7G0 



HOirnCULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



early works need not be mentioned here. As early as 

 1785, Varlo's "New System of Husbandry" was printed 

 in Philadelphia. It is in many ways a remarkable book, 

 and it was written by a man who had had remarkable 

 experiences. He was not an American, and the work 

 first appeared in the old country; but Varlo had lived 

 in this country, and was in sympathy with the American 

 people. The book contained a "Farmer's and Kitchen 

 Garden Calendar." In 1792 there appeared anonymously, 

 from Burling-ton, New Jersey, the third edition of Ar- 

 thur Young's "Rural Economy," which excellently dis- 

 plays that noted author's catholicity of view. He ar- 

 gues strongly for experunents and for the establishing 

 of agricultural journals. This book first appeared in 

 London, in 1770. 



At the opening of the century, Sir Humphry Davy 

 had not illumined the science of agricultural chemistry, 

 and men were even disputing as to what the food of 

 plants is. The "burn-baking" or "devonshiring" of the 

 land— burning the sod and scattering the ashes over the 

 field — was still recommended ; and in 1799 James An- 

 derson's " Essay on Quick-lime as a Cement and as a 

 Manure," was given an American edition in Boston. It 

 is easy to see from these facts that the fundamental 

 conceptions of the science of agriculture were vague and 

 crude a century ago. Near the close of the last century, 

 Deane wrote that "the alarming effect of tlie present low 

 state of husbandry is, that we are necessitated to ini- 

 j>ort much of our food and clothing, while we are in- 

 capable of making proportionable remittances in the 

 produce of the soil, or in anything else." 



The earliest book on a horticultural subject known to 

 have been puVjlished in North America, excepting Mrs. 

 Logan's, was an American edition of Marshall's "Intro- 

 duction to the Knowledge and Practice of Gardening," 

 Boston, 1799. The first indigenous horticultural book 

 appeared in 1804, "The American Gardener," by .John 

 Gardiner and David Hepburn. It was published at 

 Washington. This book had an extensive sale. It was 

 revised by "a citizen of Virginia," and republished in 

 Georgetown, D. C, in JHlS. A third edition appeared in 

 1826. [See Rephurn,) This book was followed in 280(3 by 

 Bernard M'Mahon's excellent and voluminous "Ameri- 

 can (.Tardener's Calendar," in Piiilad^^lphia. This work 

 enjoyed much popularity, aud the eleventh edition ap- 

 peared as late as 18nT. For fifty years it remained the 

 best American work on general gardening. M'Malion 

 remembered in the Mahonia barberies, was an important 

 personage. He was largely responsible for the intro- 

 duction into cultivation of the plants collected by Lewis 

 and Clark. These early books were calendars, giving 

 advice for the successive months. They were made on 

 the plan then popular in Euglaud, a plan which has such 

 noteworthy precedent as tbe excellent "Kalendarium 

 Hortense " of John Evelyn, which first appeared in 1604, 

 and went to nine regular editions. Other early books of 

 this type were "An old gardener's 'Practical American 

 Gardener,' "Baltimore, 1819 and 1822; Tborburn's "Gen- 

 tleman's and Gardener's Kalendar," New York, the third 

 edition of which appeared in 1821 ; Robert Squibb's 

 "Gardener's Calendar for the States of North-Carolinji, 

 South-Carolina, and Georgia," Charleston, 1827. 



The first indigenous book written on the topical plan, 

 treating subject by subject, was Coxe's fruit book, 1817; 

 the second appears to have been Cohbett's "American 

 Gardener," published at New York in 1819, in London 

 in LS21, and which passed through subsequent editions. 

 This William Cobbett is the one who edited the feder- 

 alist paper in Philadelphia known as "Peter Porcupine's 

 Gazette," and whose attack upon Dr. Rush's treatment 

 of yellow fever brought against him a judgment for 

 damages, and which decided him to return to England 

 in 1800, whence he had come, by way of France, in 1792. 

