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abundant room for the constantly augmenting number of 

 fruits, flowers and vegetables. 



But while we award all praise to the pioneers in hor- 

 ticultural art in our own country, and to the numerous 

 cultivators who have shown the same zeal and rendered 

 important services in everything pertaining to the prosperity 

 of our institution and the furtherance of its objects, we 

 must retrace our steps and make some slight acknowledg- 

 ment for that wealth of information and that magnificent 

 example which has been given us by the English amateurs, 

 cultivators and gentlemen of leisure, of the preceding, and 

 the early part of the present, century, when Horticulture 

 first took rank as a science and an art, and during which 

 period such gigantic strides were made in the art of culture 

 as well as in the addition of new trees, plants, flowers, 

 fruits and vegetables from the most distant and unknown 

 regions of the world. 



Though we may look with sincere regret upon tlie course 

 which England has pursued toward us as a nation, and 

 more particularly in her recent attitude while our efforts 

 were directed to the preservation of our Union, we cannot, 

 at least as cultivators and lovers of nature, as well as of 

 art, withhold our admiration of the illustrious men whose 

 disinterested labors have done so much to accelerate our 

 own advancement in every department of rural industry. 

 With Milton as the herald, — with Addison and Pope as 

 champions, — with Walpole and Shenstone as aids, and 

 Mason, Whately, Price, Knight and Gilpin as promoters 



