special theme. 



A " horticulturist" of today, in order to come up to the stand- 

 ard of acquirement and refinement which that title implies, must 

 have far broader interests and wider knowledge than that alone 

 which secures intelligent cultivation of the soil. Limited strictly 

 to the meaning of the Latin words from which it is derived, hortus 

 and cultus, horticulture does, indeed, signify merely " garden 

 culture." 



But since the days when those beautiful gardens adorned the 

 villas around Rome, human life in all its aspects has so changed, 



