GARDEN WRITINGS IN AMERICA 85 



even to think of them. The combined American Gardening, as it 

 was called, however, soon fell into bad ways, and gradually dwindled 

 till publication was suspended in 1904. Simultaneously with the 

 decease of American Gardening, The Garden Magazine arose, and I 

 became associated with it in its second number. 



There are essential differences between weekly and monthly 

 publications and the kind of writings they convey. In the weekly 

 periodical news, up-to-date comments on events of the moment, 

 and chronicles of contemporary happenings demand the greater 

 space. News has no part in a monthly magazine, but instead the 

 subjective and expository treatment is all important. The news 

 of what is happening in horticulture is catered to by four trade 

 papers, with interests restricted essentially to the trade and pro- 

 fession. These are the American Florist, Florists' Exchange, 

 Florists' Review, and Horticulture. We should not leave the field 

 of past periodicals, however, without paying tribute to the notable 

 effort inspired in this city and which launched the Garden and 

 Forest, which ran from 1888 to 1897. This publication really set 

 the highwater mark in quality of contents in its efPort to introduce 

 horticultural appreciation and the garden spirit to the people of 

 America. A success in its mission, it was not so commercially. 

 Why? Becau^ in our complex modern life, writing is a commodity 

 and has to be put on the market and sold like other commodities; 

 in other words, it needs a publisher. It does not suffice to simply 

 issue a sheet from the press. 



The periodical is our best measure, then, of the conditions of 

 the moment. It is made up of all kinds of writings which may 

 also be analyzed and grouped in the manner already suggested. 

 To be successful it must primarily satisfy a sufficiently large num- 

 ber of readers to make it a vehicle of communication between those 

 who produce and those who consume. There are two factors 

 which go hand in hand in making the modern periodical — the 

 editorial or text matter on the one side, and the advertising or 

 trading matter on the other side, and this inter-relationship is 

 particularly marked in what are known as class, or trade, journals. 

 Trade journalism in garden matters has reached its highest devel- 

 opment in America, and commands the services of a large number 

 of writers and workers; but the trade journal, the better it serves 



