editor's table. 



PREMnjMS. — The publisher has noticed, the present season, that unusual numbers of the 

 Horticulturist have been included in the lists of ^sremiums to be given at fairs ; and espe- 

 cially notes those offered by the Summit County (Ohio) Agricultural Society, which holds 

 its exhibition at Akron, on the 7th, 8th, and 9tli of October next, as contained in the list 

 advertised in the Beacon, of that place. 



These, among numerous others, are pleasant acknowledgments of the estimation in which 

 the work is held — flattering not only to its conductor, but evidences of the growing cultiva- 

 tion which is going on among us. The Horticulturist was the first to take upon itself the 

 topics of rural life to the exclusion of politics and literature. It was a very doubtful ex- 

 periment, and never more than partially succeeded, for the want of an audience sufficiently 

 large to make it much of an object for any publisher to give it exclusive attention. It had 

 and has, however, a certain popularity, which has clung to it thi-ough its whole career ; but 

 that it is not adapted to the wants of the masses, is proved by its gradual introduction. To the 

 many its topics are sealed books, and might as well be addressed to the blind, simply because 

 they are not practised by the many. The products of the garden and orchard, it is true, are 

 in every one's affections, but the delights attending their success are unknown to most who 

 partake of their benefits. There has, however, grown up in almost every county and vil- 

 lage, a practical person or two who is studying with success those branches which we love 

 to dwell upon, and who are anxious to receive the newest and the best information that is 

 abroad ; they continue to look to the various correspondents of the Horticulturist for this 

 knowledge, and we believe they are not disappointed. 



But, meantime, this partial introduction of our topics to popular comprehension, has in- 

 duced numerous journals all over the land to incorporate horticultural information in their 

 varied columns, till there is an amount of instruction abroad in the land that is perfectly 

 bewildering, at the same time that it is useful in many instances. While this competition 

 is discouraging to a publisher whose work leaves no field of knowledge ungleaned, it must 

 bo admitted that it gives him encouragement to believe the duty he is engaged in lias 

 made its mark, and that many others are on the track laid by the efforts of his predeces- 

 sors ; and when such evidences as the premiums offered by the Summit County Society 

 meet his eye, he feels fully rewarded by the acknowledgment of the utility of the journal. 

 But it should also be remembered, that the Horticulturist, from the exertions of its writers 

 to make it useful, has gone over long since most of the topics now discussed in contemporary 

 periodicals, and is endeavoring to make an impression for an onward progress. It purports 

 to be an oritjinal work, not made by the scissors — set-up by the printer almost entirely from 

 manuscript, the amount of which, when it is spread out, would astonish those who read it 

 carelessly, or have never compared this feature with those diflerently conducted ; it pur- 

 ports, moreover, to be in advance, and is careful, while it is readable to all, not to write 

 to tlie intelligence which has but just waked up to its subjects. It is, in short, 

 ressed to the class which has made some progress, and is anxious for more knowledge. 



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