50 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
January, 1919 
A Sketch of the History of Horti- 
culture. 
(Being lecture notes prepared 
by the late E. S. Goff in 1889.) 
The beginning's of the so-called 
useful arts generally, if not al- 
ways, antedated the period of 
written history. This is neces- 
sarily true, because, as we know, 
the art of writing indicates a 
comparatively high degree of civ- 
ilization, and the problems of 
food, clothing and shelter were of 
more serious importance to primi- 
tive man, than the discovery of a 
medium for perpetuating his 
thoughts. The early history of 
horticulture, therefore, like that 
of architecture, metallurgy and 
the manufacture of textile fabrics 
is of necessity to some extent a 
matter of conjecture. Sacred his- 
tory places our first parents in a 
garden, and makes the first man 
a gardener. So far, at least, hor- 
ticulture may claim the honor of 
being the oldest art. But other 
arguments may be advanced in 
favor of this proposition. The 
fruits of the earth are almost the 
only products that are ready for 
human food without some degree 
of preparation, and that may be 
secured without the exercise of 
some degree of skill. The grains 
require threshing and winnowing, 
if not grinding; the birds and 
other animals of the chase, and 
the fish of the waters are only 
taken by the employment of con- 
siderable ingenuity and skill; but 
the wild fruits of the forests and 
prairies required only to be 
plucked and eaten. It seems rea- 
sonable to suppose then that these 
would be the first products of na- 
ture that would be protected and 
fostered by primitive man. 
The first rude savage, who 
thought far enough to surround 
the tree or shrub that yielded his 
favorite fruit or berry with some 
protective barrier, or to break 
down or root out other trees or 
shrubs that were encroaching up- 
on this one, was, without being 
conscious of it, the father of the 
art that we are studying today un- 
der the name of horticulture. We 
ha\e no conception of the partic- 
ular part of the earth, nor of the 
exact time at which this act oc- 
curred, nor whether or not it hap- 
pened simultaneously at more 
than one place. 
So much for speculation. So 
far as history comes to our aid, it 
tends to confirm these views. The 
ancient writings of most, if not all 
the oriental countries, contain 
more or less frequent allusions to 
gardens and the cultivation of 
fruits and other edible plants 
The descriptions given of the gar- 
dens of those times are, foi* the 
most part, so much mingled with 
the fabulous that we can gather 
little authentic information from 
them. They serve, however, to 
demonstrate that the art of gar- 
dening has existed from the earl- 
iest historic ages. The fact that 
in the Mosaic account our first 
parents were placed in a garden 
adds weight to this conclusion. 
The so-called hanging gardens of 
Babylon, described by Pliny, the 
gardens of Hesperides, described 
by Scylax in the sixth century 
B. C., of Aleinous and Laertes 
described by Homer in the Odyssy 
may or may not have had an ac- 
tual existence. Authors are not 
agreed on this point, but we are 
safe in assuming that these de- 
scriptions were not pure creations 
of fancy, and that gardens of con- 
siderable extent and beauty did 
exist in those times. 
The art of cultivating the soil, 
according to Sir Isaac Newton, 
Stillingfleet and others originated 
in Egypt. However this may be, 
the ancient monuments give un- 
mistakeable evidence that the soil 
in that country was cultivated at 
a very early period. Upon the 
outside of the pyramid of Cheops 
was found an inscription in Egyp- 
tian characters recording the 
various sums of money expended 
during the progress of the work 
for the radishes, onions and garlic 
consumed by the workmen. We 
know that the Israelites, during 
their wanderings in the wilderness 
sighed for the figs, vines, pome- 
granates, melons, onions and gar- 
lic to which they had been accus- 
tomed in Egypt. That the art of 
cultivating vegetables must have 
been in an advanced state in this 
country at an early time is evi- 
dent from the pains taken to pro- 
vide means for irrigation. Ac- 
cording to Herodotus, the sacred 
groves or gardens were often of 
extraordinary beauty, and Strabe 
represents Egypt in his time, (the 
beginning of the Christian era) 
as a delicious garden, through 
which a traveller might proceed 
from one end to the other, under 
the shade of all kinds of fruit 
trees. 
The frequent mention of horti- 
cultural products in the bible 
would indicate that the Jews paid 
considerable attention to garden- 
ing. Solomon says (Eccles. ii, 5, 
9) : “I made me gardens and para- 
dises, and I planted in them all 
kinds of fruit ti’ees. I made me 
pools of water to water with them 
the groves flourishing with trees.” 
The remains of some of these pools 
are said still to exist. Solomon is 
said to have possessed a vineyard 
at Baalhaman which he let out at 
1,000 pieces of silver per annum. 
From Jeremiah II, 21, we learn 
that their vines were grown from 
