74 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
and utterly erroneous idea,, for knowledge, like riches, is only 
profitable when in circulation, and the wider its influence is ex¬ 
tended, the greater are its returns. So also a man may (and 
there are many who do) trust entirely to his own resources, and 
after persevering with all the energy and zeal he possesses for a 
lengthened period, find, on comparing notes, that much he 
before deemed rapid progression, was at the best but stationary, 
if not retrograde. 
To no science do these axioms apply with greater force than 
to Horticulture, an art so dependent on an accumulation of evi¬ 
dence from so many and such opposite sources, and whose pro¬ 
fessors or followers derive their best information one from 
another, according to the result of practices, beneficial or in¬ 
jurious. Hence it appears, the true interest of Horticulture 
depend very much on an extensive dissemination of the means 
and results occurring in its practice. 
We had a thought, on commencing this paper, of noticing the 
interests of the gardener, distinct from those of the science ; but 
they are so amalgamated, so essentially the same, as to preclude 
the possibility of distinguishing or separating: individual interests 
will depend mainly on the amount of skill the cultivator can bring 
to bear on the subjects of his charge, and this it must be under¬ 
stood is entirely acquired skill. There is no spontaneous effusion 
of the mind or fancy in gardening affairs : all knowledge of them 
is derived from assiduous observation and attention to the sayings 
and doings of others ; and the means by which this knowledge 
is to be obtained by an individual, are precisely the same as 
those for the whole body, proving the interests of one gardener 
to be identified with the interests of the whole, or, as it is usually 
denominated, the science. 
If then the prospects of a young man embracing the profes¬ 
sion, depend so entirely on this accumulation of results, on which 
he has to build his future skill, how important it is that he 
should well consider and ascertain the best means of arriving at 
the required information ; and this it is we are desirous of 
showing. 
The importance of the inquiry is not, however, confined to 
the mere tyro: it is equally necessary that those who have pur¬ 
sued it for years to their advantage should still continue the 
onward pressure; in a cause so rapidly advancing as is this, no 
one of its professors, at all alive to their own or its interests, must 
