O W THAT THE CYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN HORTICULTURE 



is completed, it is due the reader that some information be given him 

 of the methods by which it has been made and of the resources that 

 have been at command. It is due to the Editor that he be allowed to 

 state his own point of view in respect to the meaning of the work. 

 These remarks are made in no feeling of personal pride, for the writer 

 is keenly aware of the many shortcomings of the book; but they may 

 acquaint the reader with some of the difficulties with which such work 



is attended, and they may be suggestive to those who may desire to prosecute similar 



studies. 



RETROSPECT 



/. THE PROJECT 



The most difficult part of the making of a cyclopedia is to project it. Its scope 

 and point of view must be determined before a stroke of actual work is done. This 

 much done, the remainder is labor rather than difficulty. The lay-out of the enter- 

 prise cannot be made in a day. It is a matter of slow growth. One must have a 

 mental picture of the entire field and must calculate the resources. The plan once 

 perfected, it remains only to work out detail after detail, taking up the tasks as they 

 come, not caring nor even daring to look forward to the work that piles mountain high 

 farther down the alphabet. 



So far as the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture is concerned, the Editor had 

 resolved and reviewed the enterprise for more than ten years. The first suggestion 

 was a vague idea that a comprehensive work was needed. There were several hundred 

 special works on American horticulture. Some subjects were well worked ; others 

 were untouched. There was no means of determining the extent of our wealth in 

 cultivated plants. There were no suggestions, even, as to what that wealth might be. 

 No survey had been made. Only a full inventory can tell us whether we are rich or 

 poor ; it gives us a scale by which to measure progress. 



The first tangible result of this desire for some comprehensive view of American 

 horticulture was the publication of "Annals of Horticulture for 1889." Some years 

 before this time an endeavor had been made to interest a publisher in the project, 

 but without success. This annual volume was designed to be "a witness of passing 

 events' and a record of progress." Five years these annual volumes were issued, the 

 last one containing a summary sketch of horticulture at the World's Fair, at which 

 was made the greatest single effort to display our horticultural achievements and 

 possibilities. In these annual volumes all the new plants and tools and movements 

 of the year were intended to be recorded. Special investigations were made for 

 some of the volumes. The issue for 1889 contained a list of all the kitchen-garden 

 vegetables sold in North America in that year ; that for 1891 contained a census 

 of all the native plants which had been introduced into cultivation, showing that 

 2,416 species had become known to the horticulturist in Europe or America, although 



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