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RANDOM NOTES ON HORTICULTURE.' 



RANDOM NOTES ON HORTICULTURE. 



BY SYLVANUS, CINCINNATI. 



Dear Sir — I have been thinking for some 

 time of writing to you, for the purpose of 

 expressing my gratitude for the pleasure 

 afforded me by the perusal of the Horti- 

 culturist. In fact, I consider it as a debt of 

 honor due you ; and such debts, you know, 

 are sacred, and should be discharged as 

 soon as possible. 



The first time it came under my notice, 

 was during a long confinement from illness, 

 pent up in the murky walls of a city, at 

 some distance from my home. The first 

 volume was placed in my hands ; and for 

 several days, I may almost say, that I really 

 did not repent that I was not " on a bed of 

 roses." I will not speak of your own share 

 in the work, for you might think it idle 

 flattery; but nowhere, in any work, have I 

 seen so much knowledge, good sense, and 

 such excellent taste, in everything relating 

 to horticulture, as I find in the pages of 

 your correspondents. And I must repeat, 

 that a debt of gratitude is due you from 

 me, and from all, for thus gathering to- 

 gether and concentrating to a useful issue 

 trie long experience and the practical taste 

 of such men as S. G. Perkins, Beecher, 

 LoNGwoRTH, and others, whose names I 

 need not mention more particularly. You 

 may imagine, after this, that I consider 

 your journal too valuable not to be always 

 on my table. 



I think I can safely say that in the west, 

 at least, you have given the science you 

 advocate an impetits, and that in the right 

 direction, which must net only be gratify- 

 ing to you, but to themselves who reap the 

 benefit of your exertions. Heretofore, hor- 



ticulture and agriculture have been too 

 closely united ; and the shadow of the more 

 extensive but necessary science has kept 

 down and blighted the lesser but more 

 elegant one. It has been like planting 

 some delicate and fragrant shrub, that loves 

 the air and the sunshine, under the shadow 

 of a wide spreading and exhausting beech. 



We have long wanted a journal wholly 

 devoted to the garden and the orchard ; 

 and yours, I think, bids fair fully to supply 

 the want. I much fear, that in this portion 

 of the Union, it will be long before a work 

 of the kind can be adequately supported. 

 Your own, therefore, must be our standard 

 for years to come, if it does not, in these 

 dollar-loving days, and utilitarian age, lan- 

 guish and die for want of the necessary 

 " manure.'''' Be assured that my quota shall 

 be always at hand to apply to the roots. 



We have just closed our annual horti- 

 cultural exhibition. It has been well at- 

 tended, and the display of fruits has been 

 greater, and the show of flowers more beau- 

 tiful, than any preceding year. The taste 

 for such things is growing rapidly around 

 Cincinnati. To be sure, as yet, we have 

 not quite got over our disposition to exhibit 

 mammoth productions. We have been too 

 prone to rate our fruits as we rate the ex- 

 cellence of our hogs — by the pound. There 

 are too many yet whose souls cannot 

 rise beyond the conception of a mammoth 

 squash, and who go into ecstasies over a 

 corpulent cucumber. But men of taste, 

 refinement, and means, are now coming 

 forward in the cause. The lawyer lays 

 aside his green bag, and for a season, at 



