May 12, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



181 



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, MAY 12, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles- — Agricultural Education in New York 1S1 



Botanical Discoveries in China 182 



John Evans and his Garden Dr. John W. HarsJiierger. 182 



Three West- American Conifers J G. Lcmmon. 183 



New or Little-known Plants: — Ribes erythrocarpum. (With figure) 184 



Plant Notes : — Pelargoniums at Cornell University. (With figure ).. .. W. S. A. 184 

 Cultural Department:— The Hippeastrums. — 111 H. Nehrlhig. 186 



Earlv-flowering Shrubs R. Emits. 



Orchids in Flower William Scott. 



Irises JN. G. 



Correspondence :— Bibliographical Notes on American 1 rees— II. 



Professor Ethu . L. Greene. 18S 



Is the White Pine Doomed? Robert Done las. 18S 



A Wholesale Market for Cut Flowers M.B.C. 189 



Notes.. 190 



Illustrations : — Ribes ervthrocarpum. Fig. 21 185 



The " improved" and "original" forms of Pelargonium flowers as illus- 

 trated over.fifty years ago in The Gardeners' Chronicle, Fig. 22 186 



«7 



Agricultural Education in New York. 



THE Experiment Station Extension Law, usually 

 called the Nixon Bill, under which the foundation 

 has been laid of what promises to become an established 

 system of agricultural education in the state of New York, 

 was originally enacted in the interest of the grape growers 

 of Chautauqua County. These men four years ago asked 

 Professor Bailey, as the horticulturist of Cornell Experiment 

 Station, to help them in fertilizing and caring for their vine- 

 yards. Of course, he could not undertake to supply expen- 

 sive plant-food for any one section of the state, for, even if 

 he had sufficient funds at command, other sections would 

 make similar application. The station, however, offered 

 to supervise any experiments which the local horticultural 

 society might undertake, and later on Mr. Lodeman went 

 into the district and outlined some experimental work to 

 be carried on. The people became so thoroughly inter- 

 ested in this work that they made application to the Legis- 

 lature for a small grant of money to be used for prosecuting 

 it in Chautauqua County vineyards. It was evident, how- 

 ever, that this work, if useful at all, ought to be undertaken 

 on a wider scale, and therefore a grant was made appli- 

 cable to the Fifth Judicial Department of the state, which 

 included sixteen counties in western New York. A sum of 

 $8,000 was given to the station to be used "in conducting 

 investigations and experiments in horticulture ; discovering 

 and remedying diseases of plants, vines and fruit-trees ; in 

 ascertaining the best means for fertilizing vineyards, fruit 

 and garden plantations ; in disseminating horticultural 

 knowledge, and in preparing and printing for free distribu- 

 tion the results of such investigation, with such other 

 information as may be deemed profitable in promoting the 

 horticultural interests of the state." 



This grant, requested by people of the Legislature of the 

 state, was the first instance, so far as we know, where a 

 farming community definitely demanded the means of 

 extending experimental and scientific knowledge in agri- 

 culture ; and although the promoters of the scheme 

 did not, perhaps, see its ultimate meaning, it marked a 

 long step forward. In the absence of the Director of the 

 Station, Professor Roberts, and of his assistant, Mr. Lode- 

 man, the responsibility of outlining and carrying this new 



work rested entirely upon Professor Bailey, who had no 

 precedents to guide him in using the money. The first 

 year's work was mainly preparatory and was spent in the 

 effort to find out what people needed and what they 

 wanted. Many meetings were held and bulletins pub- 

 lished, and at the end of the year a definite conception had 

 been formed of what could be accomplished. This was in 

 1894, and Professor Bailey estimates that the actual travel 

 in western New York, in pursuance of this bill, was some- 

 thing like 20,000 miles. In the winter of 1895 the people 

 requested the Legislature to increase the grant to $16,000, 

 which was at once acceded to. This year the work was 

 extended, and a special study was made to determine the 

 actual economic status of the farmer and the remedies for 

 his needs. Besides this inquiry, new experimental work 

 was laid out, many meetings were held, short-session hor- 

 ticultural schools were established in various towns and 

 many more bulletins were published. 



In January of 1896 the Legislature was again asked for 

 $16,000, and the appropriation was granted with great 

 unanimity. The marked feature of the enterprise this year 

 was an effort to apply the stimulus of a distinct educational 

 motive to rural communities — that is, to arouse farmers to 

 an appreciation of what had become an evident truth, that 

 education is the real cure of the trouble and distress in our 

 agricultural communities. The work of Professor Bailey 

 and his assistants, together with their bulletins, had proved 

 that the people need teaching more than they need experi- 

 menting, and the work was extended to the rural schools. 

 Here was another new departure, and Professor Bailey tes- 

 tifies that of all the work he has ever undertaken nothing 

 has ever inspired him or his assistants with such enthu- 

 siasm, and when they visited rural schools and began to 

 interest teachers and pupils in the common objects about 

 them the awakening of their mental activity was an unfail- 

 ing surprise. If there is to be any revival, any beginning 

 of new life to agriculture, here is where it must originate. 

 The best work now going on, therefore, is the endeavor to 

 interest teachers of public schools in nature study, and it 

 is gratifying to learn that the leaflets, of which we have 

 heretofore spoken and which are novel of their kind, have 

 been received with the greatest favor throughout the state, 

 and, indeed, everywhere else. This idea of carrying the 

 study of nature directly into rural communities is the most 

 promising development in the field of agriculture since the 

 experiment stations were established. In January of the 

 present year the people again went to the Legislature and 

 a distinctly new bill was passed. Hitherto the money had 

 been granted to a portion of the state and in the interest of 

 horticulture only. Now the demand came for a bill to 

 apply to the entire state and to the whole field of agricul- 

 ture, and $25,000 was asked to begin the work. This, too, 

 was plainly a popular movement, and it passed without 

 any opposition. The work now naturally falls into the 

 hands of the Director ot the Station, Professor Roberts, who 

 has had a general supervisory direction of it after the first 

 year. While it was limited to the field of horticulture under 

 the original Nixon Bill, forty-nine bulletins were issued, and 

 the farmers of the state seem to be awakened to avail them- 

 selves of the power to bring the agricultural college into 

 direct communication with the rural communities. They 

 show their appreciation of the situation by their demands 

 before the Legislature, and the strength and sincerity of 

 their desire is proved by the readiness with which the 

 Legislature accedes to their petitions. 



From time to time we have spoken of this movement as 

 its various phases developed. We have given some account 

 of the itinerant or local experiment work of the expository 

 bulletins as distinct from those which record strictly scien- 

 tific work, of the striking success of the horticultural 

 schools, and especially of the observation lessons which 

 have been uniformly one of the school exercises. In these 

 observation lessons some small object or part of a plant, 

 like leaves or roots, or flowers or seeds, are put into 

 the hands of all the audience, and after a short 



