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THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



D£i/OT£D TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHA.N. 



Vol. XXIV. 



AUGUST, 1882. 



Number 284. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Editorial life is not favorable to looking much 

 into detail in a large country like ours. It is 

 not often that the editor's " ea!^y chair" can be 

 left long unoccupied. He may go out for a few 

 days, but things will go wrong if he does not 

 return soon. At least he thinks so. It is no 

 use to tell him that things will prosper just as 

 well when he is gone— that the sun will shine 

 and the world go round long after his very name 

 is sunk deep down in Lethe's stream ; he will 

 not believe it, and just there in that chair he 

 feels he must be, if the plants are to grow, the 

 flowers bloom, and the grain fields yield an 

 abundant harvest. So he casts about in his 

 mind whether, in the few days he calls his holi- 

 day, he shall go leisurely to one or two choice 

 spots, note every thing in detail, and make a 

 complete job as he goes along; or swoop for- 

 ward as the swallow flies, and before he has 

 scarcely left his chimney corner, get half way 

 round the world and back again. If we follow 

 our taste, we take the quiet, deliberate task, 

 but in our readers' interest the rapid glance at 

 our immense territory usually gains the day. 

 So far this season we have had this rapid glance 

 at Northern and Xorth-eastern Pennsylvania, 



Southern, Central and Western New York, and 

 over a hundred miles into Southern Canada, and 

 it has given great pleasure to note how garden- 

 ing is prospering even in the remotest villages. 

 The contrast between now and say a dozen years 

 ago, is remarkable. Flowers are everywhere ; 

 choice fruits abound ; the plots around the hum- 

 blest houses show some desire for taste; choice 

 trees and shrubs are not uncommon, but above 

 all this there is an evident attempt at neatness 

 and cleanliness everywhere. It interested the 

 writer of this very much to know the views of 

 leading horticulturists how all this has come 

 about. One said it was through the introduction 

 of lawn mowers; another, the influence of 

 magazines like the Gardener's Monthly, and 

 an enlightened and progressive agricultural 

 press ; another thought the Centennial Exhibi- 

 tion in Philadelphia deserved the credit ; an- 

 other praised the tree agent, who brought nice 

 things to the most impossible places; still an- 

 other thought of James Vick, Peter Henderson, 

 and the scores of others whose names are heard 

 even where " rolls the Oregon." The United 

 States Government, with its liberal postage laws, 

 had one man's vote, and one man gave his vote 

 "to the ladies." This was while the writer was 

 perched on the top of a stage, driving along 

 Cedar Creek in North-eastern Pennsylvania. 



