We can not fully guard against these extremes, especially the saturation of soil and atmosphere that sometimes takes place in the season of most rapid growth. It is a curious fact, by the way, that some of the finest fruit is grown in these regions of greatest extremes. The finest apples of Russia are said to come from the Crimea, where the thermometer goes up to 100° of sum mer heat, and the cold of winter is intense. The like is true of the finest fruit countries of Asia, which are all, presumably, continental in their cli mates. The small fruits, including under that name the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, currant, and gooseberry, (and we might include the cran berry and whortleberry,) are in many respects. desirable and valuable crops. The strawberry, from its early returns, fruiting heavily one year from planting, is a desirable crop for the person of small means, or for any one desiring early returns. As it is a low plant, its conditions can be more easily controlled than those of any other fruit by mulching or covering. The raspberry and blackberry bear some fruit in the second. year, sometimes amounting to a good crop, and are desirable for that reason. The currant and gooseberry come later into bearing, and are vamable chiefly for their involving small expense in culture and being hardy and productive, rather than high-priced. The strawberry is, without doubt, the most valuable of the small fruits, and the raspberry least so. Vegetable or market gardening near the cities and large towns and to a certain extent where there are good facilities for shipping, is a remunerative though a laborious business, and is associated to a cer tain extent with fruit growing to advantage. In many cases it borders close upon ordinary agriculture. But in many instances again it requires the best skill of the horticulturist for success. Vegetables grown for their roots or tubers are such as the beet, carrot, onion, par snip, potato, radish, rutabaga, sweet potato, and turnip. Vegetables grown for their tops or stems, are such as the asparagus, cabbage, cauli flower, celery, and rhubarb. Vegetables grown for their fruit are the bean, corn, cucumber, egg-plant, melon, pea, squash, tomato, and watermelon. Tree growing, for timber and other purposes, comes late in horticultural pro gress, and does not look to very immediate results. Yet the attention given to it by govern ments and individuals in the Old World, evinces its importance and warns us to provide for the future of our own country. We should have trees growing on every declivity too steep for profitable cultivation, and on the west side, at least, of every farm. Hedging, under the impetus it has received from the high prices of fencing, and from the better knowledge of its management is getting on satisfactorily, and the abundant and cheap supply of Osage Orange plants, is fast surrounding our prairie, and even our forest farms with a living wall. The Osage Orange is -the surest, and, so far north as its culture can be safely carried, seems to be the• best. Very beautiful as an ornamental hedge, and perhaps sufficient for a fence, is the Pyrus Japonica. As in other horticulture, deep and thorough preparation of ground, careful plant ing, and clean cultivation are prime necessities. Belts or wind breaks have been highly extolled and somewhat planted in our prairies. For these belts immediate utility and rapid growth are generally prime requisites, and hence trees of an inferior quality of timber, such as the soft maple, cottonwood, white willow, etc., are planted. But it is evident that evergreens and some of the better deciduous trees should be planted under their lee, to finally replace. them. Ornamental horticulture, though very attractive, of course, makes comparatively slow advance in any new country. It appeals to the msthetic part of our nature, and, therefore, can only receive due attention after hunger is satisfied, and the more immediate necessities of life pro vided for. Ornamental tree planting, with the exception perhaps of some faint attempt at flower growing—the pathetic effort, of a wife or daughter to redeem the arid desert of a corn and hog-grower's front yard, naturally comes first. An ornamental tree or shrub, in a farmer's eye has the immense advantage after once estab lished, of taking pare of itself. In ornamental tree planting we may plant many trees not very valuable on account of their beauty of form or foliage. The white elm is a conspicuous ex ample of this kind. The is one of the finest, and the white and burr oak are magnifi cent species, combining the picturesque with the beautiful. The study of these trees, singly and in mass; their characteristics of height and outline; shape of foliage; its shade of green and its autumn colors, as well as the effect of their blossoming, are important as preliminary to the grouping and contrasts of landscape gardening. As a rule, trees of heavy foliage and dense shadow, like the catalpa and linden, with pen dant rather than horizontal spray, as the white