November 23, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



553 



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 OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles : — Horticultural Education 553 



A German Pleasure-ground 554 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe. — XVIII % G. yack, 554 



Color for the Lawn in November R. M. T. 555 



New ok Liitle-known Plants : — The Chrysanthemum, Golden Weddino;. 



(With figure.) '. . 556 



Foreign Correspondence; — London Letter ]V. Watson. 556 



Entomological : — The Oak-pruners. (With figures.). .Professor John B. Smith. 557 



Cultural Department : — Top-gi-af ting Apples T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 558 



Basket-plants for Conservatories IV. H. Taplin. 558 



The Cultivation of Cattleyas E. O. OrJ>et. 559 



Agapanthus umbellatus, Thunbergia erecta» Clerodendron fallax, 



M. Barker. 560 



E(5gonia decora W. IV. 561 



Correspondence : — California Oranges and Lemons Charles Howard Skinn. 561 



Pedigree Seedling Chrysanthemums T. D. H. 561 



New'Cypripediums Robert Af. Grey. 562 



Snow Scenes.. Fred IV. Card. 562 



E.vhibitions : — The Cincinnati Chrysanthemum Show 562 



Recent Publications 563 



Notes , 564 



Illustrations : — Larva, pupa and imago of Oak-pruner, Fig. 94 557 



Burrows of Elaphidion in branches of scrub Oak, Fig. 95 557 



New Chrysanthemum, Golden Wedding, reduced one-third. Fig. 96.. 559 



Florticultural Education. 



'HILE scientific papers in Europe are discussing the 

 value of systematic scliooling in horticulture and 

 agriculture, and while many doubts are expressed as to 

 whether there is any proof that such training has ever been 

 a practical help to farmers and gardeners, schools of agri- 

 culture and horticulture are multiplying in almost every 

 country in Europe, and the instruction given in the older 

 ones is growing more broad and more thorough — that is, 

 more truly scientific. In our own country it must be con- 

 fessed that the agricultural colleges in many of the states 

 make a verj' poor showing both in the matter of attendance 

 and training. The colleges in a few states, however, have 

 already become centres of influeiice and places to which 

 farmers and gardeners turn with confidence when they 

 wish for help or enlightenment. It is the college ento- 

 mologist to whom the farmer sends specimens of destruc- 

 tive insects for identification, and the professor not only 

 gives the enemy's name, but explains how he may be de- 

 feated. It is the mycologist of the same institution who is 

 consulted on plant diseases, and its chemist who answers 

 questions about soil and fertilizers ; and in this way a vital 

 connection has been established between the farms of the 

 state and its college laboratories. Where such relations 

 have grown up there is no question as to the advantage of 

 scientific knowledge and training to all who cultivate plants 

 for ornament or use. 



Of late years the practice of furnishing short courses in 

 agriculture has been growing among the colleges, and several 

 of them now offer such privileges to meet the needs of stu- 

 dents who have only the time or means to spend a single 

 term, or perhaps two terms, at the university. A circular 

 just received from Cornell University outhnes a short 

 course which has just been opened there, which consists 

 of studies partly prescribed and partly optional. Attention 

 must be given to agriculture five hours each week and to 

 chemistry three hours, and the studies in these regular 



hours are on fundamental subjects with which every one 

 should be familiar, whether his field of practice is the gar- 

 den, the orchard, the greenhouse or the farm. Besides 

 this, there are optional studies, such as entomology, botany, 

 dairy husbandry, animal industry, poultry-keeping and the 

 like, in which practical exercise is given in specific branches. 

 We are especially interested, however, in the optional 

 course in horticulture, which offers, in the first place, 

 instruction in fruit-culture with practical work in the best 

 methods of pruning, training and planting, and the deter- 

 mination and discussion of varieties, with the advantage 

 of an admirable collection of orchard-fruits and small 

 fruits for study and practice. Vegetable gardening is also 

 taught, and includes practical work during the winter in 

 the forcing-houses, where Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Mush- 

 rooms, Beans, Lettuce, Radishes and other plants are 

 grown as winter crops. The propagation of ornamental 

 plants and floriculture embraces practice in all methods of 

 reproducing plants, from the sowing of seeds to the mak- 

 ing of cuttings, budding and grafting. Instructions here 

 are given in the laboratories, which are greenhouses de- 

 signed for propagating purposes. Lectures and demon- 

 strations are also given in the management of ornamental 

 plants together with practice in the preparation and appli- 

 cation of all the remedies for insect and fungous diseases. 



The latest attempt to popularize instruction of this sort 

 comes from the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, 

 which just announces what is called an "Agricultural 

 Chautauqua," which provides for a course of home reading 

 upon agricultural and horticultural subjects to be pursued 

 under the general direction of the college. This course 

 covers three groups of subjects — agriculture, animal 

 husbandry and horticulture — and under each group five 

 standard books are selected which are to be read by 

 students. For those who desire to do more than this a 

 system of home examination has been provided, and read- 

 ers who pass a satisfactory examination upon a group of 

 five studies will receive a certificate, and a satisfactory 

 examination upon two groups will entitle one to a diploma. 

 This course is free to every one and leaves the student the 

 fullest liberty as to the choice and order of subjects and 

 the amount cf time devoted to them. It is thought that 

 even one hour a day, if faithfully used, will enable a 

 student to accomplish very much in the course of a year, 

 and much more time can be devoted to it by those who 

 have the leisure and the inclination. A serious drawback 

 to success in this scheme is the lack of trustworthy text- 

 books. Nevertheless, such a course of reading must prove 

 stimulating and helpful when the text-book does not be- 

 come a substitute for personal observation, but by dealing 

 with and illustrating the materials and processes of 

 every-day life on the farm is a direct encouragement to 

 study the things themselves. 



It is not probable that any finished gardeners will be 

 turned out in a single term at Cornell, while a certifi- 

 cate, or even a diploma, from this novel Chautauqua 

 vsrould hardly pass current as a guarantee of high profi- 

 ciency. There is little doubt, however, that the addition 

 to ordinary business practice of a short college course or a 

 systematic course of home reading would be of distinct 

 value to any young man, or any young woman either, for 

 the matter of that Not only will such a schooling make 

 better horticulturists, but it will enable a great many more 

 young people to pay some attention to the scientific basis 

 of the art of horticulture. What is most needed for a higher 

 horticulture, and an improved agriculture as well, is a body 

 of men devoting themselves to original investigation ; and 

 while these short courses will never equip men for such 

 high service, they will help to enlarge the class from which 

 such experts must be drawn. It is an impossible state of 

 things to have a few trained and finished horticulturists in 

 the country while the general average is extremely low. 

 Men of the first rank in science and practice are not devel- 

 oped out of such conditions. There must be a constant 

 gradation from the lowest to the highest, so that the more 



