500 
AMERICANS AGRICULTURIST. 
[November 
The American Pomological Society. 
The biennial meeting of this Society is the chief 
horticultural event of the year on which it occurs. 
The 18th meeting was held this year in Boston, 
beginning on September 14th, and continuing for 
three days. The Horticultural Hall being occupied 
by the jpint exhibition of the Mass. Horticultural 
and the American Pomological Societies, the meet¬ 
ings were held in the Haw'tliorne rooms, in the 
vicinity, while the immense Music Hall was devoted 
to the exhibition of plants and flowers. The dis¬ 
play of vegetables was very fine; that of fruits 
much inferior to what we are accustomed to see at 
the annnal shows at Boston. The exhibition of 
plants and flowers was such as few other cities 
could produce. Among the novelties here were a 
number of the small single Mexican Dahlias ; the 
richness of their colors will no doubt make them 
very popular among all lovers of fine flowers. 
To the gratification of every one, Col. Marshall 
P. Wilder was able to preside at the meetings, and 
in his appearance and bearing showed no trace of 
the severe accident that occurred a few years ago, 
and from which it was feared that he might never 
recover. His annual address showed that mental 
kept pace with bodily vigor, and was a production 
worthy of the occasion. Col. Wilder was, as a 
matter of course, re-elected to the Presidency, as 
was Patrick Barry, of Rochester, N. Y., to the 
office of First Vice-President. A Vice-President 
was elected for each State and Territory and Ca¬ 
nadian Province. The former Secretary and Treas¬ 
urer having declined re-election, Prof. W. J. Beal, 
Lansing, Mich., was chosen as Secretary, and 
Benj. W. Smith, Cambridge, Mass., as Treasurer. 
The usual discussions were held upon new and 
old fruits, with reference to a revision of the So¬ 
ciety’s catalogue, all of which appear in the vol¬ 
ume of Transactions. The Horticultural Society 
gave to the Pomological Society a splendid banquet, 
which formed a fitting climax to this interesting 
session. This took place at Music Hall, which was 
tastefully decorated, and filled by a brilliant as¬ 
semblage. Speeches were made by the presidents 
of both Societies, the Governor of the State, and 
many others, and a hymn, composed for the occa¬ 
sion by the venerable poet, Whittier, was sung. 
The attendance at this meeting wa6 large, show¬ 
ing an increasing interest in the Society, and the 
best feeling prevailed among the members, who 
scattered to their various and often distant homes, 
to meet again in Philadelphia, in 1883. 
The Wild Garden. 
When the first edition of “The Wild Garden,” 
by W. Robinson, F. L. S., appeared, in 1870, we 
presented it to our readers with an appreciative 
notice. We now have an entirely new and enlarged 
edition ; the title page of which is so quaintly de¬ 
scriptive that we copy it in full. “The Wild Gar¬ 
den, or our Groves and Gardens made beautiful by 
die Naturalization of Hardy Exotic Plants ; being 
one way onwards from the Dark Ages of Flower 
Gardening, with suggestions for the Regeneration 
of the Bare Borders of the London Parks. By W. 
Robinson, F. L. S. Illustrated by Alfred Parsons, 
London. The Garden Office, etc.” The author 
has long fought a good fight against the horticul¬ 
tural extravagancies of the day, especially against 
the universal bedding system that has prevailed so 
generally in England. In this country it has not 
taken so firm a hold. Yet one can see in some 
private places, and in such public grounds as Forest 
Hills Cemetery, near Boston, examples of this Fire¬ 
works style of horticulture, enough to afford an 
example of what to avoid. That plants may be 
massed effectively we are well aware, that an oval 
“dish-cover,” some 20 feet long, thickly planted 
with Echeverias (or Cotyledons), and illuminated 
by scrolls of colored plants, has any real beauty in 
it, we deny. It may excite our wonder, much as 
does a work of embroidery in which the painstak¬ 
ing worker has wrought a pink dog with blue eyes. 
But as to the Wild Garden—it does not mean a 
garden run wild. As the author concisely describes 
the term—“ It is applied to the placing of perfectly 
hardy exotic plants in places and under conditions 
where they will become established and take care 
of themselves.”—The term exotic is often mis¬ 
applied : stove plants are so frequently mentioned 
as “costly exotics,” that in the popular mind, an 
exotic is regarded as a tender plant from a warm 
country. In fact an exotic is merely a plant that 
comes from some other country than our own. 
One who looks through the work in question, 
will find many of the plants of our American woods 
and fields commended as “exotics” worthy of 
cultivation in the English Wild Garden. If the 
Wild Garden is to be commended for mauy places 
in England, how much greater claim it has upon 
our cultivators. Here the lack of garden labor 
favors the idea. If we can have a plantation 
where certain plants may be placed and take care 
of themselves for year after year, it will allow us 
to enjoy certain plants that can be thus treated, 
and give us all the more time to give to our borders. 
There are certain plants that must be cared for, if 
we are to enjoy them at all, while certain others 
will do all the better if left to themselves. Many 
an old and neglected garden, with its clumps of 
Poet’s Narcissus, of “ Daffy-Down-Dillygreat 
patches of Martagon aud other lilies ; with Cro- 
cusses and Snow Drops, that have made their way 
into the grass, illustrates what we may expect from 
a wild garden that has been judiciously let alone. 