elm and the willow, and of varied tints, as the locust, in the different shades of its younger and older leaves, or the sugar maple in its change from summer to autumn hues, are most admir able for planting singly. Flower gardening can only be commended in its results. Modern art has compassed the globe, and brought to our homes the floral treasures of ancient Asia and the isles of the sea. But flower culture, attrac tive as it is to the more refined tastes of woman, and all who sympathize with her, commends itself to us as one of the most innocent of amusements, and one of the most instructive and refining of pursuits. It has too—though that seems little thought of, its market value; and the increasing demand for flowers by those who can not or will not grow them, will give' an added interest to the occupation. Landscape gardening may be said to include the whole, of which ornamental trees and flower culture are parts. Here we bring under consideration the configuration of the surface ; the surrounding landscape; the effects of grouping and massing trees, shrubs, and flowers of different colors and shades of color; the massing of single colors, and uniform outlines, and one knows not how many intricate msthetic questions. For land scape gardening is painting in living colors. Longfellow addressing the children at their play, said Ye are better than all the poems That were ever sung or said, For ye are the living poems, And all the rest are dead.
Landscape gardening is better than the painter's work in the same way. It is the reality of whibh the other is but the shadow. And, though the breadth of surface and the means of carrying out its mdre elaborate designs are generally beyond private means, there is yet a great neglect of what might be done easily and cheaply,with only a little foresight and thought. A little clump of trees planted on an eminence, costs but a few dollars, yet it may be a point of beauty in the landscape, for a lifetime. A chance elm that has sprung up in a distant corner of the farm, may be staked about and protected in a few minutes time, yet hangs like a green cloud on the horizon for long years to come. Still more will a little work effect great things in the clearing of woodlands. The trees that may be saved, and in one way or another made to subserve the adornment of a home, are grown for our purpose and we gain a genera tion's and see with the eyes of our children. Scientific horticulture is carried on with the primary purpose of increasing knowledge. It aims at the truth, whilst ornamental horticulture seeks the beautiful, and useful horticulture the good. Collections of trees form an attractive pursuit. Arranged botanically, even a single straight row of trees, representing, the more common and hardy species, may be made instruc tive. In conclusion, Mr. Flagg says: In all time, horticulture has been the favorite pursuit of the more advanced races and of the foremost men. It was, we are told, the occupation of our first parents, and our second ancestor planted a vine yard, if he did not make an altogether commend; able use of the product. The hanging gardens of Babylon were the wonder of the ancient world, and the sculptures of old Egypt reveal the esteem in which the art was held in that dim and distant time. The Homeric poems with their Garden of Alcinous, whose fruit never perishes, nor does it fail winter or summer, lasting throughout the whole year; but the west wind ever blowing makes some bud forth and ripens others—their Isle of Calypso, where four foun tains flowed in succession, with white water, turned near one another, each in different ways, but around there flourished soft meadows of violets and of parsley—bear witness of other and ancient days, as did Theocritus, and Virgil, and Horace, in their time. It was Lord Bacon who said: God Almighty first planted a garden, and, indeed, it is the purest of all human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, Without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks; and a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and elegance, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfec tion. Thomas Jefferson—one of the greatest and certainly the most influential in his own and subsequent generations of American statesmen, whose declaration of the absolute equality of man hung on the horizon like the moue tekel upharsin on the wall of the feasting Belshazzar, and won the battles of the second as well as the first revolution—kept a record through the eight years of his presidency of the first appearance and the disappearance of the various vegetables in the Washington markets, and spent his rural hours at Monticello in gardening. Our veteran poet, Bryant—it seems to run in the family— delights in tree planting, and wrote the poem, The Planting of the Apple Tree. Hawthorne, Emerson, Lowell, Mitchell, and many others, living and dead, of our eminent men, have a warm side toward horticulture. Thus, says Alcott in his Tablets, we associate gardens and orchards with the perfect condition of mankind.
