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HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



early works need not be mentioned here. As early as 

 1785, Varlo's "New System of Husbandry" was printed 

 in Philadelphia. It is in many ways a remarkable book, 

 and it was written by a man who had had remarkable 

 experiences. He was not an American, and the work 

 first appeared in the old country; but Varlo had lived 

 in this country, and was in sympathy with the American 

 people. The book contained a "Farmer's and Kitchen 

 Garden Calendar." In 1792 there appeared anonymously, 

 from Burlington, New Jersey, the third edition of Ar- 

 thur Young's "Rural Economy," which excellently dis- 

 plays that noted author's catholicity of view. He ar- 

 gues strongly for experiments and for the establishing 

 of agricultural journals. This book first appeared in 

 London, in 1770. 



At the opening of the century, Sir Humphry Davy 

 had not illumined the science of agricultural chemistry, 

 and men were even disputing as to what the food of 

 plants is. The "burn-baking" or "devonshiring" of the 

 land burning the sod and scattering the ashes over the 

 field was still recommended ; and in 1799 James An- 

 derson's " Essay on Quick-lime as a Cement and as a 

 Manure," was given an American edition in Boston. It 

 is easy to see from these facts that the fundamental 

 conceptions of the science of agriculture were vague and 

 crude a century ago. Near the close of the last century, 

 Deane wrote that "the alarming effect of the present low 

 state of husbandry is, that we are necessitated to im- 

 port much of our food and clothing, while we are in- 

 capable of making proportionable remittances in the 

 produce of the soil, or in anything else." 



The earliest book on a horticultural subject known to 

 have been published in North America, excepting Mrs. 

 Logan's, was an American edition of Marshall's "Intro- 

 duction to the Knowledge and Practice of Gardening," 

 Boston, 1799. The first indigenous horticultural book 

 appeared in 1804, "The American Gardener," by John 

 Gardiner and David Hepburn. It was published at 

 Washington. This book had an extensive sale. It was 

 revised by "a citizen of Virginia," and republished in 

 Georgetown, D. C., in 1818. A third edition appeared in 

 1826. (See Hepburn.) This book was followed in 1806 by 

 Bernard M'Mahon's excellent and voluminous "Ameri- 

 can Gardener's Calendar," in Philadelphia. This work 

 enjoyed much popularity, and the eleventh edition ap- 

 peared as late as 1857. For fifty years it remained the 

 best American work on general gardening. M'Mahon 

 remembered in the Mahonia barberries, was an important 

 personage. He was largely responsible for the intro- 

 duction into cultivation of the plants collected by Lewis 

 and Clark. These early books were calendars, giving 

 advice for the successive months. They were made on 

 the plan then popular in England, a plan which has such 

 noteworthy precedent as the excellent "Kalendarium 

 Hortense " of John Evelyn, which first appeared in 1664, 

 and went to nine regular editions. Other early books of 

 this type were "An old gardener's 'Practical American 

 Gardener,' "Baltimore, 1819 and 1822; Thorburn's "Gen- 

 tleman's and Gardener's Kalendar," New York, the third 

 edition of which appeared in 1821 ; Robert Squibb's 

 "Gardener's Calendar for the States of North-Carolina, 

 South-Carolina, and Georgia," Charleston, 1827. 



The first indigenous book written on the topical plan, 

 treating subject by subject, was Coxe's fruit book, 1817; 

 the second appears to have been Cobbett's "American 

 Gardener," published at New York in 1819, in London 

 in 1821, and which passed through subsequent editions. 

 This William Cobbett is the one who edited the feder- 

 alist paper in Philadelphia known as "Peter Porcupine's 

 Gazette," and whose attack upon Dr. Rush's treatment 

 of yellow fever brought against him a judgment for 

 damages, and which decided him to return to England 

 in 1803, whence he had come, by way of France, in 1792. 

 In London he again took up political writing, and in 

 1817 he retreated to America to escape political penal- 

 ties, and resided upon a farm on Long Island until 1819. 

 He kept a seed store in New York in 1818, and we find 

 Grant Thorburn disputing with him in the "Evening 

 Post " as to which sold the better rutabaga seed at one 

 dollar a pound. Cobbett, it seems, claimed to have been 

 the introducer of this vegetable, also known as the Rus- 

 sia turnip, into this country ; but Thorburn retorts that 

 "in the year 1796 a large field of these turnips was 





raised by Win. Prout on that piece of ground now occ 

 pied by the navy yard, at the city of Washington." He 

 completed his life in England, becoming a voluminous 

 author upon political and economical subjects. ( See Cob- 

 bett. ) It is interesting to note, in connection with this 

 dispute about the turnips, that the kohlrabi was intro- 

 duced about the same time, and Deane says of it in 



1081. Two old-time flowers Hollyhock and 

 Crown Imperial. 



1797, that "whether this plant, which has but newly 

 found its way into our country, is hardy enough to bear 

 the frost of our winters, I suppose is yet to be proved." 

 It was recommended to be grown as a biennial, which 

 accounts for Deane's fear that it might not pass the 

 winters. 



Fessenden's "New American Gardener," made upon 

 the topical plan, appeared in Boston in 1828, and went to 

 various editions ; and from this time on, gardening 

 books were frequent. Some of the leading early authors 

 are Thomas Bridgeman, of New York ; Robert Buist, 

 of Philadelphia, and Joseph Breck, of Boston. 



FLOWER-BOOKS AND FLORICULTURE. The first Ameri- 

 can book devoted wholly to flowers was probably Roland 

 Green ' s " Treatise on the Cultivation of Flowers , " Boston, 

 1828. Edward Sayers published the "American Flower 

 Garden Companion," in Boston, in 1838.. From 1830 to 

 1860 there appeared many of those superficial and fash- 

 ionable books, w r hich deal with the language of flowers, 

 and which assume that the proper way to popularize 

 botany is by means of manufactured sentiment. 



Green's book on flowers deserves a paragraph, since 

 it enables us to determine what were the leading orna- 

 mental plants in that early day (1828). The full title of 

 the book is "A Treatise on the Cultivation of Ornamental 

 Flowers; Comprising Remarks on the Requisite Soil, 

 Sowing, Transplanting, and General Management: with 

 Directions for the General Treatment of Bulbous Flower 

 Roots, Greenhouse Plants, etc." It comprises only 60 

 pages. The introductory pages give general directions; 

 then follow two annotated lists, one of annuals and bi- 

 ennials and the other of greenhouse plants. These lists 

 are interesting, also, for what they do not contain. All 

 the plants which they mention are here set down: 



ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL FLOWERS. 



Althaea f rutex, 



Almond, Double-flowering, 



Amaranthus superbus, 



Amaranthus tricolor, 



Animated Oats, 



Aster, China, 



Auricula, 



Azalea nudiflora, 



Box, 



Brier, Sweet, 



Canterbury Bell, 



Carnation, 



Cassia Marylandica, 



Catalpa, 



Cherry, Double-flowering, 

 Chrysanthemum Indicum, - 

 Clematis, Austrian (C. in- 



tegrifolia), 

 Clethra, 

 Columbine, 

 Convolvulus, 

 Corchorus Japonicus, 

 Crocus, 

 Cupid's Car, or Monk's Hood 



(Aconitum). 

 Dahlia. 



