building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along
with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and industry which
began long since in the east; they will finish the great circle. The
Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are
incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever
appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the
different climates they inhabit. The American ought therefore to love
this country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers
were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the
progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, selfinterest.
62
This was to become the ideal base, on which multiple developments occurred in the
horticultural techniques and revolutionary technological inventions in agriculture.
First of all, the scientific literature diffused knowledge about these matters and that
stimulates the debate among the main reference groups placed between the cities
of Philadelphia and Boston.
On his return from Lewis and Clark’s expedition (1804‐1806) to explore the
territories of Louisiana, Bernard McMahon 63 (1775‐1816), mentor of the gardening
practices of Thomas Jefferson, published The American Gardner’s Calendar, a
detailed compendium about gardening, horticulture and floriculture, giving precise
instructions, differentiated according to the plants, practices and uses.
In an attempt to combine botanical science with practical horticulture, his declared
intention was:
[...]in order to accommodate the Agriculturist, I have given a classical
catalogue of the most important and valuable grasses and other plants
used in rural economy; and likewise pointed out the particular kind of
soil, in which each plant cultivated as a grass, or exclusively on account
of its foliage, has been found, upon repeated trials, to succeed best.
From an experience which I have had of near thirty years in PRACTICAL
GARDENING, on a general and extensive scale; the particular pains
which I have taken, not only to designate the necessary work of every
month, but also the best methods of performing it; 64
62 ST. JOHN DE CREVECOEUR, J. Hector, Letters from an American Farmer, London, J.M. Dent & Sons
Ltd., 1951 (first ed. 1782) cit. p. 43‐44
63 HATCH, Peter, http://www.monticello.org/site/house‐and‐gardens/bernard‐mcmahon URL visited
28 May 2012; Article originally published as "Bernard McMahon, Pioneer American
Gardener," Twinleaf, January 1993
64 MAC MAHON, Bernard, The American Gardner’s Calendar, adapted to the climate and season of
the United States, Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott and Co., 1857 (first ed. 1806)
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