TWENTIETH-CENTURY HORTICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 61 



and which has been borrowed from the mother country, is the increased 

 number of popular and high-class farm journals bringing before the 

 American readers the possibilities which exist in country life. The con- 

 gested condition which has resulted from the rapid increase in popula- 

 tion in the great cities, together with the tremendous advance in the price 

 of urban property, has forced people of small means to look beyond the 

 confines of the city for suitable residential places. Many of these people 

 were reared in the free atmosphere of the country, and after they have 

 acquired a sufficient amount of the world's goods to enable them to stop 

 and reflect, their attention is directed by these publications to the condi- 

 tions of their childhood. Bright sunshine, pure air, and broad fields have 

 become more attractive to them than congested avenues and streets. The 

 result is that at present there is a decided tendency to give attention 

 to the restoration of country life in its broad sense. Movements which 

 are on foot and improvements w^hich have been made in steam and 

 electric transportation now enable men of business, whose presence for six 

 or eight hours of each day must be in one of the great commercial centres, 

 to maintain their residence ten, fifteen, twenty-five, or even fifty miles from 

 the scene of their daily occupation. The improvement of the roads, which 

 is now being discussed in many cities, and which is actually being put into 

 practice in many others, will enable the horseless carriage to convey persons 

 ten, twelve, or fifteen miles each day to and from their places of business. 

 The extension of steam and electric railways in every direction from the 

 cities has for several years been working to carry the city to the country. 

 These movements all have a marked bearing upon horticultural conditions. 

 The possession of acres instead of square feet of land about the house 

 naturally attracts one's attention to decorative, fruit-bearing, and garden 

 plants. Every suburban residence lot consisting of a half -acre or more 

 of land has upon it a considerable variety of trees and shrubs intended for 

 decorative as well as commercial purposes. The ornamental generally 

 precedes the utilitarian. The embellishment of the grounds by the 

 making of lawns, planting of trees and shrubs, is, as a rule, the first work 

 of the landholder. The fruit garden and the vegetable garden come 

 later if at all. This movement has created a demand for simple and 

 inexpensive methods of rendering house surroundings attractive. The 

 demand for such material is felt, and is being provided for by such 

 agencies as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, various State experiment 

 stations and colleges, and perhaps most of all by the commercial nursery- 

 men. As might be expected, the use of indigenous plants has been the 

 keynote to the success, if it may be called such, of this movement. Those 

 who have been factors in directing the training of the public mind in 

 matters relating to the decoration of home grounds have been wise in 

 calling attention to what nature has provided in each locality for meeting 

 these problems. Nurserymen have felt the impress of this work, and are 

 now giving more attention than formerly to the production of indigenous 

 shade and ornamental trees, as well as to the native shrubs and herbaceous 

 plants. 



This popular return to more natural conditions has even extended itself 

 to the charitable work of the great cities, notably in Philadelphia, Washing- 

 ton, and others. The character of this work is somewhat unique, and may 



