November 27, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



471 



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-Cl_\SS MATTER AT THE FOST-OFFICK AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



lEoiTORiAL Article; — Schools of Horticulture 471 



Ttie California Fan Palm. (With figure.) 472 



A Coppice of Pine B. Ji. Fenitnv. 472 



Notes on some Arborescent Willows of North America. — IV.. . HI. S. Beblt. 473 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter U'. IVatsou. ^-ji 



Plant Notes 474 



-Cultural Department : — Notes on some Species of Cucumis. 



Professor Alc-xander MacElwce. 475 



Carnation Notes W. N. Craig. 476 



Seasonable Notes on Roses fK H. Taplin. 476 



Notes from Baden-Baden .- Max Leicktl/n. 477 



.CoRRE.=iPONDENCR I — Goldeu-rod Killing Horses J, L. Scott. 477 



Notes on the Western Apple Crop F. A. }Vaugh. 47S 



The Lih- Melpomene E. O. Orpet. 478 



Poison Sumach Once More Timi'tlty E. Wilcox, SKrgeon, U.S.A. 47S 



^Exhibitions : — The St. Louis Flower Show 478 



Palms at the Central Palace 479 



jRecent Publications 479 



JJOTES 480 



'[Illustration : — Palm Cafion in San Jacinto Mountains, Fig. 65 475 



Schools of Horticulture. 



DURING the Christmas holidays last year what had 

 been announced as a School of Horticulture was held 

 at Fredonia, New York, under the Experiment Station E.x- 

 iension Bill of this state, which was passed during the legis- 

 lative session of 1894. The conspectus gave promise of an 

 interesting meeting, and the reports which were afterward 

 secured from students and instructors left no doubt that 

 this novel venture had justified the hoj^s of its promoters. 

 Some account of the distinctive features of this meeting will 

 be found on page 21 of the current voluine, from which it 

 will be seen that the purpose of the gathering was more to 

 confirm some of the principles of horticultural science than 

 to give instruction in the working details of any of the 

 branches of horticultural practice. Several institutes of 

 the kind have been held since that time, and this purpose 

 has prevailed in all of them — that is, the aim has been to 

 present fundamental knowledge rather than directly applied 

 knowledge. This does not mean that Professor Bailey, 

 who conducts these schools, underestimates the value of 

 manual skill, or of the most approved practice as based on 

 experience ; it means rather that in his opinion these 

 methods of work can be learned elsewhere, and that in the 

 few hours at command horticulturists will receive greater 

 benefit by having their attention turned directly to the study 

 of nature so as to ascertain the underlying reasons for the 

 various operations in greenhouse and garden, nursery and 

 vineyard. 



The latest one of these meetings was held early in No- 

 vember at Jamestown, New York, and from the reports 

 given in the papers, we are glad to learn that the original 

 plan has been strictly adhered to. Reports of the first 

 institute laid stress on the remarkably stimulating effect 

 upon the minds of the students, some of them well along 

 in years, by what were called Observation Lessons. The 

 simplest objects, like the twigs of a fruit-tree, became 

 clothed with a new interest as soon as the class began to 

 look at them closely and critically and were called upon 

 to tell what they saw. The result showed that they had 

 discovered a hundred facts and relations which they had 

 never dreamed of before in objects vvith which they had 

 been brought into familiar contact almost every day of 



their lives. The same effecis were manifest in the James- 

 town Institute. In the session devoted to the study of 

 insects, for example. Professor Slingerland had furnished 

 each member with a st^uash-bug and a grasshopper, not only 

 to illustrate much of his address, but to give an opportunity 

 for each one to tell what he saw, and the observations made 

 were always of remarkable interest. Professor Slinger-, 

 land's address was practically a view of the insect's rela- 

 tions to nature from its own standpoint — that is, he ex- 

 plained how it feels, sees, hears and generally how it lives, 

 moves and has its being, and it is said that the class, a 

 large one, was held for two hours in rapt attention. 

 Soils, fungi, flowers, fruit and other subjects were studied 

 in the same manner, and the fact that such genuine enthu- 

 siasm is kindled seems to show that all that is needed to 

 arouse a living interest in these matters is to bring 

 students into direct contact with natural objects and let them 

 make their own discoveries under proper direction. How 

 sincere and widespread this interest was may be under- 

 stood when it is known that the high school in a city of 

 20,000 inhabitants was dismissed for the purpose of ena- 

 bling the teachers to attend the observation lessons on flowers 

 as directed by Professor Bailey. Ninety-eight persons, 

 forty-three of them women, were in regular attendance. 

 Besides these there were others who were drawn to partic- 

 ular sessions by interest in the subjects discussed, and the 

 attendance was so large at times that it was difficult to 

 obtain sittings in the commodious hall. The students were 

 promptly at their posts and alert to make inquiry. They 

 had evidently carefully followed the instructions to read 

 up and investigate the subject to be discussed before the 

 sessions began. They made free use of note-book and 

 pencil, and they passed creditable examinations on the 

 different lectures. 



No one imagines, we may here repeat, that graduates 

 from a horticultural school, with a course extending over 

 three or four days, are accomplished horticulturists. It is 

 true, however, that any one who is stimulated to begin the 

 direct and active study of nature has set his face in the 

 right direction, and that if he continues he must acquire 

 more and more fundamental scientific truth, and this means 

 he must become more and more an intelligent worker in 

 the art which is founded on this truth. Professor Cald- 

 well did not attempt to make expert chemists out of his 

 class, but he explained to them how a farmer or gardener 

 could go to work in a sensible way to ascertain what par- 

 ticular fertilizers were needed in his special soil for a given 

 crop. In the same way Professor Lodeman instructed his 

 hearers how they might study the fungous enemies which 

 attacked their various crops, so that they could give the 

 reasons why this or that remedy should be used in par- 

 ticular cases. Professor Roberts' address on plows and 

 plowing ; the illustrated geological history of the James- 

 town region, presented by Professor Tarr ; the outline of 

 the processes of plant-nutrition, by JNIr. Durand, and the 

 discussion on the theories of plant-evolution, by Professor 

 Bailey, were all illustrations of the same purpose — to give 

 knowledge and inspire a thirst for a knowledge of the un- 

 varying natural laws which must be heeded if the highest 

 success in cultivating the soil for any purpose is reached. 

 Above all, the taste of knowledge received will create a 

 hunger for more, and if it does not have immediate value 

 in helping farmers and gardeners to adjust their practice to 

 the teachings of science, it certainly will save them from 

 many costly mistakes by showing them the futility of at- 

 tempts in certain directions which might seem inviting to 

 those who have less knowledge. 



It is pleasant to record the fact that instruction of such a 

 direct and dignified character is provided for all who are 

 interested in horticulture in western New York, and the fact 

 that there are so many communities in that section of the 

 state where these institutes can be held with the assurance 

 that the people will take an enlightened public interest in 

 the study of nature and in its application to the affairs of 

 rural life. The law establishiii"; these schools was a good 