Gardeners ourselves by birthright, we also mythologize and plant our Edens in the east of us like our ancestors—the sacredness of earth and heaven still clinging to the tiller of the _ground. Him we esteem the pattern man, the most favored of any. His labors have a charm log innocency. They yield the gains of self respect denied to other callings. His is an occupation friendly to every virtue; the freest of any from covetousness and debasing cares. It is full of honest profits, manly labors, and brings and administers all necessaries, gives the largest leisure for study and recreation, while it answers most tenderly the hospitalities of friendship and the claims of home. The delight of children, the pastime of woman, the privilege of the poor as it is the ornament of the rich man, the praise of the scholar, the security of the citizen ; it places man in his truest relations to the world in which he lives. He who is insensible to these must lack some chord in the harp of humanity, worshiping, if he worship, at some strange shrine. In conclusion, let us look for a moment at the relation of agriculture to horticulture. Some ago, the editor presented the subject before the horticulturists of Illinois, in an address, from which extracts are made, as embodying his ideas now as then, and is as follows: The wild man is a brute, the educated one is a God, as pagans understand the term. The first subsists in a pre carious manner upon such animals as he may •overcome in the chase; but the second harnesses even the elements, and makes them subservient to his will. Both possess bone, sinew, muscle and blood, nerve and brain. The wild man .acquires fair proportions, but the brain force is latent. The educated one, however, has fed ? both his physical and mental nature, and therefore is in the full stature of a man. In ris ing to a state of barbarism, the savage gathers flocks and herds, cultivates the soil in a. rude way, and begins to fix his habitation. Emerging into civilization, art is developed. Enlighten ment ensues. Science is born. Brain force be comes superior to physical power. The printing press stores up the knowledge of foregone gen erations. The flint and steel of mind upon mat ter knock out scintillations, illuminating the pathway of mankind, assisting one and another in the study of the material and the spiritual in nature. The savage becomes first the herdsman, then the husbandman; soon the arts of horticul ture follow, and lastly come beautiful flowers and landscape adornment. The sum of these is .agriculture. The poetry of agriculture is hOrti -culture, and beautiful flowers are the religion of ,agriculture. A mere husbandman may know nothing about horticulture. A horticulturist may know but little of husbandry, but he must neces sarily know a good deal about agriculture. An .agriculturist must understand all. The farm des titute of some adornment looks sorry and cheer less indeed. The villager's house, with its little parterre and vine-clad bower, pleases and cheers the passer-by, while the costly and naked mag nificence of the citizen's mansion is scarcely regarded at all. But if, in passing along a country road, you come to a farm where the wealth of the owner has enabled him to beautify and adorn the landscape and rural surroundings, the exclamation at once comes forth—How lovely! How beautiful! The farm after all is the place for effective landscape adornment, and the far mer who is a horticulturist as well may add much, and at comparatively little expense, to the attractiveness and beauty and comfort of his home. He perhaps moves into a new country, poor enough,—his team, household effects, hon est hands, and a quarter section of wild prairie, his all. He ploughs, sows, reaps, feeds cattle; this is husbandry. Of timber there is none. He prepares his rows and plants hedges for fenc ing, nuts for timber; grafts and buds, strikes cuttings, and rears orchards and vineyards. Curves a drive-way winding about his buildings and offi-es; makfs a lawn shaded by spreading elms and linddns, with here and there other deciduous and evergreen trees; leads the streamlet into the hollow and forms the lake; builds, with advancing wealth, a green house, a conservatory, , an aboretum. This man, and only this, is an agriculturist. There are many farmers, who if, as they were growing rich, had devoted some of their money and leisure to these subjects, would not now be lamenting that they had not sooner commenced to be agriculturists instead of mere farmers. We only need to remember that the finer the production, the more care should be bestowed upon it. That the delicate fruit or succulent vegetable forced into an abnormal condition by high cultivation, can not be expected to continue to improve or even hold its own without continued high culture and care. We pay high prices for new wheat, rye, barley, oats and corn, from year to year, and yet after a few seasons of cultivation they become as the old sorts. It is because we have not given them the same cultivation that they had