424 
STATE HORTICULTUKAL ‘SOCIETY. 
ranee as a man of science. His science without art or experi¬ 
ence led him to believe and to promulgate the theory that 
recent undecomposed manure was the proper food for plants^ 
a theory at variance with the experience of all art gardeners, 
and an error. Nor is Sir H. Davy the only reputed man of 
science who has made blunders in gardening. I have myself 
known a gentleman who stands pretty high in this state as a 
horticulturist plant a top onion upside down, it not having 
occurred to him that there was either top or bottom to an onion. 
Sir John Herschel has well said in relation to this distinctive 
character of art and science: “In the progress of mankind 
from barbarism to civilized life, the arts necessarily precede 
science. Applications come later; the ^rts continue slowly 
progressive, but their realm remains separated from that of 
science by a wide gulf.” Art itself, he wisely characterizes 
under two heads—that wl:iich consists merely of accumulative 
experience^ in which the reasonable faculties had played but a 
small part, and the scientific art —the result of “ experience rea¬ 
soned upon and brought under general principlesy This is true 
art, whilst that'is only false or empirical, as Sir John calls it. 
When, therefore, I speak of the principles of gardening or 
horticulture, I would be understood as meaning the principles 
of gardening derived as well from art, that is, practical experi¬ 
ence, as from true science, which is knowledge, practical as 
well as theoretical, a basis of fact as well as of reason under¬ 
stood and demonstrable. 
I have said that the first requirement*of a garden is, that it 
should be both pleasant and useful. Conc^erning its shape or 
the proper form of its boundary line, it is not easy to lay down 
any rule, nor, indeed, bearing in mind that the outlines of our 
gardens are already laid out in rather an arbitrary rpanner, 
after the fashion oi oblong lots and blocks, it is but seldom 
necessary. Where, however, our residence is in the country, 
and we are untrammeled by mty restrictions, the question may 
occur, of what form shall a garden be made ? And the answer 
will be just what the practice always is,—according to your 
fancy. It were to be wished that I could tell you what fancy 
