A feature of floriculture is the business enterprise shown in the maintenance of beauti ful stores and shops in nearly all of our cities. Most of these- establishments grow some or nearly all of the flowers and plants they sell. A valuable educational feature of the work of the various flower stores is to be found in the constantly changing beautiful window displays. The florists are well organized nationally and locally. Some of the more important national organizations are °The Society of American Florists and Ornamental °The American Rose and °The American Carnation Society?) The mechanical improve ments and developments in the construction of forcing houses have been marked during the past decade. In the early days the houses for the most part were low, relatively small, and constructed of wood in such fashion that plants were subjected to rather unfavorable condi tions, especially during the winter months. More recently, iron and steel have come to be used quite generally in the construction of much larger and better lighted houses, all well ven tilated and heated. Many of these houses are of large size, sometimes covering acres of ground. The construction of glass houses and the utilization of glass houses for the growing and forcing of plants has advanced more rapidly in this country than in any other coun try of the world.
Landscape Art.— Landscape art or land scape gardening is the development or creation of landscape pictures through the proper and artistic use of plants, roadways, walks, drives, water courses, lakes, etc. In a broad sense the term landscape architecture is sometimes used. This term, however, applies to matters outside the realm of horticulture, hence does not con cern us here. Landscape gardening involves not only a knowledge of how to use plants in the development of beautiful and artistic land scape effects, but it also involves broad horti cultural knowledge regarding plant growing, propagation, plant habits, hardiness, tenderness, etc. Landscape gardening may be natural or formal, or it may be of many intermediate forms between these two styles. The tendency in America, as in England, is in the direction of the natural form in landscape work — that is, to make a beautiful natural picture, to bring into our dooryards or into our public or private parks, large or small, a bit of nature as we frequently see it in the woods or in the fields. Formal landscape work has its place, but it is limited. Even in cities where everything is formal, it is coming to be recognized that bits of natural scenery are appreciated by the peo ple. A study of the history of landscape work shows that it has been profoundly influenced by the literature and thought of the people of the time. Japanese landscape designing, for ex ample, is in a measure an expression of the soul of the people. To us much of their work may seem purposeless and meaningless, but probably nowhere in the world has so many meanings been put into an art as in the landscape art of Japan. Plants and flowers are not always nec essary for landscape work in Japanese designs. $tones may be used to symbolize such ideas as peace, old age, contentment, etc. Japanese gar dening has been introduced here and some fine examples of it are to be found in various parts of the country. Within recent years there has been a great awakening of the public, especially in the older and more thickly populated centres, in home beautification and community effort in civic improvement. The rapid growth of sub
urban villages, owing to better facilities for transportation, has made practicable an expres sion of the love for gardening in the adorn ment of the home lot, the village street and the village community centre. The nature study movement, the home improvement clubs, the civic centre clubs have all contributed to wider interest in landscape work. The ad vances in educational work in horticulture should be noted. The pedagogical value of horticulture, or a knowledge of plants, how they grow and live, has come to be recognized and is now applied in the elementary and sec ondary schools in many sections of the coun try. Horticulture is not taught with the object of turning the minds of the pupils especially toward plants and crops, but the subject is rec ognized as a means of awakening the mind, developing the observational powers and in other ways aiding in the physical, moral and mental growth of the pupils.. The school gar den work is gradually assuming an important role in educational effort. This is particularly true of rural schools, where theory and practice may be co-ordinated through classroom work with what has come to be called the home project. The pupil gets the basic ideas in the classroom and proceeds to apply them under the direction of the competent teacher in the carrying out of a definite piece of work like the care of an orchard, a vineyard or a gar den in his or her own home. Through these activities the proper foundation is laid for broader work in the State agricultural colleges and universities. Nearly all the State univer sities and agricultural colleges now have well organized departments of horticulture. A considerable number of the institutions have gone farther and have separated horticulture into the four classes discussed here. In these institutions these classes are recognized as separate and distinct departments with separate and distinct courses of study. The increasing work of the State agricultural experiment stations has created a demand for trained men in horticulture, consequently the courses at nearly all• the institutions are sought by young men and young women who recognize in the work a fine field for professional service as well as one where excellent training in the growing and selling of many horticultural prod ucts which the people demand may be secured for practical work on one's own place.
The literature on horticul ture is voluminous. The National Department of Agriculture, the State experiment stations and the State agricultural colleges are all turn ing out numerous bulletins and leaflets each year. There is scarcely a subject in the whole horticultural field that has not already been covered in the series of Farmers' Bulletins issued by the United States Department of Agriculture. The standard horticultural work is Bailey's 'Cyclopedia of Horticulture,' pub lished in six volumes, with 3,639 pages and more than 4,000 illustrations. This valuable work was published 1900-02; new edition 1917. Special works are White, E. A., 'Principles of Galloway, B. T., 'Commercial Violet Culture' ; Wilkinson, A. E., 'The Corbett, L. C., 'Garden Farming.>