previously received to bring them up to the selling and actually to the economical standard. A man plants an or•, chard, turns in his cattle to trim it, and his hogs to cultivate it, and feeds it, as he does his cattle, on grass. It is not strange that his orchard is unproductive, and he thinks his is not a good fruit country; while, if the facts were known, there are but few farms in the West but what might produce what fruit is consumed, which is also hardy in their climate; and yet how few farms at the present day in the West produce their own fruit, and at the same time how difficult it is to find any section of the country, but that some farms in them produce fruit, and in abundance! It is simply because we do not give enough attention to diversified agriculture; we either run all to stock, orain, or fruit, or some one of the prin cipal of agricultural art—while more variety in our crops would give greater exercise to the mind, and more varied enjoyment as well, Qh ! that the farmers of America might Wake up to the great possibilities that lie before them; that our rural youth would study those sciences that pertain to agriculture, the mysteries of vegetable physi ology. Why the same air, earth and water pro duce sound grain or smut, perfect fruits or loath some corruption. The simple and certain means which nature uses to convert noxious and dele terious matter into plant food. To find the means of attracting to the soil or plant, decom posing and rendering useful at will the latent ele ments, in air, earth and water. That the earth from becoming more and more barren each year, or relatively, in other words, losing the power of absorption and assimilation, shall grow fatter and fatter, more and more productive, until it shall be again re-instated in its original fertility. If the problem of a higher social existence is solved, it must he solved by applying science, practical science, to industrial pursuits, and which must be founded upon the dignity of labor. The present generation want to reap some ben efit from agricultural education. How shall this be done? First, by lectures upon practical agriculture, the management of the farm, orchard, and other rural pursuits, rotation of crops, improvement of seeds, stock breeding and rearing. Management of the dairy, and all that pertains to in-door farm life. Surface and under draining, their principles and effects. Mechani cal and chemical action upon soils. Cultivation of timber. How climates are changed by the settlement of the country, and what may he done to bring it into a more equable condition. The phenomena of atmospheric and aqueous influ ences so far as we know them. Upon the prop agation, rearing and mining of fruit trees, shrubs, and vines, their habits and culture, gath .ering, marketing, and use. The forcing cultiva tion, marketing, and uses of vegetables. The cultivation of ornamental, medicinal and flower ing plants. Glass and other structures for forcing. Landscape gardening, rural architec ture and ornamentation. Upon the sciences con nected with agriculture, their uses and appro priate places so far as discovered. The map ping out and recording upon experimental farms, gardens, and in proper structures, from year to year, of all that is new in agriculture, horticulture, and floriculture. Experimenting, from year to year, upon improved methods of cultivation, and acclimating, instituting compar isons, and reasoning therefrom—the chemist, the botanist, the geologist, the entomologist, the veterinarian, and other professions, down to the humble delver in the soil, being actuated by one motive—the advancement of agricultural sci cnee—whioh, disseminated throughout the land by means of the public press, finds its way to every fireside in the country; while at the same time the young men appointed to enter the differ ent classes in our agricultural schools, will gradually eliminate the dross from" the pure metal, and give us something else besides that obnoxious word, empiricism, which we translate, quackery— the pretensions of igno rant men to skill. We have happily supposed that agriculture was somewhat scientific; we had supposed that intimately connected as it was with chemistry, botany, and kindred sci ences, that it must necessarily partake somewhat of science itself. But, alas! thiS agriculture, which in itself is really the sum of all science— the science of life—toward which every known science, more or less, intimately tends, is looked down upon. Why should it be? Every fact in nature, which is constant,is science. Any certain knowledge is science. Bakewell and the Collings were scientific stock breeders. The fruit grower who saves his crop under adverse circumstances, by the application of certain knowledge, is scientific. So of the husband man. The florist is decidedly scientific, who forces plants to bloom in an artificial atmos phere, under artificial conditions; and so also is the landscape gardener, who makes a paradise of a desert—even pure science, as mathematics, must enter here. (See pages 689 and 1113.)