THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 23 



viduals or to national welfare, agriculture is of primary 

 importance." Webster, of our own generation, wrote, 

 "Agriculture feeds us, to a great extent, clothes us; 

 without it we could not have manufacturers, and we 

 should not have gommerce. These all stand in a clus- 

 ter, the largest in the center, and that largest is agri- 

 culture." Agriculture is, indeed, the most fruitful 

 source of the riches of a country, and of the welfare of 

 its inhabitants, and only as the state of agriculture is 

 more or less flourishing can we judge of the progress of 

 a people. 



Gardening, which is agriculture upon circumscribed 

 areas, has ever shared with the latter the esteem of man- 

 kind. Socrates said, "It is the source of health, 

 strength, plenty, riches and honest pleasure; and an 

 eminent English writer said, "It is amid its scenes and 

 pursuits that life flows pure, the heart more calmly 

 beats." 



Agriculture refers to the tillage of the earth over 

 broad fields, as for the raising of cereals, grass or tubers. 

 Gardening, on the other hand, refers to the culture of 

 small inclosed areas. This application of the latter term 

 was quite correct originally, but it is now common for 

 mere vegetable gardens to equal the area of ordinary 

 grain and grass farms, requiring, in their cultivation, a 

 degree of skill and an amount of activity, implements 

 and labor, exceeding that expended upon large farms. 



Gardening again differs from farming in the range 

 of varieties cultivated. The farmer may devote his acres 

 to those crops to which his land is adapted, but the gar- 

 dener is expected to grow the entire list of vegetables, 

 without reference to the composition of the soil. Such 

 cultivation, to be successful, must be, to some extent, 

 scientific. The cultivator must possess a knowledge of 

 the facts and principles which underlie his art, or he 

 will certainly fail. 



