

JOURNAL OF RUIIAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



€^t (§xui Di3rnii]?rt( in tJrgttatinn. 



^ T is one of the misfortunes of an editor to be expected to answer all questions, as 

 ^^ if he were an oracle. It is all pleasant enough when his correspondent is lost 

 in the woods, and he can speedily set him right, or when he is groping in some dark 

 passage that only needs the glimmer of his farthing candle of experience, to make the 

 way tolerably clear to him. But correspondents are often unreasonable, and ask for 

 what is little short of a miracle. It is clear that an editor is not only expected to know 

 everything, but that he is not to be allowed the comfort of belonging to any secret so- 

 cieties, or any of those little fraternities where such a charming air of mystery is 

 thrown over the commonest subjects. 



We are brought to these reflections by a letter that has just come before us, and 

 which runs as follows : 



Dear Sir — I have been expecting in the last two numbers, to hear from you on 

 the subject of the great discovery in vegetation, which was laid before the committee 

 of the State Agricultural Society at its annual meeting in January last. You were, 

 if I mistake not, a member of that committee, and of course, the fullest disclosures 

 of the secret of the gentleman who claims to have found out a new " principle in ve- 

 getation," were laid before you. No formal report, has, I think, been published by 

 the Society. The public are, therefore, in the dark still. Is this right, when the 

 discoverer is now urging the legislature of this state to pass a bill giving him a bonus 

 of $150,000 to make his secret public, for the benefit of all cultivators of the soil? 

 Either the thing is pure humbug, or there is something in it worthy of attention. 

 Pray enlighten us on this subject ? Yours, &c. 



Yes, we were upon that committee, and nothing would give us greater pleasure than 

 to unburden our heart to the public on this subject, and rid our bosom of this 

 lous stuff" that has weighed upon us ever since. But alas ! this gentleman wh 



Apeil 1. 1851. 



No. IV. 



