PREFACE. 



The contents of this Eighth Volume of the Gardener's Magazine 

 show that the work continues to answer the purposes for which it 

 was commenced, viz. those of collecting scattered fragments of 

 information on the various departments of gardening on which it 

 treats; giving an account of the progress which the art is making 

 in various parts of the world, and more especially in Britain ; and 

 bringing minds into collision, which, probably, would not other- 

 wise have known of each other's existence. 



The grand characteristics of the present times are union and 

 cooperation for general improvement. Those engaged in arts and 

 occupations which admit of their congregating together in towns 

 feel no difficulty in assembling, and communicating their different 

 discoveries and wants : hence the advantages which are daily 

 resulting from scientific societies and mechanics' institutions. 

 The gardener and the farmer, however, have but slender oppor- 

 tunities of improving themselves, or benefiting others, by attend- 

 ance at such associations ; and must necessarily be, in a great 

 measure, precluded from the advantages which result from belong- 

 ing to them. The principal medium of communication of all such 

 persons is, therefore, the press ; and the probability is, that, with 

 the progress of human improvement, every description of rural 

 art or trade (if not all arts and trades whatever) will have its own 

 particular Newspaper or Magazine. The idea has been already 

 suggested in the Scotsman newspaper, and in the Nexu Monthly 

 Magazine. It is in consequence of the want of personal inter- 

 course, or the means of communication through the press, that 

 the country population are, in intelligence and enterprise, com- 

 paratively behind those whose pursuits admit of their residing 

 in towns ; and, of all classes of country residents, agricultural 

 labourers are generally the most deficient in moral and intellec- 

 tual improvement. The cause is, that no other class is so com- 

 pletely isolated from the rest of society. Till lately, this has 

 been, to a considerable degree, also the case with gardeners : and 



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