58 



JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SOME PHASES OF TWENTIETH-CENTUEY HORTICULTURE 

 IN THE UNITED STATES. 



By Professor Coebett (of Washington City). 



[Lecture given on May 15, 1906.] 



Foe one who has, so to speak, grown up with and become a part of the 

 horticultural development of a country possessing such varied conditions 

 of soil and climate as the United States to attempt to give a retrospective 

 view of the horticultural conditions of the country is perhaps more 

 difficult than for one who -has not been so intimately in touch with the 

 work. The horticultural conditions of the country, barring the great 

 fruit developments, have assumed immense commercial proportions 

 which in character are very different from the conditions which existed 

 a decade ago. This has been brought about by the economic and climatic 

 conditions which exist in the United States. The economic factors 

 which have taken an active part in these changes have been the pheno- 

 menal growth of the great centres of consumption — that is, the great cities 

 of the United States — and the extension and perfection of the railways. 

 One other factor which has played an important part in this change is 

 the wide diversity of climatic conditions which exist from Maine to 

 Florida along the Atlantic coast. During the early part of the develop- 

 ment of any city its few supplies are, as a rule, drawn from a compara- 

 tively limited radius ; but as population increases the available territory 

 within a limited radius becomes inadequate to meet the demands of the 

 varied tastes of the people as well as inadequate to furnish a sufficient 

 supply. The demand of the cities for fresh vegetables and flowers 

 throughout the year has been an important, if not the most important, 

 factor in developing two or three commercial branches of horticulture. 



In the first place, the great industries which have grown up in the 

 neighbourhood of New York, Boston, and Chicago for the purpose of 

 growing vegetables, such as lettuces, radishes, tomatoes, and cucumbers, 

 out of season, as well as the immense areas of glass now devoted to the 

 production of roses and carnations, are developments due to, and de- 

 pendent upon, the great city populations. For many years the expense 

 attendant upon the production of vegetables, such as lettuces, tomatoes, 

 cauliflowers, and cucumbers, under glass confined the consumption of such 

 crops to those whose annual income was sufficient to allow them to 

 gratify their tastes for luxuries. With the extension and perfection of 

 the railway facilities of the United States other territories became, as it 

 were, within the radius of the natural area for supplying the great 

 centres of consumption. Districts 1,500 or 2,000 miles away can now be 

 reached by these arteries of commerce ; consequently such crops as were 

 formerly grown almost exclusively in forcing-houses can now be obtained 

 at a much less cost from more favourable latitudes, so that a great change 

 has taken place in this particular branch of horticulture. The market garden. 



