-] HE EDITOR'S OUTLOOK. 



113 



so general in some regions, particularly iu the 

 middle states, as to be a serious obstacle to any re- 

 strictive legislation. It is only when a plant dis- 

 ease is considered as a public nuisance or menace 

 that our law makers can be prevailed upon to re- 

 gard it as a subject worthy of legislation ; and it is 

 only upon this ground that the justice and consti- 

 tutionality of restrictive laws can stand. One has 

 a right to demand that the state protect him from 

 plague and contagion, and no man has the right to 

 harbor any agency or disease which will imperil his 

 neighbor's interests. We must unite solidly and 

 systematically or we cannot hope to control plant 

 diseases. The interest of the individual must be 

 subordinated to that of the community, and it will 

 be but a short time until the interests of the two 

 will be found to be identical. Legislation for the 

 control of plant diseases must be the next demand 

 of horticulturists, and the sooner we act, the greater 

 must be the benefits. 



In the mean time, the dispersion of knowledge on 

 the subject among those interested is of vital impor- 

 tance, for the best law in the world is worth little 

 or nothing without public sentiment to back its en- 

 forcement. If the state of the public mind in Mich- 

 igan with regards to the yellows law is caused to 

 exist in the other peach growing regions, the neces- 

 sary laws will easily be obtained, and may as readily 

 enforced. 



Let every horticulturist, then, agitate the matter, 

 and tell the Michigan story. The results, affecting 

 so promptly and greatly the net income of the grow- 

 ers, are the most powerful argument for the intro- 

 duction of like laws in other parts of the country. 



WE ARE apt to think that 

 success in horticulture 



OF SUCCESS. 



is determined by the region in 

 which we live. Those of us whose lots are cast in 

 the north are particularly fond of picturing to our- 

 selves regions where palms and oranges grow in the 

 fields and roses bloom throughout the twelve months 

 in the hedge-rows. But we forget that neither the 

 love of gardens nor pecuniary reward is measured 

 by luxuriance of vegetation or general length of 

 season. Each region has its own peculiar possibiH- 

 ties, in the development of which the grower can 

 exhaust his ingenuity. Every person of large ob- 

 servation must have noticed that there are as many 

 successful men in trying climates as in mild ones, 

 and, in truth, there are often more, for the very 

 difficulties intensify endeavor. Nor are there any 



regions in which the cultivator is free from difficul- 

 ties. Everywhere there are uncertainties of mar- 

 kets and labor and weather, and everywhere there 

 are fungi and insects. Fruit growing in Florida 

 suffers more from frost than it does in New York. 

 Success is oftener measured by the man than by 

 the state in which he lives ; and happiness, which 

 is an important element of success, comes only 

 when the man is in full sympathy with his surround- 

 ings. The man who wanders in search of a better 

 country is apt to be a discontented man, and the 

 discontented man is seldom a successful man, or in 

 the way of really lielping himself or others to better 

 things in the world. Association and love of locality 

 are too little appreciated by American, and every 

 climate has its pleasures. We love to read of green 

 fields and blooming trees when our northern hills are 

 white with snow, but for ourselves, we will choose 

 the conservator}' or the forcing house while the 

 storms rage without, rather than the orange groves 

 and cocoanuts in sweeter climates ; and who can 

 love the spring-time and the autumn who has not 

 felt the rigors of winter or sighed with the shortness 

 of summer ! 



NOTHING shows more clearly 

 PL'i \rs advances horticul- 



ture is making in America than 

 the interest, apparently deep and abiding, that 

 has grown up in a decade or two in the more un- 

 usual forms of plant growth. Orchids, for exam- 

 ple, have come to be known and admired the coun- 

 try over, and an exhibition of them is sure to attract 

 great attention everywhere, and still greater curios- 

 ity as to their capabilities for popular use and cul- 

 ture. It is not visionary to predict that our window- 

 gardening women will shortly exhibit some plant of 

 this heretofore rare order in full vigor as their chief 

 treasure. 



Cactuses have changed front vastly in public esti- 

 mation and use also. Their peculiarities are ad- 

 mired, and the "night-blooming serious" of our 

 friend R. T. Choke, is not any longer the sole repre- 

 sentative of the class. 



A great field is yet open for exploits in developing 

 little known forms, both native and foreign, and to 

 this work The American Garden is most heartily 

 devoted, in line with its general policy of doing 

 everything for the true good of horticulture. Our 

 exposition of the cactuses last year, and of orchids 

 in this and succeeding issues indicate the desire in 

 this direction. We bespeak the aid of all true hor- 

 ticulturists. 



