2 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



of hundreds ; and in some, if not all of their departments, individual 

 expansion has kept pace with augmented numbers, calling for more 

 gardeners of superior skill and intelligence, and rendering it a sphere 

 of labour of increased interest to employers and employed. We wish 

 it could be further said that the social position and emoluments of 

 horticulturists have bounded upwards at a similar pace. 



Looking in another direction, we see a great part of our population 

 pent up as " sons of toil " in our great centres of commerce and 

 wealth, and apparently dissociated from any interest or dependence on 

 horticulture. Still they have, or ought to have, an especial interest 

 in it. To them a good supply of wholesome garden produce, especi- 

 ally vegetables and fruit, is a matter of much moment, — a necessity of 

 health and life. And greater regard is being wisely paid to the 

 pleasures of public gardens and squares with their plants and flowers 

 as counteractors of the evils of the physical position of this class, and 

 as incentives to lift their minds above practices which are debasing 

 and destroying in their effects. In this direction there is a wide and 

 momentous field open to horticultural enterprise and usefulness. Be- 

 sides this, the collateral influence of horticulture has tended in no 

 insignificant degree to the advancement of agricultural practice, which 

 has taken from the horticulturist its highest lessons in deep drainage, 

 deep tillage, thin seeding, and wide planting. Is it, then, arrogant to 

 claim for horticulture a position of national importance 1 It is bound 

 up, not only with the pleasures and luxuries of a community, but also 

 with its healthy and prosperous existence. The avocations of the 

 horticulturist, whether he grows a Cabbage or a Leek, or applies with 

 an exactitude, which cursory lookers-on are not aware of, all those 

 artificial circumstances which long patient practice and study have 

 taught him to be necessary in rearing the Pine- Apple and the Grape 

 to the perfection now attained, are worthy of being accredited with 

 more importance and substantial remuneration than they generally 

 realise. 



To try to do credit to such an interest as this, and to justify the 

 title of this magazine, we have attempted to direct our arrangements. 

 We beg to thank those who have so willingly rendered their esteemed 

 assistance. We invite correspondence and interchange of thought and 

 practice on all matters directly bearing on horticulture ; while we will, 

 to the best of our ability, provide sound advice and direction to those 

 who ask for such through the medium of the ' Gardener,' knowing 

 that, as a Gardening Monthly, it can hold its position and well serve its 

 own interest, only by continuing to be the dispenser of reliable infor- 

 mation and instruction relating to the various branches of the profes- 

 sion. Much of the usefulness of a periodical depends on its promis- 



