HORTICULTURAL DIVISION.

The objects of the horticultural and propagating division were set forth in brief but comprehensive terms by William Saunders, the superintendent of the division, in the Commissioner's report for 1867:

1. To procure and encourage the transmission of seeds, cuttings, bulbs, and plants from all sources, both foreign and domestic, for the purpose of testing their merits and general adaptation, or for particular localities of this country. 2. To procure by hybridizing and special culture, products of a superior quality to any now existing. 3. To ascertain, by experiment, the influences of varied culture on products, and the modifications effected by the operations of pruning and other manipulations on trees and fruits. 4. To investigate more thoroughly the various maladies and diseases of plants, and the insects that destroy them. 5. To provide ample means for thoroughly testing samples of all seeds and other contributions that may be received. 6. To cultivate specimens of the various hedge plants, and exhibit their availability for that purpose. 7. To cultivate a collection of the best fruit trees and plants, such as grapes, apples, pears, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, currants, &c., so as to compare their respective merits. 8. To plant a collection of choice shrubs adapted for decorating gardens and landscape scenery. 9. To erect glass structures, for the twofold purpose of affording the necessary facilities for cultivating exotic fruits and plants, and to furnish examples of the best and most economical modes of constructing, heating, and managing such buildings.

These objects have been faithfully and systematically adhered to. Since 1862, the year in which the Department was organized, the present superintendent has had charge of the experimental garden, and since 1867 he has also had charge of the grounds surrounding the Department building. Prior to 1867 the experimental garden had shown the wisdom of the policy that had inaugurated the propagation of improved varieties of domestic fruits and of valuable seeds and plants the products of other lands. Since then there has been ample verge for experiments, for comparison, and for the exercise of such taste and the application of such skill as American horticulture demands. Every avenue to horticultural knowledge and kindred sciences has been opened to the public. The flower garden, noticeable not more for the variety and luxuriance of its flowers than for the exquisite harmony of their arrangement. The conservatory, 320 feet long from east to west and reaching southward 150 feet from the center of its extreme length, with its perfect heating arrangements, its tropical and semitropical fruits, its foreign grapes, and its miscellaneous collection of useful foreign plants-dyes, gums, textiles, medicines, &c.; the arboretum, embracing as complete a collection of hardy trees and shrubs, arranged in family groups, as can be found in any country; the experimental fruit-orchard; the carved walks; the terrace; the smoothly-shaven lawns; the superb landscape effect; all these greet the eye of the

visitor to the Department. If he will extend his walk to the experimental garden, he will be impressed with other lessons which cannot be learned so well out of books. The whole horticultural division is best comprehended when regarded as a living teacher, to be seen face to face, talked with and listened to. It is an educator, from which may be learned the names of the best fruits; the uses of a thousand foreign plants which are adapted to cultivation upon American soil; the diseases of grapes, pears, peaches, &c.; interesting results in hybridizing; the best methods of pruning, budding, and grafting; and, generally, the best methods of conducting all horticultural and fruit-growing enterprises.

A leading object of the horticultural division is to direct attention to such exotic plants as possess useful properties and are capable of adaptation to American climatic conditions. In pursuing this object the superintendent has aided greatly in giving proper direction to the enterprise of such citizens as would introduce new agricultural interests. This aid has been rendered mainly through the medium of official correspondence that is never published, but it has been none the less timely and valuable nevertheless. Coffee plantations cannot be successfully established in localities where the temperature ever falls below 45° F., a condition which nowhere exists in the United States; cinchona can be cultivated where the temperature does not fall below 32° F., a condition which is supposed to exist in Southern California; the tea plant and Eucalyptus glob ulus will succeed in some portions of the United States, but not in all; the olive will flourish in our Southern States, but its cultivation can scarcely ever be profitable, owing to its slow growth and the ease with which its oil may be counterfeited; the fig may be successfully culti vated as far north as Baltimore, and, although former efforts to properly cure the fruit have not been successful, the advice has been given to experiment with the recently improved artificial mode of drying fruits. These instances are given as illustrations of the character of the information furnished by the horticultural division from time to time in response to inquiries, and it is not the least of the achievements of the Department of Agriculture that this division has given advice that has stimulated enterprise in proper directions and prevented the sacrifice of fortunes in efforts that could only have proved unavailing.

The exhibit of the horticultural division at the International Exhibition, 1876, comprised

1. Thirty-two photographic views of the grounds, showing character. istic groups of trees, the Department building, conservatories, terraces, pavilions, experimental garden, flower garden, and general landscape effects,

2. A collection of economic plants, as per list (A).

3. A detailed plan of the grounds and arboretum, with references, by figures, to the position of families, genera, and species, as per list marked B, which includes nearly all the ligneous plants fitted to succeed in the District of Columbia.

A.-ECONOMIC PLANTS.