HORTICULTURE. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Horticurtore is that branch of rural economy which 
consists in the formation and culture of Gardens. Its 
results are culinary vegetables, fruits, and flowers. On 
one side it is allied to Agriculture, from which, how: 
ever, it is distinguished by the nature of its products, 
and by the smaller extent and greater complexity of 
its operations; on the other side, in its processes’ of 
embellishment, it approaches the department of the 
Landscape Gardener and the Forester, from which, how- 
ever, it also retires in the comparative minuteness of its 
details. 
Like other arts, Horticulture borrows its principles 
from the general sciences. To Botany it is beholden 
for the facts and theories of vegetable physiology; to 
Chemistry for assistance in reference to soils, manures, 
and artificial heat; and to Meteorology for a knowledge 
of many circumstances which very materially affect the 
labors of the gardener. With these subjects, the phi- 
losophical horticulturist will not fail to make himself 
familiar, But it is very desirable that such information 
should be extensively diffused among practicad men; as 
