THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Dec. 



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TSB CLOSING YEAR 



Thk year which closes now, may be regarded as one 

 in wliich horticulture in this country has made extra- 

 ordinary advancement. We might have written, and 

 perhaps did write, this a year ago, for 1S50 was em- 

 piiatically a year of progress. But 1851 has outdone 

 all its predecessors in this respect. Never, we are 

 very sure, has the various branches of horticulture 

 received so much attention, in one year, in all parts 

 of America, as it has done in this. The nature of 

 our business puts us in possession of facts that bear 

 us out in saying this. It seems as if our people had 

 awoke from a long slumber, conscious that they had 

 lost many years of precious time, and determined to 

 make amends by increased activity. How are we to 

 judge of tliese things ? By the demand existing for 

 trees and other nursery commodities, and the increas- 

 ed number and increased patronage given to horti- 

 cultural books and periodicals. Those not familiar 

 with these things may judge from the improvements 

 that have been made in their own neighborhoods. 

 Ten years ago, three or four nurseries around New 

 York, Boston, and Philadelphia, were abte to supply 

 nearly all the trees wanted on the continent. They 

 even were small, compared with some modern estab- 

 lishments, and their stock not unfrequently outgrew 

 the demand. Now the country is covered with them ; 

 one can scarcely tind ten miles square, from one ex- 

 tremity of the country to the other, without a nursery 

 of some sort. In Minnesota, only heard of the other 

 day, nurseries are being started, and tree planting is 

 a standard topic with the juvenile newspapers of tliat 

 region. A gentleman called on us a few days ago 

 from Oregon, and informed us that he had a nursery 

 there of several hundred thousand trees, and he was 

 buying seeds and stocks to extend his operations 

 largely. 



Look into the advertising pages of the agricultural 

 and horticultural journals and see what an array of 

 nurseries are inviting customers. The •llorlioultu- 

 rist alone, for the month of October last, advertized 

 more trees, and especially fruit trees, than were ever 

 advertised before in any one journal in any part of 

 the world. This indicates the spirit of the times in 

 regard to planting, for nurseries only grow up with 

 ail increasing demand for tiieir own productions. 

 The fact is, tree planting is the business of the day. 

 Our large cities are increasing in population at an 

 amnzing pace, and this increases the demand for fruit 

 and encourages the planting of orchards. But a 



large share of the demand comes from country towns 

 and villages where prosperous business men and me- 

 chanics are making their homesteads. No man now- 

 a-days thinks of living on a treeless piece of ground. 

 Farmers, too, far into the interior of the quiet country, 

 are catching the planting spirit and extensive orchards 

 and nice fruit gardens are springing up about their 

 houses. So it will go on till every one who has a 

 bit of ground shall have planted trees. Then we are 

 not like other countries, relying on the natural inrr.'ase 

 of our own population ; tens of thousands of foreign- 

 ers are poured in upon us annually and are breaking 

 up the virgin soil of whole regions of wilderness, and 

 preparing it for orchards and gardens. Tiie annual 

 increase of cultivated territory in the United States, 

 is far greater than people generelly are aware of. 



But look at the increase of horticultural books and 

 periodicals. We have now three large and excel- 

 lent monthly magazines, one at Boston, one at Alba- 

 ny, and one at Cincinnati, exclusively devoted to 

 horticultural affairs, and all are well sustained. Then 

 we have many agricultural journals in which horti- 

 culture occupies a prominent place. Only a few 

 years ago there was but one horticultural journal in 

 the United States, and not over three or four aori- 

 cultwral, all of which combined did not enjoy a circu- 

 lation equal to that of this journal at the present 

 moment. Then within six or seven years thei'e have 

 been half a dozen important works on fruits and fruit 

 culture published, besides Mr. Downing's numerous 

 and costly volumes on architecture and landscape 

 gardening. To all these we may add the two ele- 

 gant colored serials now in course of publicaiiou — 

 Hovky's "P'ruits of America," and Dr. Brknkle's 

 "American Pomology." Only think of such an 

 amount of horticultural reading called into existence 

 at once it may be said. We may well inquire what 

 will ten or fifteen years more do for us with such a 

 foundation as this to build upon ? Truly we are a 

 go-ahead people. 



The useful department of horticulture, that is the 

 culture of fruits and vegetables, has made the great- 

 est progress, but the ornamental or tasteful has 

 received perhaps as much attention as could be exr 

 pected in a country like ours, where money-making 

 is the watchword of the day. 



People are easily persuaded to plant fruit trees, 

 because their utiliti/ is obvious and little skill is re- 

 quired in their management ; but both taste and skill 

 must be acquired before ornamental culture is at- 

 tempted. Hence ornamental gardening will advance 

 in proportion to the di fusion of horticultiu'al books 

 and papers that cultivate taste and spread informa- 

 tion. There are at this time more ornamental plants 

 cultivated and sold in American nurseries, in one 

 year, than there was in five a very short time ago. 

 In VVestern New York, in 1840, there were not, we 

 will say, west of Albany half a dozen acres devoted 

 to ornamental plants altogether ; now one establish- 

 ment alone in this town has nearly twice that. — 

 Tiiore cannot be less than fifty acres devoted to rose 

 culture alone in the United States, and perhaps much 

 inore. A few years aijfo there were but two or three 

 cultivators at New York and Boston that had good 

 collections of dahlias ; now we might name fifty. A 

 short lime ago but three or four American inirsery- 

 men imported trees or plants from Europe : and 

 lately one European nurseryman informed ud that he 

 had more than forty American customers on his 

 books. Grape culture under glass is receiving con- 



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