The  journal  op  Horticulture  and  cottage  gardener,  June  23,  ldofiij 
TO  OUR  READERS. 
On  the  completion  of  another  half-yearly  volume  of  the  Journal  of  Horticulture ,  to  which  the  annexed  index 
refers,  the  pleasurable  duty  devolves  upon  us  of  thanking  most  cordially  and  sincerely  all  who  have  aided 
in  its  production 
Not  only  do  we  wish  to  recognize  the  valuable  and  much  appreciated  co-operation  of  those  of  our 
skilled  coadjutors — amateurs  and  gardeners — who,  with  ready  pens  and  wide  knowledge,  have  enriched  its 
pages,  but  we  view  with  scarcely  less  approval  the  desire  of  young  practitioners  to  acquit  themselves  well  in 
the  art  of  communicating  impressions  that  they  conceive  may  be  interesting,  instructive,  or  suggestive;  this 
is  to  them  congenial  mental  exercise,  while  it  affords  to  others  no  small  measure  of  satisfaction. 
We  a^so  wish  to  record  our  obligations  to  many  friends  who  from  time  to  time,  and  from  various 
districts,  favour  by  sending  notes  on  shows,  or  items  of  interest  that  come  within  their  cognizance,  and 
the  publication  of  which  imparts  welcome  variety  to  our  pages 
Not  infrequently  do  we  receive  evidence  of  not  young  men  only,  but  men  of  ripe  experience,  desiring 
to  communicate,  but  whose  innate  modesty  or  assumed  educational  incapacity  restrains  them.  From  a  letter 
before  us,  sent  to  the  publishing  department,  we  take  these  words : — 
“  I  have  often  thought  I  should  like  to  write  to  the  Editor  and  tell  him  what  a  source  of  pleasure,  instruction,  and 
encouragement  the  Journal  has  been  to  me,  but  having  had  to  handle  tools  long  before  the  younger  generation  ceased  using 
the  pen  at  school  in  the  present  day  of  learning,  I  did  not  get  so  much  education  as  of  practical  work.  When  I  first  began  to 
take  the  Journal  I  was  a  lad,  and  I  well  remember  resolving  to  do  so  instead  of  smoking.  I  became,  ai  it  were,  attached  to 
writers  I  had  never  seen,  such  as  R.  Fish  and  many  others,  including  1  Thinker,’  and  begin  to  feel  myself  an  old  subscriber.” 
Will  our  friend  be  surprised  to  hear  that  most  of  the  writers  he  learned  to  love  had  to  commence 
work  long  before  tli-y  entered  their  “teens,”  and  simply  became  expert  penmen  through  starting  with 
brief  notes,  profiting  by  editorial  corrections,  and  persevering  until  they  became  as  much  at  home  with  the 
pen  as  they  were  with  the  spade?  Most  gardeners  who  have  won  reputations,  not  to  say  renown,  as  writers 
to  the  horticultural  press — we  say  it  to  their  credit — have  been  and  are  self-educated  men,  a  fact  that 
ought  not  to  be  lost  on  present-day  probationers. 
We  take  up  another  letter  from  a  gardener,  who,  though  still  comparatively  young,  has  done  excellent 
work  in  and  for  the  Journal,  because  he  felt  it  had  done  something  for  him;  and  he  is  certainly  not  the 
less  successful  as  a  cultivator  through  having  acquired  by  practice  a  fluent  pen.  Here  is  his  letter : — 
“The  Journal  continues  its  course  of  usefulness  to  old  and  young  alike,  and  is  essentially  practical.  I  always  look 
upon  Thursday  as  the  red-letter  day  in  the  week,  for  then  I  can  get  my  Journal,  which  to  me  is  a  great  boon.  How  we 
could  do  without  it  I  do  not  know.” 
If  such  an  able  gardener  cannot  do  without  the  Journal,  what  is  to  be  said  of  many  others  who  need 
its  guidance  more?  It  is  intended  to  be  as  practical  in  the  future  as  it  has  been  in  the  past,  also 
equally  up  to  date  in  matters  horticultural. 
Yet  another  letter  comes  as  we  are  writing,  from  far  away  New  Zealand.  It  refers  to  Chrysanthemums, 
though  it  arrives  in  the  old  country  during  the  “  month  of  Roses.”  The  writer,  after  referring  to  the 
“mums”  having  “caught  on”  in  the  colony,  goes  on  to  say: — 
“  Your  paper  is  a  splendid  one,  and  I  can  tell  you  is  eagerly  looked  for.  The  numbers  containing  Mr.  E.  Molyneux’s 
‘  audit  ’  were  of  much  interest  in  this  far-off  land,  and  are  invaluable  to  growers  and  importers.” 
Those  few  short  citations  are  presented  for  the  purpose  of  showing  to  our  coadjutors  that  their 
labours  in  instructing  and  entertaining  readers  at  home  and  abroad  are  not  fruitless,  and  by  their  continued 
efforts,  of  which  we  are  assured,  the  usefulness  and  wide  acceptability  of  the  Journal  in  its  departments  of 
Gardening,  Bee-keeping,  and  Home  Farming  will  be  undoubtedly  maintained. 