Much in the present work will serve as a guide to 
the American who would plant a wild garden, but 
our different climate will allow of a modification of 
some of the directions, however excellent for the 
climate for which they are designed. We would 
say a word as to the illustrations of the present 
work. We had the pleasure of seeing some of the 
originals in London last year. They are by an 
artist eminent in other departments of art, who 
made these sketches merely from his love for horti¬ 
culture. They have been engraved in the same 
exquisite manner in which they were designed. 
Sundry Humbugs. 
There are some 
small frauds that sel¬ 
dom get into print; 
these are of a kind 
that may be called 
“from house to 
house” swindles, not 
involving any large 
amount in any one 
case, yet, no doubt, 
|! considerable in the aggregate. 
One of these came to our 
knowledge a few days ago, in 
one of the places in the vicinity 
of New York—one of those 
towns that serve as a dwelling 
place of a large number of those who do business 
in the city. A neatly dressed person with an affable 
manner calls at the house and oflers to exchange 
any old fashioned gold jewelry, or even any old 
silver ware, for articles of more modern style, of 
which he has, of course, a brilliant display. If an 
exchange is made, the trader gets solid gold and 
silver for showy plated wares. The old trade of 
“ Old lamps for new,” is one in which good women 
since the days of Alladin’s mother have come off 
second best. Keep your old gold, because it is old 
—ditto old silver—and do not trade in or buy these 
articles unless the maker and seller are known. 
“Does Protection Protect?” 
Is a question which those political economists who 
discuss the questions of Tariff and Free Trade are 
fond of arguing. In the case of Lotteries, so far 
as they may be located in this country, our present 
post-office regulations afford a very complete pro¬ 
tection to the people against these meanest of 
schemes. But this “ protection,” complete as it 
may be against the home product, does not “pro¬ 
tect ” our people against foreign invasion. So soon 
as the stringency of our post-office rules began to 
shut out these lottery people from the use of the 
U. S. Mails, some of the more enterprising of them 
“Went over the Border,” 
and from the other side of the line can, with im¬ 
punity, flood the U. S. Maiis with their schemes. 
We have on several former occasions noticed the 
Lottery Shop at St. Stephens, New Brunswick. It 
is, in fact, as many other things are on the other 
side of the line, a “ Royal ” affair. Indeed an Ex- 
police-somethiug stands as the figure-head of it. 
There seems to be a screw loose somewhere. In 
this case we at least believe in 
“Protection to American Industry,” 
aud on general principles hold it is not right that 
American swindlers should be shut out of the U. 
S. Mails, while Canadian swindlers have free use of 
them. This should be remedied—not by admitting 
the natives, but by excluding all equally. The 
question is an international one, and not easy of 
adjustment. We have in the course of a year many 
Inquiries that are Difficult to Answer. 
There are people in every large city, who adver¬ 
tise great things in distant papers, who are entirely 
unknown in the business circles of the cities where 
they claim a residence, and are generally not to be 
found in the Directory. Such parties are waifs that 
float upon the community, and have no root—no 
abiding place. They usually have an arrangement 
for getting such mails as may come to them. Some 
of these chaps do not even have an office with a 
“ hole in the door ” for letters, but selecting some 
building that contains many offices, they contrive 
to be on the stairways when the letter carrier makes 
his rounds, and thus get their letters. We have be¬ 
fore us a letter asking about three 
“Investment Companies,” 
“ Syndicates,” and the like. We can only infer 
that these parties have made great offers—at a dis¬ 
tance, and feel very sure that the large Western 
City from which the inquiry comes offers safer op¬ 
portunities for investment than can these parties 
in New York. 
The Butteries Outdone. 
It seems that Electricity, in its various forms of 
galvanism, magnetism, electro-magnetism, is an ex- 
liaustless resource for quackery. We have done our 
share in killing off the absurd so-called “ Batteries ” 
—of no more virtue than a copper cent or a five-cent 
nickel, as a remedial agent. But “electricity ” turns 
up in varied forms. Wc have before us the announce¬ 
ment of a “ Galvano-Electric Plaster.” It has “ an 
insulated wire running the full length of the plas¬ 
ter, imbedded in the surface of the plaster, prevents 
it from becoming a shapeless mass,” all of which 
is a good thing to do. But we read, “ one plaster 
can be worn by a number of persons before it gives 
out.” No, we thank you. For have we not read 
of one of these electro-galvanic things, that it. 
“draws out” all sorts of diseases, and of another 
that it “ sends in ” all sorts of cures. If we wear 
your old plaster that has been worn by a cross and 
fidgety person, what will be the effect upon our 
own sweet temper? None of the plasters that 
“can be worn by a number of persons” for us. 
Besides, when we called at your shop, and you 
showed us the heart-shaped things, did you not 
tell us that “ the Nitrogen from the body would 
cluster around ” these copper and zinc tliingamies ? 
Now, we don’t want the “Nitrogen” in our body 
to “ cluster,” or to be cutting up any such capers. 
... .The old Inman Recipe dodge, offering to give 
a prescription for all sorts of seminal weaknesses, 
is now being played in the form of an 
Opal Balm for the Complexion. 
It is the old story over again. The recipe calls for 
mauy things that are to be had, and one or two 
that are not procurable. Directions are given for 
its preparation that can not be followed. The old 
story is repeated. “ It is of the utmost importance, 
in preparing the recipe, that the juices of the flow¬ 
ers should not be evaporated at too great a heat ” 
—and all the rest of the balderdash, and of course 
winds up by offering the stuff by mail, “all ready, 
and prepared for use.” It is important to know 
that it will be sent “ covered with common browu 
