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TO OUR READERS. 
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Tub completion of our twelfth volume requires accompanying thanks to you, our Readers, as well 
as to those who have aided us by their valuable contributions. It is no cause of satisfaction that, 
during the six years our volumes mark, many opponents, some founded on fair competing prin¬ 
ciples, but others on a less worthy motive, have been born and are dead or dying. But it is indeed 
a source ol satisfaction and gratitude that we hold on an existence which increases in strength and 
vigour with its age. It is a proud distinction to win success, but we have no satisfaction in 
mounting upon the ruins of others. 
I here was a time when our pages only were intended for the cottager and the amateur culti¬ 
vator of a few square yards ; but, by degrees, those who have acres under the spade, and who live in 
such cottages as have coach-houses and conservatories attached, claimed from us similar aid. We 
assented to make the effort, and like the pebble-moved water, one circle gave birth to one still 
wider, until now we are gratified to know that we include among our subscribers most of the first- 
class gardeners, and a large portion of the country clergy and amateur gardeners of the British 
dominions. We use the term "dominions” advisedly, for The Cottage Gardener is found on 
many tables in our colonies, from Newfoundland to New Zealand, from the foot of the Himalayan 
to California. "Let us not be high-minded, but fear,” in our prosperity—fear lest we should 
think that our own devices and our own right hand achieved all this. Let us ever remember, that 
it is not so—let us never forget that it is the encouragement and subscriptions from you, our 
Readers, which has enabled us to obtain those able assistants who furnish the knowledge for which 
you seek, and that even this would avail nothing without the blessing of Him, who "put man 
into the garden to dress it aud to keep it.” 
It is our wish to evince our conviction of all this by every ellort we make to render our 
pages useful, and let the most humble of our readers, as well as those who refer to our columns 
rather to be reminded of things forgotten, than to be informed of things unknown,—let these, and 
every reader, feel assured that no one can confer a greater favour upon us than by showing us how 
we may be still more serviceable. 
