21 



horticulturist. Strict truth will not permit us to 

 join with some of our contemporaries in pronouncing- 

 it a work of perfect merit, and we have taken oc- 

 casion, in another column, to show an instance of 

 short-coming which is by no means the only one. 

 But, saying this much as due to the facts, we have 

 much pleasure in saying that we thank Mr. Rand 

 for what he has done. He found the subject in 

 great confusion, and yet one on which all were look- 

 ing for enlightenment. A book on Bulbs was more 

 wished for, perhaps, than one on any other topic ; 

 and yet we hardly expected any one would have the 

 courage to take it up. If not as perfect in some 

 respects as we could wish it to be ; it is, we think, 

 the best that any one could do with the subject in 

 the present state of things, and it is very welcome 

 to our Book table. 



The American Journal of Horticulture.— 

 Published by J. E. Tilton & Co., Boston. 

 We have looked for the appearance of this J our- 

 nal with considerable interest, because we honestly 

 felt that in a particular department of Horticulture, 

 which we have never made any pretension to fill, 

 there was an excellent chance for a first-class Hor- 

 ticultural journal to take up a career of unlimited 

 usefulness, from the point suddenly arrested by 

 Downing' s death. We were led to believe that 

 such was the aim and object of our proposed con- 

 temporary, and we prepared ourselves to extend to 

 it a cordial welcome. 



The number for January is now before us, and we 

 find from the introduction that "a number of gen- 

 tlemen" felt the want of a " Horticultural monthly 

 of high character and liberal tone," so they con- 

 cluded to start "a magazine twice the size of any 

 now published in the country;" and they tell us 

 ^'our" course in the management will be indepen- 

 dent, having no interest in any horticultural estab- 

 lishment." Who the " our " represent we are not 

 told, as no editors names are given. Beport says 

 Mr. Bliss is one of the editors ; but this cannot be, 

 as he is interested in a Seed store. Other reports 

 say Mr. Band is an editor ; but this can neither be 

 as Mr. Band is a horticultural author, and of course 

 interested in the sale of his books before anybody 

 else's books. Neither can the Publishers be the 

 Editors themselves, as they are largely interested in 

 the sale of gardening works. Who, therefore, are 

 these extremely uninterested persons represented 

 by the editorial " we," does not appear. 



If the "no interest" rests on no better foundation 

 than that of " they publish a magazine of double 

 the size of any now in the country," the statement 



is not worth much. There is no magazine in 

 the country which gives as much as the Monthly. 

 We publish, in each month's number, 1496 square 

 inches of matter closely spaced for $2 ; they give us 

 1508, only twelve square inches [z of a page) more 

 than we do, and that very widely spaced out, for $3. 

 A long way off from being double the size. 



We welcome the filling up of vacant places in 

 horticultural literature, — more than this we court 

 fair and honorable competition ; but, above all, we 

 like the truth. 



One word more about our connection with a hor- 

 ticultural establishment. The publisher of this 

 magazine sells Agricultural books, — so do Tilton & 

 Co., — and we are square. The editor gave two 

 years of hard service to establish the Journal, for 

 nothing, and all the subsequent years for next to 

 nothing, in order that the public might have a 

 larger amount of reading matter than any magazine 

 will ever offer in this country for the same money. 

 His living is his nursery. If he has used his mag- 

 azine to help along his own business to the sacrifice 

 of the business interests of any one of his readers, 

 he will let them be the judge ; but he desires to say 

 that if an editor is weak enough to let sordid 

 motives cloud his ideas of justice, he need not have 

 an "interest in a horticultural establishment" to 

 bribe him to do so. An editor can be bought and 

 sold by other means, and the cry of "no interest " 

 serve most admirably to cover up the misdeed. 



It is remarkable that this slur on the impartiality 

 of an author who has "connection with a horticul- 

 tural establishment" should come from a paper 

 whose best contributors are of that class. Mr. Park- 

 man is a nurseryman ; Hammitt Billings is a pro- 

 fessional architect; E. S. Band, as we have said be- 

 fore, is an author ; W. C. Strong is a nurseryman, 

 and we believe two of the other four contributors 

 are interested in pursuits which a horticultural jour- 

 nal, biased by prejudice, could favor, if so disposed. 

 We wish to meet this objection now, because once 

 before it was made by a journal, which, however, 

 the public verdict soon condemned. We did not 

 notice it then, because the paper had no pretension 

 to being "high toned," as this one has. We will 

 state squarely that, in the United States, no horti- 

 cultural magazine can become popular, and continue 

 so, that is not conducted by a professional horticul- 

 turist. There may be objections to its being so, but 

 it has to be that or nothing. 



The oldest magazine in the country was started 

 and is continued by a nurseryman. The most popu- 

 lar one, the Horticulturist^ was began by A. J. 

 Downing, the Nurseryman, and continued to his 



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