 In London he again took up i>olitical writing, and in 

 1817 he retreated to America to osr-.ape political penal- 

 ties, and resided upon a farm on Long Island until 1819. 

 He kept a seed store in New York in 1818, aud we find 

 Grant Thorburn disputing with him in the "Evening 

 Post" as to which sold the better rutabaga seed at one 

 dollar a pouud, Cobbett, it seems, claimed to have been 

 the introducer of this vegetable, also known as the Rus- 

 sia turnip, into this country ; but ThorVmrn retorts thnt 

 *'in the year ]70(; a large tiehl of these turnips wm.s 



raised by Wm. Prout on that piece of ground now occu- 

 pied by the navy yard, at the city of Washington." H.- 

 completed his life in England, becoming a voluminous 

 author upon political and economical subjects. ( See Cob- 

 lif'tt.) It is interesting to note, in connection with this 

 dispute about the turnips, that the kohlrabi was intro- 

 duced al)out the s;i.nie time, and Deane says of it in 



V^_ 



1081. Two old-time flowers — Hollyhock and 

 Crown Imperial. 



1797, that "whether this plant, which has but nowly 

 found its way into our country, is hardy enongh to bear 

 the frost of our winters, I suppose is yet to be proved.'' 

 It was recommended to l)e grown as a biennial, which 

 accounts for Deanc's fear that it might not pass the 

 winters. 



Fessenden's "New American Gardener," made upon 

 the topical plan, appeared in Boston in 1828, and went tn 

 various editions ; and from this time on, gardenin^r 

 books were frequent. Some of the leading early authors 

 are Thomas Bridgeman, of New York ; Robert Buist. 

 of Philadelphia, and Joseph Breck, of Boston. 



Flower-Books and Floriculture. — The first Ameri- 

 can book devoted wholly to liowers was x'Jrobably Roland 

 tureen's "Treatise on the Cultivation of Flowers," Boston. 

 1828. Edward Sayers published the "American Flower 

 (larden Companion," in Boston, in 18.'38. From 1830 to 

 lyf'O tliere appeared many of those superficial and fash- 

 ionable books, which deal with the language of flowers, 

 and which assume that the proper way to popularize 

 botany is by means of manufactured sentiment. 



Green's book on flowers deserves a paragraph, since 

 it enables us to determine what were the leading orna- 

 mental plants in that early day {1828}. The full title of 

 the book is "A Treatise on the Cultivation of Ornamental 

 Flowers; Comprising Remarks on the Requisite Soil. 

 Sowing, Transplanting, and General Management: with 

 Directions for the General Treatment of Bulbous Flower 

 Roots, Greenhouse Plants, etc." It comprises only GO 

 pages. The introductory pages give general directions; 

 then follow two annotated lists, one of annuals and bi- 

 ennials aud the otherof greenhouse plants. These lists 

 are interesting, also, for what they do not contain. All 

 the plants which they mention are here set down: 



ANNUAL AND BIKNNMAL FI^OWEKS. 



AltlKPH fnitex, 



Alnnmd, I>>>uljle-n<i\vfrinj^, 



Amixr;i.Titlius .superlmfi, 



Ain;ir;intlins tri<'olor, 



Animiited i );its, 



Aster, China, 



Aiiricula, 



Azalea nuiliflorH, 



Box, 



lirier, Rwrot, 



Ciintevlmry Bell, 



< ';ini;i.ti"n, 



<":(,ssi;i .Ma.ryl.iiidic.i. 



(\-i,t.a.lpa. 



Cherry, Doiihle-flowerins, 

 Clirysaiithemutn Indicum, 

 Clematis, Austrian {G. in- 



teqrifolia), 

 Clettira, 

 Columbine, 

 Convolvulus, 

 Oorchorus Jajionicus, 

 Croeus, 

 Cupids Car, or jMonk'a Rood 



(Aconitum). 

 Duhlia. 



