OUTSIDE THE GARDEN. 



447 



shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and the intervening 

 Mississippi, instead of the Levant, Mesopotamia 

 and the Nile, and our old world had been open to 

 us as a new world, less than four hundred years ago. 



Who, except the botanist — Darwin — could have 

 written two of the most suggestive and valuable 

 works ever produced as guides to the horticulturist ? 

 These are, first, " Animals and Plants under Domes- 

 tication," second, and in my opinion most valuable 

 of all books to the horticulturist, "The Effects of 

 Cross and Self- Fertilization in the Vegetable King- 

 dom." 



The former is the easier to understand and the 

 more popular — it has been much read and quoted, 

 and has already made a lasting impression on horti- 

 culture ; the latter has yet apparently scarcely pro- 

 duced an impression, and was undoubtedly written 

 in advance of the times. 



The Gardeners' Chronicle remarked,' upon the ad- 

 vent of this latter book : " For our horticultural read- 

 ers the great value of Mr. Darwin's last work consists 

 in the practical applications which follow from the 

 author's very numerous, protracted and laborious 

 experiments, yet it is certain, that those practical re- 

 sults will be a long time filtering into the minds of 

 those who will eventually most profit by them." The 

 lines which I have italicised are prophetic. 



It is now over fourteen years since this book ap- 

 peared, yet we have heard of scarcely any horti- 

 culturist who have practiced what Mr. Darwin 

 showed to be advantageous. I have heard of noth- 

 ing that has since been done in a practical way, in 

 Europe, to confirm or disprove the experiments of 

 Mr. Darwin. In this country, I have not heard, as 

 I now recollect, of a single instance of experiments 

 in this line, excepting some which I conducted soon 

 after the book was published.* These results were 

 presented at several conventions and a report print- 

 ed in several journals, yet no one seems to have 

 taken any note of them. 



The following from Mr. Darwin's book should be 

 committed to memory by every progressive horti- 

 culturist : "It is a common practice with horti- 

 culturists to obtain seeds from another place having 

 a very different soil so as to avoid raising plants 

 for a long succession of generations under the same 

 conditions ; but with all the species which freely in- 

 tercross by the aid of insects or the wind, it would 

 be an incomparably better plan to obtain seeds of 

 the required variety, which had been raised for some 

 generations under as different conditions as possi- 

 ble, and sow them in alternate rows with seeds ma- 



(*) See Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts, May, 1879. 



tured in the old garden. The two stocks would 

 then intercross, with a thorough blending of their 

 whole organizations, and with no less of purity to 

 the variety ; and this would yield far more favora- 

 ble results than a mere exchange of seeds." 



A thorough knowledge of botany will every day 

 add much to the pleasure and satisfaction of the 

 horticulturist, as plants in various conditions in the 

 ever changing seasons are everywhere about him in 

 great variety and profusion. Such knowledge is 

 indispensable to enable him to receive the greatest 

 benefit possible from a visit taken in any country 

 at any time. 



I must say a word in regard to that garden fence 

 which is mentioned in your May leader, "A New 

 Science." Thirty or forty years ago, nearly all the 

 gardens to be found on our best farms were sur- 

 rounded by a high picket fence to keep out the 

 hens, the pigs, the puppies and stray cattle. It 

 also served pretty effectually to keep out the horse 

 and cultivator and a regular and liberal supply of 

 barnyard manure. Within such enclosures, small 

 fruits and vegetables were usually much neglected, 

 few in quantity and poor in quality, or if well cared 

 for, the labor was performed by hand at great cost 

 of sweat and muscle. More recently, in place of the 

 picket fence, an evergreen hedge has sometimes 

 enclosed the garden patches, but in modern times, 

 tidy farmers usually keep fowls, swine and other 

 live stock securely enclosed, and have torn down, 

 carried away and abandoned the garden fence al- 

 together. Even the evergreen hedge is not now 

 considered essential. As the farm garden has now 

 become more easily accessible and better planned 

 for convenience, for tillage by horse and cultivator, 

 it is better kept, more interesting, oftener visited 

 and more profitable. 



Considering all of these modern improvements, 

 including a much greater assortment of fruits and 

 vegetables of new or improved sorts, and also 

 observing of late the increased enthusiasm and 

 intelligence given to horticulture, the botanist is 

 more than willing to call around occasionally to 

 visit the gardener, look over his asparagus, praise 

 his lettuce, test his strawberries, and see how his 

 cantaloupes are progressing. Perhaps the older 

 botanists neglected the garden because of the for- 

 midable pickets of the fence, the want of interest 

 manifested by the proprietor and the poor show for 

 " garden sauce." But since things have improved, 

 botanists are becoming more attentive. Darwin has 

 already observed the roots of the turnips, the bulbs 

 of the onions, compared the cabbage heads, studied 



