January 22, 1896.J 



Garden and Forest. 



3i 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by , Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICK AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1896. 

 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Horticultural Education 31 



George Nicholson 32 



Early Experiments in Crossing Plants Rev. E. J. Hill. 32 



The Box-Elder on the Plains Professor Charles E. Bessey. 33 



What is the Forest Policy of European Nations? B. E. Fernovi. 33 



Plant Notes : — Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia. (With figure.) 34 



Cultural Department:— Winter Work among Insects Injurious to Fruits, 



M. V. Slinglerland. 36 



Cultivation of the Tomato Will IV. Tracy. 37 



Winter-flowering Begonias T. D. Hatfield. 37 



Siegesbeckia orientalis Edward f. Canning. 38 



Cytisus racemosus T. D. H. 38 



Coelogyne cristata N. J. R. 38 



Correspondence : — The Pepper-tree for House Culture B. L. Putnam. 38 



Meetings of Societies : — Horticulture in Pennsylvania 38 



Minnesota Forestry Association 39 



R ecent Publications 39 



Notes 40 



Illustration : — Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia, Fig. 4 35 



Horticultural Education. 



IN a recent number of this journal it was held that the 

 study of horticulture and agriculture in their scien- 

 tific aspects has a distinct value as a factor in furnishing 

 exercise for certain powers of the mind. Every one admits 

 that the natural sciences should have a place in the cur- 

 riculum of colleges and schools as elements of wholesome 

 intellectual development, if for no other reason ; and, per- 

 haps, no science furnishes better mental training and 

 exercise than agriculture and horticulture when their prin- 

 ciples are systematically studied. This does not imply 

 that there should be no such a thing as direct technical 

 training in horticulture and agriculture as arts, but the fact 

 should be emphasized that the mental exercise and disci- 

 pline furnished by horticultural education in its broad 

 sense is equal, and perhaps superior, to that furnished by 

 the study of any other science. No kind of mental appli- 

 cation will be more effectual in forming habits of careful 

 observation and comparison and in securing those orderly 

 methods of thinking which are of the greatest use in the 

 examination of many of the problems which confront us 

 in our daily life. 



In an article in a recent number of Scie?ice on Horticul- 

 ture at Cornell, we are glad to see that this view is set forth 

 with considerable fullness by Professor Bailey, who con- 

 tends that horticulture as studied at that university is 

 capable of adding much to the value of a course of liberal 

 academic training. Professor Bailey illustrates the merits 

 of horticulture as a science by showing some of its uses 

 and applications in discussing the theory of evolution, 

 which is perhaps now the most important conception with 

 which the thinking world has to deal. In supporting the 

 hypothesis of evolution, horticulture shows the develop- 

 ment of life in actual operation. More than six thousand 

 species of plants are cultivated, and most of these have 

 been broken up into varied forms by the touch of man. 

 Some species have produced thousands of distinct forms, 

 and the methods of the production of many of them are on 

 record. In place of arguments as to the probable influence 

 of climate upon plants the horticulturist cites definite cases, 

 so that there is no conjecture about the matter. Instead of 

 speculating upon the transmission of acquired characters 

 the horticulturist furnishes proofs of such transmission. 

 Palaeontology brings disjointed evidence in regard to the 



influence of selection and probable changes from environ- 

 ment, while the horticulturist brings examples before our 

 eyes to prove that he can modify and mould vegetation at 

 his will. The horticulturist creates new species and shows 

 you numbers of cultivated plants of which no one knows 

 the original form, because the ones with which we are 

 acquainted are so unlike the type that the two can never 

 be connected. This is only a single line of inquiry, and 

 other illustrations quite as striking can be given to show 

 that there is an abundant field for scientific research and 

 profound thought in horticultural science as such. 



The value of agricultural colleges as training schools for 

 those whose purpose it is to practice agriculture and horti- 

 culture is conceded, and there is no question that they have 

 been very helpful in making expert farmers and gardeners, 

 in increasing the products and profits of cultivation and 

 in improving the conditions of rural life. But, aside from 

 the strictly educational value of the broader way of study- 

 ing the science of crops, it must be remembered that this 

 scheme of instruction has also its immediate practical 

 value. The student who masters principles is more thor- 

 oughly equipped than one who only learns rules. Of course, 

 it requires a somewhat mature mind to grasp the scien- 

 tific laws on which the practice of horticulture is based, but 

 when once this is accomplished the student can make his 

 own applications, and tie is not only less liable to make 

 mistakes than one who is generally ignorant of the princi- 

 ples upon which his practice is founded, but he will con- 

 stantly be stimulated to use his mind rather than his hands, 

 and to get that enthusiasm for rural life which is essential 

 to the highest success. Horticultural and agricultural 

 education, as distinct from mere training, is not always 

 possible, but where the course covers several years this 

 broader method is certainly preferable, and this not only 

 because it insures better practice in the rural arts, but 

 because, as a part of a general education, it makes more 

 capable and self-reliant men and women. 



In reference to the methods at Cornell, Professor Bailey 

 says : 



The teaching there aims not so much to make farmers as to 

 educate farmers' sons and daughters. Its fundamental idea 

 is to give those students who anticipate a rural life such a 

 breadth of training as will put them in touch and sympathy 

 with the traditions of education, with all the larger movements 

 of the day, and enable them at the same time to understand 

 the fundamental reasons of their own occupation. There is 

 less attempt to apply this teaching upon the university farm 

 than there is to instill the desire to master the underlying prin- 

 ciples of horticulture. Teaching is done by class exercises 

 and by laboratory work, as it is in other scientific and technical 

 subjects at the present day. If the student hears a lecture on 

 the rotation of crops he goes for a walk with the professor over 

 the fields of the farm and the adjoining lands and there 

 observes the good and had points of farm management. If he 

 hears a lecture upon Winter Tomatoes he also goes with the 

 instructor or alone, or from day to day, and studies the Toma- 

 toes as they grow under glass. Besides this, he has his mini! 

 opened by thinking upon economics, language, history and 

 general science as much as upon some of the particular sub- 

 jects with which he is to deal in a more intimate way. The 

 student should be a citizen before he is a farmer. 



Our great progress in the mechanic arts is due to the 

 application of science to the various branches of manufac- 

 ture in cheapening processes, making them more effectual 

 and utilizing by-products. The arts of agriculture and hor- 

 ticulture have the same need of science, and advancement 

 in either of them must be in the same direction. Unlike 

 manufacturing industries, however, which are mainly car- 

 ried on by large forces of men under a single directing 

 head, the work of agriculture is scattered over thousands 

 of farms. The number of men superintending these opera- 

 tions — that is, of men who must rely upon their own 

 knowledge — are in much larger proportion to the mere 

 laborers than are the skilled superintendents in the field of 

 manufactures. For this reason there is no class of persons, 

 taken as a whole, who stand in greater need of such an 

 education as will enable them to conduct their work with 



