June 13, iSSS.] 



Garden and Forest. 



181 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



rUBI.ISHEl) WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office; Tribune Building, Niiw York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sakgf.nt. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles : — Hnrficulture and the Experiment Stations. — Note 



The Pine Barrens in May AFrs. Mary Treat. 



Su.e;gestions fur the Improvement of Cemeteries J. C. Olnistaf. 



The' Cultivation ot* Huckleberries Jackson Dawson. 



Neiv or Little Known Plants : — Amelanchier alnifolia Scrcno Watson, 



Plant Notes : — Selaginrlla Pimglei, Baker C. G. Pnnglc. 



Castalia Lieberg ' 



1S5 



185 

 1S6 



A Sonoi-a Hillside C. S. S. iS6 



Cultural Department: — Annuals fur a Succession of Flowers W. F. 1S7 



The Plum nnd the Curculio. — Orchid Notes.— Staking Plants 1S7 



The Rock-Gnrden in Spring; C 1S8 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum J. 1S9 



The Forest : — Forest Trees iav California Professor E. IV. Hil^avd. 190 



Correspondence 191 



Recent Publications : — The Botanical "Works of the late George Eni^clmann. . . iqi 



Notes 19= 



Retail Flower Markets i—New York, Philadelphia, Boston 192 



Illustrations : — Amelanchier alnifolia, Fig. 34. 

 A Sonora Hillside 



185 

 1S7 



Horticulture and the Experiment Stations. 



AMONG the appropriations made hy Congress for the 

 current year is the item of §685,000 for Agricuhural 

 Experiment Stations. By the terms of tlie act estabhshing a 

 • station in every state, this sum is to be added annuahy by 

 the Federal Government to the appropriations made by the 

 several states for the same purpose. This liberal endow- 

 ment ought to mark an era in the country's agricultural 

 progress. We have a right to expect important additions 

 to our knowledge from the labors of the large number of 

 educated men who will be selected for the express pur- 

 pose of investigating problems connected with the soil and 

 with plant growth. Horticulturists, no less than others 

 who till the soil, are looking towards the new institutions 

 with mingled curiosity and hope, for they have the same 

 need of instruction and an equal right with farmers to ex- 

 pect that their special wants will be considered. Every 

 intelligent gardener and fruit grower is conscious that he 

 is confronted on every hand by problems which he can- 

 not solve, and that his success is menaced by enemies 

 whose attacks he feels powerless to repel. If he knew 

 how to mitigate, in a greater degree, the effects of drought, 

 how to feed his crops more cheaply, how to wage 

 a more hopeful war against the insects and plant dis- 

 eases which beset him in increasing numbers every year, 

 and how to select varieties that are best adapted to his 

 conditions, his labors would command a more satisfactory 

 reward. The experiment stations were created to answer 

 questions of this kind, and if careful investigation will 

 avail in solving them, horticulture should reap material 

 advantage from the money, time, labor and study ex- 

 pended. 



There is no reason why die claims of horticulture 

 should be slighted at any station; indeed, there are spe- 

 cial reasons why they should receive marked attention. 

 The products of the orchard and the garden are not inferior 

 in importance to those of the field, and they are quite as 

 indispensable to the general health and comfort. The 

 operations of horticulture are more concentrated than 

 those of other departments in the broader field of agricul- 

 ture, so that practical cultural questions come home with 

 greater force to the gardener and fruit grower than to the 



farmer. I^and devoted to horticultural use almost invari- 

 ably bears a heavier burden of taxation than that devoted 

 to ordinary farming. It requires a greater comparative outlay 

 for labor, for fertilizers and for seed. The injuries to or- 

 chard and garden by bad seasons, and by destructive in- 

 sects and diseases, are more disastrous than those from 

 which the farm suffers, because the crops have a higher 

 money value. 



It is gratifying to note that these facts seem to be rec- 

 ognized by the stations, for in the majority of those that 

 have been organized thus far, a horticulturist has been 

 added to the staff of experimenters. The prospect would 

 oe more encouraging if the officers selected for this duty 

 were men of wider experience. The natural excuse for 

 appointing untrained men to these important positions is, 

 that the supply of such men is not equal to the demand ; 

 that it is impossible to find in the country a sufficient num- 

 ber of skilled horticulturists to take charge of the work in 

 so many stations. But the fact remains that no honest 

 effort has been made to discover men of the requisite 

 ability in this direction or at least no sufficient inducement 

 has been offered to make the position a desirable one. In 

 most cases inadequate salaries are offered for this branch of 

 station work, which means that the Boards of Control con- 

 sider horticulture of subordinate importance and are will- 

 ing to take inferior men, with the prospect of inferior work. 

 It is worth noting that in one of the stations, at least, a 

 florist has been appointed, and it may be added that there 

 is no good reason why an industry of such magnitude as 

 commercial floriculture should not be represented in this 

 work. And when we consider how much attention is paid 

 to the cultivation of flowers and plants for ornament 

 throughout the country, this certainly would seem an ap- 

 propriate field for investigation and popular instruction. 



It may be well to warn gardeners and fruit growers not 

 to expect too much from the young stations. To the novice, 

 the making of experiments may seem an easy task, but 

 experience proves that few things are more difficult than 

 the gathering of accurate and helpful information in this 

 way. The highest skill is demanded in every operation, 

 and with this must be united close observation and a 

 faculty for gathering in every related fact for purposes of 

 generalization. The experimenter must not only have un- 

 swerving intellectual honesty, but a trained ability to weigh 

 evidence and a cool judgment that is never swayed by a 

 preconceived hypothesis". And yet he must be adventur- 

 ous in constructing theories, for mere machine-like accu- 

 racy in weighing and measuring can never take the 

 place of the creative genius which originates hypotheses. 

 A great discovery in science was once well characterized 

 as an "inspired guess." But it is only the niind_ well 

 equipped by study and in perfect command of all its re- 

 sources that invents a sound theory so easily and natu- 

 rally that it seems to be only a lucky guess, ^^■ith so 

 many raw recruits just entering the experimental field, it 

 will be fortunate, indeed, if costly mistakes are not made. 

 For a time, at least, it may require greater wisdom on the 

 part of the practical cultivator to separate the true from the 

 false in the bulletins borne on every mail than was exer- 

 cised originally in preparing them. But a beginning 

 must be made, and while we need not be over-hopeful of 

 immediate results, it is safe to anticipate signal advantage to 

 horticulture and agriculture from the stations, when their 

 work is thoroughly organized and systematized. Capable 

 Directors and their assistants will become more_ useful 

 with larger experience. Under the searching criticisms of 

 the press incompetent men will be weeded out and the 

 work will at last fall into the hands of those who will pro- 

 secute it with wisdom, devotion and enthusiasm. It may 

 require years of patient waiting before the new stations 

 become as helpful here as they have proved in Europe, but 

 some of the older ones already justify every reasonable 

 hope of their founders. In future numberswe hope_ to 

 indicate some of the more promising lines of investigation 

 which should be pursued in the interests of horticulture. 



