PREFACE. 
t.3i- 
The primary object in first publishing The Young Gar 
dener’s Assistant, was to enable our respectable seedsmen, 
while furnishing a catalogue of seed for the use of the 
Kitchen and Flower Garden, to afford instruction, at a trifling 
expense, to such of their customers as had not a regular 
gardener, and thereby save themselves the blame of those 
who may not have given their seed a fair trial, for want of 
knowing how to dispose of it in the ground. 
On the appearance of another edition of this work, the 
Author cannot forbear expressing his sense of obligation to 
his patrons in general, and to his fellow-seedsmen in par- 
ticular, for the interest they have taken in circulating the 
-v.book, thereby evincing their approbation of this humble 
attempt to serve both the seedsman and the gardener, by 
supplying directions for the management of a garden, in a 
manner calculated to insure success. 
Since 1829 this work has been gradually extended from 
96 pages to its present bulk, and of two thousand copies 
which have been issued annually, one-half were sold from 
the seed store of Messrs. Thorburn, of New York. The 
Boston and Philadelphia seedsmen have also contributed 
t ‘ largely to its circulation ; and the Author is gratified in 
learning that his labours are appreciated by eminent horti- 
culturists, as will appear from the following extracts : 
“ Dear Sir — You will see by the next month’s ‘ New 
York Farmer/ if you have not already seen by the Albany 
papers, that several copies of your Young Gardener’s 
Assistant were given as premiums by the State Agricultural 
Society.* Mr. D. B. Slingerland and myself were on the 
fO 
c/> 
* The American Institute and other Societies have also awarded several 
copies of the work as premiums for superior specimens of Garden Products. 
