of Rural Art and Taste. 



191 



stitution, of which there is an acre of lawn 

 and trees immediately surrounding the build- 

 ing, with a two-acre oak grove adjoining. The 

 members of this horticultural society have al- 

 ready laid out and planted circular and ellip- 

 tical flower beds with bedding plants and the 

 seeds of annuals, and have cleared up the 

 grounds and given them a handsome finish. 

 The members "(many of whom belong to the 

 class in botany) have been favored at some of 

 their meetings with discourses on practical 

 gardening principles on which success depends, 

 and an evening lecture on vegetable anatomy 

 was given by Mr. John J. Thomas, one of the 

 managers of the academy, illustrated with over 

 fifty magnified pictures, thrown by means of 

 the sciopticon on a twelve foot screen. This is 

 the only organization of similar nature with 

 which we are acquainted in this country. 



Giviny Credit, 



We like to give credit to all periodicals 

 when we can. To all our American periodicals 

 and agricultural journals we are exceedingly 

 particular, but there are many paragraphs 

 which appear in miscellaneous journals not 

 credited to any source, and in quoting thus 

 they often go without special credit. This 

 has been the case several times with articles 

 which recently we learned appeared originally 

 in the Cotaitry Gentle mail, but which we 

 saw in other papers without credit. We 

 (juote frequently from our esteemed cotem- 

 porary and always with credit, when we con- 

 sult its pages directly. 



If we wish to use any matter from English 

 sources, we are not ashamed, but rather 

 always glad to give credit whenever possible, 

 but some of the English horticultural press 

 return these matters of consideration with bad 

 grace, and study to ignore anything that is 

 American. 



An TJnmitignted Abuse. 



There is a journal published in England, 

 known as the Villa Gardener, which con- 

 stantly appropriates matter from The Horti- 

 culturist and other journals without a word 

 of credit. And if the name of the author is 

 added, it is almost invariably mis-spelled, so 

 as to appear like an original contribution 



from another party. It was somewhat aggra- 

 vating to our feelings, lately, to find that some 

 articles written for The Horticulturist, 

 originally by Annie G. Hale, on Everlasting 

 Flowers, and paid for by us as special articles, 

 and djily copyrighted, were quoted bodily in the 

 Villa Gardener with no credit to The Hor- 

 ticulturist, and the author's name was 

 mis-spelt Hole. The same article found its 

 way with its errors into the Gardeiier's Record, 

 of Dublin, Ireland, and was credited to the 

 Villa Gardener. In one issue of the Villa 

 Gardeyier, over five pages were taken bodily 

 fivom The Horticulturist without any 

 credit ; and in another issue, an article was 

 wrongly credited to Agriculturist instead of 

 Horticulturist. Any journal, which makes 

 such studied point of ignoring all possible credit 

 to any other literary periodical, and apparently 

 lives on the borrowed honor paid for from other 

 publishers' pockets, deserves criticism. 



Reports of Depurtnient of Agriculture. 



Although it is the fashion for all agricul- 

 tural journals to abuse the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, yet we say with 

 confidence that the last issue of monthly report 

 of that department, for February and March, 

 1874, is better than any single number of any 

 agricultural journal we ever snio. It is 

 teeming with condensed information from all 

 parts of the United States as to successes with 

 various crops, and the costs and profit of each 

 crop are determined with an accuracy we have 

 not seen equalled elsewhere. As long as the 

 President will permit a competent man to edit 

 the publication and run its machinery entirely 

 free from politicians, we say the department 

 will do good. It should be as independent as 

 the Smithsonian Institution from political 

 interference. 



Acer Neyundo Variegattitn. 



In Battersea Park, London, where there is 

 gathered many gems of ornamental planting, 

 there is a mass of this maple which forms a 

 very attractive feature. The plants are still 

 young but growing fast, and in that moist 

 climate it proves exceedingly valuable. 



In our American climate we wish it could 



