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LETTERS FROM THE EDITOR.— NO. 1. 



Red Sulphuk Springs, Virginia. August, 1855. 



Mr Dear "Horticulturist." — I little expected when our fortunes were linked 

 together some few weeks ago, that I so soon should have found myself five hundred 

 miles away from your new home, but the medical advisers decided for me, and 

 after preparing nearly as much mental pabulum for you as your appetite seemed to 

 require, I find myself drinking the "Red Sulphur Water" in this delightful mountain 

 region, and feel disposed to have a little chat with you. Your own example of roaming 

 from place to place might excuse my doing likewise, for to tell you a home truth, you 

 have been a little unsettled in your residence yourselt ! Your education begun on the 

 North River under an able master ; it was completed by taking a full " pomological " 

 course at Rochester, and now you have come to Piiiladelphia to see what can be learned 

 there. I will not conceal from you that there are difi"erences of opinion respecting your 

 career, and that some of your admirers even think you have been a little too " pomologi- 

 cal," but you are prepared, I know, to meet these differences, and will, probably, like all 

 wilful youths, take your own course after all. 



But do you know there are others who would fain lujhridise you ? It is true ; I brought 

 with me a letter or two positively advising this ; they would make a compound of you 

 between a monthly magazine, a newspaper, and a Horticulturist. They wish you, my 

 dear H. to contain matter like Putnam and Harper, and an abstract of the news of the 

 month! What think you of that? Will you cheerfully yield your already crowded space 

 to lengthy biographies, such as Abbott's Napoleon ? And would it be agreeable to ypur 

 habits of mind to retail the entire history of the Kinney expedition, and the controversies 

 about Neil Dow, and the liquor question in general? Would you after so much prepara- 

 tion like to "know nothing?" Have your previous studies qualified you for this ? Or 

 would your fastidious taste put up with it? I know what your private opinion is about 

 all this, and perhaps it will be better for your health if I drop the subject. 



But touching these removals from place to place, you believe, I know, that the climate 

 of Philadelphia is agreeing with you, and think it likely to be a pleasanter winter, and 

 a more permanent residence than Rochester, because you can delight in your out-door 

 occupations later in the fall and earlier in the spring ; though your duty is to tell all 

 ?i.\)0\it pincliing the dwarf pears, you see no reason why your own nose should be pinched 

 off every winter in the hyperborean climate so near to Canada as your late residence. 

 This is all very well, and I am rejoiced for you that you have moved into a warmer 

 atmosphere, and among a people that are inclined to make much of you. 



But I must ask you a serious question ; are you so fond of " moving " that you must 

 repeat the operation ? If so, and the habit is a confirmed one, wliich I am happy to 

 think is not however the case, let me give you a little advice. I am not entirely convin- 

 ced that a "move" now and then, such as you have already made, might not 

 wholesome and useful, so that if your medical advisers should ever again rccommenc 



