THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 27 



upon with disgust, but regarded as a most useful ally. 

 Of what does gardening consist ? Of obtaining from the 

 earth vegetables and fruits for man and domestic ani- 

 mals; and the perfection of the art is to obtain the 

 greatest possible product at the least possible expense. 

 From the earliest times gardening has advanced, and 

 receiving always the first attention, it has, in each suc- 

 ceeding generation, become more perfect than in the 

 one preceding. 



The development of field and garden culture to its 

 present condition is the result of the union of theory 

 and practice. The greatest expansion has been in a 

 chemical and physiological point of view, and this devel- 

 opment, strange as it may seem, dates back not farther 

 than forty years. Agriculture and horticulture before 

 that time may be said to have been conducted under a 

 Virgilian system ; cultivators adhering more to blind 

 custom than to reason. In the year 1795 the first book 

 in English upon the relations of agriculture and chem- 

 istry was published, and, though containing some truth, 

 its teachings are ridiculous under the light of the 

 present day. 



The first accurate analyses of a vegetable was not 

 made till the year 1810, and so late as 1838 the Gottin- 

 gen Academy offered a prize for a satisfactory solution 

 of the question whether the ingredients of the ashes are 

 essential to vegetable growth. The last forty years have 

 placed agriculture upon a scientific foundation, and the 

 strides of development have been wonderful. The inves- 

 tigations of all scientific men, in their particular pur- 

 suits, have served to dispel ancient theories and develop 

 the intricate system of germination, subsistence and 

 growth. 



It is, fortunately, the case that every soil holds 

 more or less of the inorganic parts essential to vegetable 

 growth. They may be briefly enumerated as sulphates, 



