Encyclopedia of Practical 
Horticulture 
ADAPTATIONS OF PLANTS See Plant 
Physvology. 
AGE or APPLE TREES See Oldest Orch- 
ard wm the Yahima Valley 
Ace or Trecs, How DETERMIVED 
Nursery under Apple 
see 
Agriculture 
AGRICULTURE 18 the cultivation of the 
soil for food products, or for any other 
useful or valuable growths of the field or 
garden, tillage; husbandry; also by ex- 
tending the meaning it has come to in- 
clude any industry practiced by the cul- 
tivator of the soil in connection with 
such cultivation, as forestry, fruit-rais- 
ing, breeding and rearing stock, dairying, 
market gardening, etc. 
FARMING refers to the cultivation of con- 
siderable portions of land, and the raising 
of the coarser crops GARDENING is the 
close cultivation of a small area of small 
fruits, flowers, vegetables, etc, for the 
household, or market FLORICULTURE, the 
culture of flowers, HorTicuLtTurs, the cul- 
tivation of fruits, flowers or vegetables. 
HUSBANDRY is a general word for any 
form of practical agriculture, but is now 
chiefly poetical. 
Tiru~ace refers to the work practically 
applied on the land, such as plowing, har- 
rowing, manuring, etc. 
CuntuRE is now applied to the careful 
development of any product to a state of 
perfection, especially by care through suc- 
cessive generations; the choice varieties 
of strawberry, for instance, have been 
produced by wise and patient culture. 
—STANDARD DICTIONARY 
Arm DratnaGeE See Apple Orchard, Se- 
lecting a Site For. 
Alabama 
Alabama has an area of 52,250 square 
miles, and is bounded on the south by 
Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, which 
latter fact tempers its heat in summer. 
The Tennessee river, and its tributaries, is 
a draimage sistem for the northern part 
of the state, and the Valley of the Ten- 
nessee 18 one of the most famous agricul- 
tural sections of the lower Appalachian 
system. It is a delightful country, gently 
rolling, varying in elevation from 500 to 
800 feet 
The Mobile river system, which empties 
into the Mobile bav, drains the principal 
part of the state Its largest tributaries 
are the Tombigbee and the Alabama riv- 
ers. The so-called mountain system of 
Alabama hardly rises to the dignity of 
mountains, for the highest points are only 
about 1,800 feet above the sea. The sur- 
face in the north and northeast, embrac- 
ing about two-fifths of the state, is diver- 
sified and picturesque The remaining 
portion is occupied by a slightly undulat- 
ing plain, having its incline towards 
Mississippi and the Gulf Extending en- 
tirely across the state for about 20 miles 
south from its northern boundary, and 
in the middle stretching about 60 miles 
farther south, is the Cumberland Plateau, 
or Tennessee valley region, broken into 
broad table lands and dissecting rivers 
In the northern part of this plateau, west 
of Jackson county, there are about 1,000 
square miles of level land from 700 to 800 
feet above the sea. 
The climate for the most part of the 
state is sem1-tropical and temperate. In 
the hill regions, the air is pure and the 
climate salubrious. The sea breezes tem- 
per the heat along the Gulf, and the 
ranges of hills break the winds in the 
northern part 
At Mobile the annual mean tempera- 
ture is 67 degrees. The annual mean tem- 
perature for summer is 81 degrees and in 
winter it is 52 degrees. At Valley Head, 
DeKalb county, the annual mean temper- 
ature is 59 degrees, in summer 75 and in 
winter 41 degrees. 
