The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1877-02-01
Report on Botany and HOrticulture e.

IlS meetlnR IN OSKalooSa. January, 1877.
Having been actively engaged for Sc Fer
al years past in botanical explorations il
J our interior mountain region extending t.
the Pacific slope, some of the results t.
which 1 have been led, may possibly p1 1ov'
interesting in an horticultural point o
view, and appropriately fulfil the duty
assigned me by the Iowa State Hortie eul
tural Society of presenting a brief rel por
on the relations between Botany hni
Horticulture.
And the first suggestion l would m axe
has reference to the extreme slowness,
and apparent frequent failure in the in,
PRODUCTION of new and desirable for ms
from the domain of native Botany to Ell Or
ticulture: looking solely at the snl lall
immediate results attained in this ditec-
tion, disappointment seems everywhere
to attend upon the labors of the botanical
collector. But such a conclusion clearly
oVerlooks much more important fact,
viz: that advanced horticulture as we ow
witness it is the accumulated result of
ages OF laborious experiment, in VIII lch
adaptation has found time and opportuI nj
ty to work out the desired results, by
gradual and almost insensible chang les.
When the same amount of time and labor
has been expended on Our native plants,
they too may in due time develop the cir
peculiar features us permanent horticnl-
tural acquisitions; till then our mple
duty whether as scientific botanists or
practical horticulturists, is to Labor al aad
wait" as others have done before us. Still
another view of the same great fact nd ay
be eXemplified by stating that the conIli-
tioHs of horticultural growth are so pee cul-
lar, so different in many respects frd dm
natural surroundings and influences, that
it is only by forced change of habit,
that the transfer can be successfully made
from one to the other Thus native plants
with few notable exceptions, pine nd
dwindle under the best care of the m pst
skillful gardeners, while on the otlt ter
hand, the choice deniZens of the garden
rarely lose their cultivated habits, a nd
become wild. The reason is obvious if
we reflect for an instant on what is implied
in the simple term of horticultural conii-
tions, viz: Il soil unnaturally disturbedby
the mechanical agency of the plow, The
harrow and the spade; subjected to the
action of chemical stmuIants in the form
of manures, and fertilizers, often depriv ed
OF II needful season of rest by copidus
watering i'll dry seasons; protected rom
the incurSiOn of weeds that would other
wise usurp the soil, only by incessd mt
interference, the wonder is not that a .tev
but that any native plants survive Il he
change, which intact they can only do by
the gradual process of adaptation.
No doubt the greatest advance which
modern horticulture has been able to at
tain in the introduction of new forms, has
been accomplished by close study of
native habits, and an attempt to initiate
the natural conditions of indigeno us
growth, in the garden, which instead of
presenting the dull uniformity of the cid
fashioned fiower-bed, is now diversified
by varieties of soil, exposure and gene raj
surroundings, including artificial rock
work, cataracts, lakes, meandering
streams, bogs and sand dunes, etc. BY
such treatment laboriously and often ex-
pensively carried out fair amount of
success in the culture of native plants has
been attained, and we may reasonably Ok
pect as final result of such experiments,
that by gradual modification to horticul-
tural conditions, permanent additions may
be made to the garden and orchard. But
from this discouraging view it is pleas ant
to turn to one that promises more imme-
diate results. The "wide world" is the
only limit to the sources of horticultural
selection, and as members of the great
brotherhood of man, we have q right to
draw, or more properly to exchange, the
products of horticultural development
from distant analogous districts, in return
for our own. In other words we have the
means at hand for exchanging our own
inherited surplus of the garden and
orchard for entirely new products Aorti-
cuItuTS2ed for our direct use from distant
fields, only requiring the more simple
process of acclimatization.
In this view of the case the most
obvious inference would be to seek the
most directly available products on CORES
pondng lines of latitude east or west,
Thus for Iowa exchanges we would go to
the interior plains of Russia, such as has
been already essayed by far-sighted mem
bers of the society. But still more prom
ising in large results, would be the interior
| region of China, with its vast and ancient
population necessarily largely devoted to
agriculture, in which centuries. of labor
lous experience must have developed the
choicest horticultural products. Nor
need we be confined even within these
broad limits, there are the corresponding
lines OF latitude, and analogous climates
IN the southern hemisphere; the South
American pampas has surely some desira-
BILE garden products to exchange with our
North American prairies; we have robbed
Africa for many years of blood and muscle,
might we not venture to lay less ruthless
hands on her luXuriant wilderness of
plants, fruits and textiles? Nearly every
civilized household in this country and
urope, displays in its window garden,
the luxuriant growths of South African
Petar90ntums, would it not be we'll to ex-
press our gratitude, by sending with our
Christmas Compliments to the Cape of
Good Hope, stock of western cactuses,
1uccaS and AgaCes. Already Australia
is beginning to enrich California with val
} liable timber trees, textiles, and ornament
al shrubs, till before many years the
horticultural features of that district will
assume an dnttpodaL aspect, in Eucalyptus
forests, groves Of Acacias, and other
strange forms of vegetation, heretofore
only scantily known as curious green
| house ornaments. The most conspicuous
of the floral adornments of the front
yards of San Francisco, are luxuriant
tree-shaped bushes of the South American
Fuchsia, which hang their gay festoons
of brilliantly contrasted flowers, on the
0utstde-instead of the inside of the win
sows, as with us-up to Christmas!
1t is hardly possibly in view of what may
be done in this direction to repress warm
botanical enthusiasm, and still more diff
cult to withhold regret, that we had not
at the seat of the general government in
Washington, an Agricultural Department,
worthy of the name, which instead of
squandering the public funds in purchas-
ing dearly, and distributing indiscriminate-
ly common garden seeds, put up in foreign
fancy encetopes which can be procured of
better quality at any respectable seed
store, to the utter neglect of the more
obvious duty of sending out competent
persons to CLEAN in foreign fields, and
institute judicious exchanges of mutual
benefit to horticulture throughout the
world.